Fossil Free North Yorkshire is stepping up its campaign to persuade North Yorkshire County Council Pension Fund to divest from fossil fuels. Recently the County Council committed to the principle of divesting its pension funds from these damaging industries. It is time to put this commitment into action and send a clear message to the fossil fuel industry.
North Yorkshire County Council pension fund is one of the largest local government funds in England and to persuade it to divest from fossil fuels would be a real coup. Investments in fossil fuels (oil, coal & gas) are driving climate breakdown and pose a serious financial risk to local pension holders with the former Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, warning that investors face ‘potentially huge’ losses from climate change action that could make vast reserves of oil, coal and gas ‘literally un-burnable’.
So, PLEASE sign this petition and share widely. With your help this is a winnable campaign!
Petition link: link.medact.org/NYCCDivest
Meanwhile Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury has called on UK universities to follow the example of Cambridge and end their multimillion-pound investments in fossil fuels. Williams, a former master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, said all universities had a duty to their students to create a “safer world”, and investing tens of millions of pounds in fossil fuel corporations was incompatible with this.
“I hope the higher education world in this country and elsewhere will rise to the challenge and lead the way in securing a safer and fairer world for the next generation,” he said.
