Members of the Avon Pension Fund spoke at the fund’s latest committee meeting in June to continue their dialogue with the committee about the risks of their investments in fossil fuels. Here’s an update from fund member Holly.
30 July 2015
Last month, we had our second opportunity to speak at the Avon Pension Fund committee meeting. Their meetings only take place once every three months, so I was feeling quite excited that the opportunity had come around again.
We hadn’t heard anything back since the last meeting in March, when we read our first statementabout the risks of the fund’s investments in fossil fuel companies. Having asked four questions of the committee, we were (perhaps rather naively) expecting answers, but we had received nothing.
A couple of weeks before the second meeting we emailed Liz Woodyard, the Investments Manager, to find out if they had any answers. She informed us they had decided to review their Responsible Investing Policy, and that they were going to consider the risks of climate change in the review.
We were very excited to hear this, and expected that they would produce a report at the next meeting. However, It turns out they won’t be discussing the scope of the review until their next meeting in September.
It’s all very slow-moving and frustrating for us. We foresee that they will probably discuss the scope of the review in September, probably discuss it a bit more in December, then maybe outline a review in March, review the outline of the review in June 2016… and on and on. We see this all taking a very long time.
So we went along to the latest committee meeting aiming to show the committee that we are still here, to make ourselves known to the new committee members, thank them for agreeing to review their Responsible Investing policy, and voice our concerns about the urgency of the situation – or rather, the lack of urgency in their response.
Three of us got the train over to Bath and made our way to the Guildhall, a very grand building, to find the meeting room. Liz Woodyard greeted us and showed us where to sit. There were sandwiches and drinks on offer, so I went and helped myself to a cup of tea. I bumped into Richard Orton, the Unison rep who sits on the committee. A couple of us had had a meeting with him a few weeks previously, at which we had asked him for advice about our campaign. We’d also been able to ask him about getting in touch with pension fund members through Unison, because lots of Avon Pension Fund members are also members of Unison.
He asked me how it was going. I told him we were still having trouble getting in contact with pension fund members. He suggested we ask to go along to a Unison meeting and speak to people. It was encouraging to know that at least one of the people on the committee was on our side, and I wondered what the others thought of our campaign.
The room started to fill up, mostly with men in suits. Looking around, I found I recognised one of them. I couldn’t place him at first, but then I realised he is the boyfriend of a friend of mine, who I used to work with years ago. That made me realise that all the people in the room were just people like us with their own lives. There’s no reason to think of them as the ‘enemy’. Rather, we should try and get to know them as individuals and connect with them that way.
The meeting itself was a very formal affair. I’ve never worked in such a bureaucratic environment, so it was quite alien to me. They began by going around the table introducing themselves, as some of the board were new. It reminded me of activism meetings I have attended, except at activism meetings you would usually say your name and why you are at this meeting, or what you hope to achieve. Something to break the ice and make everyone feel connected. Their version was very dry, and I could barely hear what half of them said!
Pretty much straight after that it was our turn to make our statement. We all stood up and introduced ourselves, and then I began to read it. I thanked the committee for agreeing to review its Responsible Investment policy, and urged members to consider a separate Climate Change policy with climate risk assessments and an action plan. I asked the committee to consider the urgency of the situation around climate and adjust their proposals to reflect this. You can read the full statement here.
As I was reading, I tried to make eye contact with the faces around the table, to see what their reactions were. I got a few nods and smiles, although some people didn’t even appear to be listening. Afterwards, the Chair asked if anyone had any questions, but none were forthcoming, so they thanked us and we left.
Since that meeting we have been contacted by Liz Woodyard asking us to meet with her and her colleague in August. She said they want to discuss our concerns before they finalise a draft review of the Responsible Investment policy, which will be presented at the next committee meeting in September.
We’re really pleased to know that they are interested in our concerns and value our input enough to invite us to this meeting.
Hopefully this means things are moving in the right direction. Watch this space!
Thanks Holly! To find out more get in touch with Holly. If you’re interested in meeting your pension fund get in touch with ShareAction’s Education Officer Sophia at sophia@shareaction.org.