We live in a world where people\u2019s movements for a healthy environment, with clean air to breathe and fresh water to drink, are vital and unstoppable. Sadly, fossil fuel companies are using all their might to continue extracting and polluting \u2013 harming communities, nature and the climate, all for the short-term financial gains of a few. <\/p>\n\n
But, as crises collide, calls for governments to hold corporations to account are growing, together with expectations that businesses must avoid harming people and the environment \u2013 and instead engage meaningfully with workers, communities and civil society to serve the common good. That includes pension funds!<\/p>\n\n
With more than US$ 46 trillion in assets worldwide, pension funds are among the largest institutional investors in fossil fuels. As Climate Safe Pensions points out, nearly 30% of fossil fuel industry shares are held by pension funds<\/a>. By financing fossil fuel companies, they enable the industry to continue to produce and burn more coal, oil and gas, driving up greenhouse gas emissions at the very time when the world needs to be doing the exact opposite \u2013 urgently and rapidly decreasing climate-wrecking emissions. <\/p>\n\n Pension funds are also among the major backers of the corporate scramble for fossil fuel expansion across the African continent<\/a>. This is why they are a target for movements such as the vibrant Stop EACOP campaign<\/a> that is pressuring banks and investors worldwide to quit financing TotalEnergies and the devastating East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).<\/p>\n\n