Press release: Residents demonstrate for GM pension fund to stop funding climate change
17th October 2018Local residents will demonstrate outside the Greater Manchester Pension Fund’s (GMPF) annual general meeting in Droylsden on Friday 19th October at 12.30. They will call for the Fund to stop investing in fossil fuel companies and will present remnants from the recent moorland fires to delegates. The GMPF is the UK’s biggest local authority pension…
Read morePublic Meeting: Climate Change, Divestment and the Fight against Fracking
1st October 2018Tuesday 16 October , 7.00pm, at Friends Meeting House, Mount St, Manchester, M2 5NS. Organised by Fossil Free Greater Manchester, Frack Free Greater Manchester and Manchester Campaign against Climate Change. Do please come along and join the discussion about how best to join up our campaigns. Facebook event link. Speakers to include FFGM’s very own…
Read moreNew report reveals Greater Manchester councils investing £1 billion in fracking industry
5th September 2018A national report released on Monday revealed that Greater Manchester’s councils, led by Tameside Council, are investing £1 billion in fracking companies through their management of the local authority pension fund [1]. The news comes as the fracking industry is poised to drill for gas for the first time in seven years in the UK….
Read moreWhen will Greater Manchester Pension Fund de-carbonise its investment portfolio?
24th July 2018The Greater Manchester Pension Fund has yet to engage with the arguments for fossil fuel divestment and present clear plans for decarbonisation of its portfolio. Background In November last year, GMPF responded to our campaign for divesting their fossil fuel holdings with a 14 page letter. They acknowledged the risks from climate change and said…
Read moreOn the Mythical Peril of Divesting from Fossil Fuels – from the LSE
14th June 2018This article, by the LSE’s Jeremy Grantham, is well worth a read – not least by GMPF’s investment managers and advisors. It confirms the point we made in our briefing to councillors – divesting from fossil fuels is not a financial risk, and indeed could be a benefit to the fund. It refutes the Fund’s…
Read moreFossil Free Greater Manchester news release
20th May 2018Fossil Free Greater Manchester news release Immediate release On Monday 21st May, campaigners from Fossil Free Greater Manchester and pension fund members will be joining campaigners from Latin America at a vigil outside BP’s Annual General meeting in Manchester, calling on BP to stop fracking in Argentina and worldwide. [1] In 2017, the Greater Manchester…
Read moreGreater Manchester Pension Fund: the fracking connection
12th May 2018Residents in Greater Manchester overwhelming oppose fracking. The Manchester Evening News conducted a poll in 2014 and found that 73% of respondents opposed fracking. The figure is likely to be even higher now as the website is (as of 8 May, 2018) showing 88% against. Some of our councils (Manchester, Bury, Salford, Trafford, and Westhoughton…
Read moreGreater Manchester Pension Fund starts on the path to fossil fuel divestment
15th March 2018Statement from Fossil Free Greater Manchester in response to Greater Manchester Pension Fund’s formal response to our campaign. There is just one week to go before the Greater Manchester Mayor’s Green Summit that is aiming to achieve carbon neutrality for the city region as early as possible. We are therefore pleased to report some progress…
Read moreCouncillor Kieran Quinn
2nd January 2018Councillor Kieran Quinn: Statement from Fossil Free Greater Manchester Like others who had known him, we at Fossil Free Greater Manchester were shocked and saddened to hear of Councillor Kieran Quinn’s untimely and sudden death during the Christmas holiday. Along with many civic roles, Cllr Quinn chaired the Greater Manchester Pension Fund and was open…
Read moreResponse to GMPF’s consultation on its Investment Strategy Statement
14th November 2017We have now published our response to the GMPF Investment Strategy Statement. We welcome the acknowledgement that climate change is a material financial risk to the Fund’s investments but we argue that the Fund’s chosen approach for responding to this, engagement with the fossil fuel companies, is inadequate to the task. As engagement specialist NGO…
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