AN UNPUBLISHED GOVERNMENT report, obtained for the first time by Noteworthy, shows that ambition for tighter scrutiny regarding the investment of pension funds in fossil fuels was rolled back only months after the target was set.
The 2019 Climate Action Plan assigned responsibility to the DEASP for considering “how a new requirement could be placed on pension providers to disclose what portion of any fund is made up of fossil fuel assets, and to provide an option to pension-holders to opt for a fund which does not include fossil fuel”.
In response to this, a DEASP spokesperson told Noteworthy that “the department does not agree with the assertion that a position had been reached on Action 12… prior to the first meeting of the Working Group”. This board was slow to gain traction; it would meet three times in 2019 before failing to convene again until the end of 2021, which it attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic.
It said it would consider how a new requirement could be placed on pension providers to disclose what portion of any fund was made up of fossil fuel assets and examine how fossil fuels could be defined in guidance and/or legislation, how a ‘portion’ could be defined, and what timeframe it could be measured over.
Somewhere between the preparation for the Climate Action Delivery Board and the first meeting of the working group, the approach to the action in the department shifted. Instead, the considerations said that a policy pursuing the disclosure of fossil fuel assets alone was “not prudent” given a market standard that looked more generally at greenhouse gas emissions.
In a statement to Noteworthy, a DEASP spokesperson said that “the department does not agree with the assertion that a position had been reached on Action 12 positioning fossil fuel disclosure alone as ‘not prudent’ prior to the first meeting of the Working Group”. Photo - Radharc Images / Alamy Stock Photo Photo - Radharc Images / Alamy Stock Photo / Alamy Stock Photo
“A focus on fossil fuel assets alone adds a layer of complexity to reporting arrangements and is a less effective measure of factors which contribute to climate breakdown,” it suggested. Speaking to Noteworthy Dr Jane O’Hara of One Future, a climate activism organisation, said that fossil fuel divestment “could form an important part” of cutting emissions by “targeting a portion of where greenhouse gases are coming from”.
Source: News Formal (newsformal.com)
noteworthy_ie laurenanna_1 We are paying enough tax already without this climate action bullshit that nobody can afford.