Petitions and Public Address
This meeting of the Pension Fund Committee will be held virtually in order to conform with current guidelines regarding social distancing. Normally requests to speak at this public meeting are required by 9 am on the day preceding the published date of the meeting. However, during the current situation and to facilitate these new arrangements, we are asking that requests to speak are submitted by no later than 9am four working days before the meeting i.e. 9 am on 29 May 2020. Requests to speak should be sent to Deborah.miller@oxfordshire.gov.uk together with a written statement of your presentation to ensure that if the technology fails then your views can still be taken into account. A written copy of your statement can be provided no later than 9 am 2 working days before the meeting.
Where a meeting is held virtually and the addressee is unable to participate virtually their written submission will be accepted
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Written submissions should be no longer than 1 A4 sheet.
Decision:
Ms Al Chisholm on behalf of Fossil Free Oxfordshire.
Minutes:
The Committee received the following address:
Ms Al Chisholm addressed the Committee on behalf of Fossil Free Oxfordshire. She congratulated the Committee and its officers for travelling a huge distance in the Fund’s response to climate change over the past year. She recognised two particularly positive elements contained in the Climate Change Policy and Implementation Plan. They welcomed the adoption of the 1.5 oC target and the important commitment to keep abreast of climate science as it developed. They also applauded the target to reduce the portfolio’s GHG emissions by 7.6% each year. They further supported the proposal to invest 100% of the £250M global equity mandate in Brunel’s Sustainable Global Equities portfolio with the caveat that we would like Brunel to publish the GHG emissions and Fossil Fuel exposure data for that fund.
She then highlighted two areas where they strongly believed the documents needed to be further developed if those targets were to be feasible and people were able to have confidence in them.
The first was the need for a visible plan that more clearly set out a series of actions and milestones to reach the laudable aims to make those annual emissions reductions and to invest in line with a 1.5 oC limit. The plan should give dates by which each milestone would be achieved. She called on OPF to:
1. confirm how, and by when, the 7.6% p.a. target was to be measured across the portfolio. They would like to see an outline of the methodology it proposed to use to create estimates of actual reductions; how investment metrics (which should be absolute, not relative emissions) relate to the 7.6% p.a. target and how metrics would be used to exclude investments. Any methodology used must be realistic, for example, Carbon-capture and storage scenarios should only be considered when backed up by detailed plans and committed investments. Establishing this methodology should not be considered a prerequisite to the following elements of the plan; instead the objective should be to demonstrate the progress of the plan.
2. make a formal request of Brunel to provide funds that would enable OPF to meet its 7.6% p.a. target including zero carbon passive and managed funds, and ensure that Brunel is reducing GHG emissions in all their portfolios by at least 7% PA, as stated in Brunel’s Climate Change Policy.
3. work with Brunel and the other Brunel pension funds to develop a plan to implement the funds developed in response to (1 & 2) and develop a plan to integrate those funds into the OPF portfolio.
4. reduce the emissions of the portfolio immediately by excluding obvious outlier investments and not wait until a baseline is produced for the 7.6% p.a. assessments. Any credible “engagement and selective divestment” strategy would start by excluding any fossil fuel company still exploring for or developing new fossil fuel reserves, because this fundamentally cannot be aligned with 1.5 oC warming. Recent analysis from the Transition Pathway Initiative [1] (see graph below) ... view the full minutes text for item 102