Extinction Rebellion protesters this week derailed a speech by local government minister Rishi Sunak to demand he gives council pension funds greater powers to disinvest from fossil fuel companies.
Evading security at the De Vere Cotswold Water Park Hotel near Swindon, four protesters dressed in suits, managed to gain entry to this year’s Pension and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) local authority conference.
Four minutes into Sunak’s speech, a female protester at the back of the room stood up and loudly shouted that local authority pension funds should not invest in fossil fuels.
Sunak responded by saying: “Thanks very much for that and I am sure we will be talking about that later on.”
However, before the minister could continue, three male protesters to the side of the room stood up, with one shouting: “There are no pensions on a dead planet. Your return on investment in fossil fuels is absolutely zero.”
The protesters, dressed in suits, proceeded to unfurl an Extinction Rebellion banner, while a member of the group explained their intervention: “We are here to tell you that the investments in fossil fuels of £14bn from people in this room is totally wrong and should be stopped.”
One audience member then intervened, shouting: “We are here to listen to Mr Sunak, not to you!”
Sunak attempted to defuse the situation by saying that he would be happy to take questions from the group during the Q&A session planned for the end of his speech.
Undeterred, one of the protesters pleaded: “Give these people the right to dis-invest from fossil fuels and do it quickly and urgently. What are you doing about the climate emergency?”
Sunak retorted: “All these people in this room are the ones making decisions every day to ensure that 6m public sector workers benefit from security and dignity in retirement. They balance many different priorities when they do that.”
This was met with a vigorous round of applause from some in the audience.
Things got more heated as Sunak and the protesters began to talk over each other, before the minister snapped: “Excuse me. You are disrupting a conference that these people have come to attend.”
Swiftly, Richard Butcher, PLSA chair, who was running the session, leapt to his feet to calm the situation.
Addressing the protesters, he said: “We have a lot of business to get through. You are very welcome to sit down and ask us some questions later on.
“We are addressing climate change during the course of this conference.”
At this point, one of the protesters left the room, apologising to the audience for the interruption.
“Sorry. It is what we do, but it is for a good reason,” he said.
Sunak then proceeded with his speech, with the remaining protestors sitting quietly for the remainder.
During the Q&A session, one of the Extinction Rebellion members was invited to ask a question.
Taking the microphone, he said: “The government has declared a climate emergency. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change states we have less than 11 years now to get global emissions down by 65%.
“Why is it that local authorities are still investing £16bn in fossil fuels and over £9bn in companies that support fracking?”
Sunak responded: “You weren’t here last year, were you? Great that you are now excited about this and pension investing in general. When we were here last year we had a conversation about infrastructure investing.
“I was very clear sitting here that it is not my job sitting here to tell anyone in this room individually about how to invest their funds.
“I am a localist and believe in local autonomy indeed everyone in this room represents their scheme members to the best of their abilities and ensures they are fulfilling their fiduciary responsibilities, engaging with their stakeholders and providing their members with dignity and security in retirement.
“It would not be for me to tell individual funds you must do this, you mustn’t do that.
“I understand you are new to this community and new to how this scheme works.”
He continued: “It is not for me to dictate for all the people in this room to dictate how they should make their individual investment decisions.”
Some of these comments seemed to be at odds with an ongoing court battle with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, in which the government is fighting for the right to restrict LGPS funds’ ability to divest from companies on ethical grounds.
A spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion told Room151 after the event that protestors had been escorted from the venue by police, but that no arrests had been made.
During his speech, Sunak said that the government had received more than 100 responses to the informal consultation on draft statutory guidance on LGPS pooling, launched earlier this year.
He said: “We will of course be considering all the responses carefully as we move towards finalising the guidance and I am pleased to say that we do intend to formally consult in due course.”
He also said that the ramifications of the ongoing McCloud court case relating to age discrimination within public sector pension schemes “may be wide ranging and require quite deep thinking about the way the scheme approaches change”.
He said: “I recognise that the ongoing uncertainty is not helpful to any of you during a valuation year. However, my team and I will work closely with the Scheme Advisory Board and other stakeholders to manage those risks.”
Sunak also said that he was seeking views from pools about the “long term endeavour” of LGPS pooling.
He said: “And that is why my fantastic team of officials is going out to meet each pool between now through to the early summer. I want them to tell me what more we can do to support, challenge and learn from you.”
