A campaign calling on parliament’s £612m pension fund to divest from fossil fuels has won the backing of 50 MPs from across the UK’s main political parties.

The Divest Parliament campaign has announced it has secured support from a cross-section of MPs from Labour, the Conservatives, Lib Dems, Greens, SNP, SDLP and Plaid Cymru, who are all urging the Parliamentary Contributory Pension Fund (PCPF) to show greater leadership on tackling climate change.

The MPs, all of whom are seeking reelection next month, are demanding that the fund upholds its “fiduciary duty and take the financial risks of climate change seriously” by disclosing and limiting its exposure to fossil fuels in its investments.



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The campaign officially launched in December 2016 with the backing of 35 MPs and former MPs, and the fund published for the first timeinvestment data for the top 20% of its holdings in March.

The data revealed parliament’s pension fund invested millions of pounds in fossil fuel companies last year, including £5.59m in BP and £4.9m in Shell, which campaigners argue, is incompatible with the UK government’s commitments under the Paris climate change greement to limit global temperatures to “well below” 2C.

Trustees of the parliament’s pension fund have previously said they are unable to exclude investment in certain sectors on “ethical grounds” as this would represent an imposition of the trustees’ views on to the fund’s active managers.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Caroline Lucas said the pension fund should be “leading the way in socially responsible investment”. Photograph: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images

“This means that the trustees could not lawfully take a decision to exclude a certain type of investment from the PCPF’s investment portfolio on ethical grounds,” a statement from the trustees said in March.

However, with 50 MPs having now signed a pledge to back the divestment campaign – including the Green party’s co-leader Caroline Lucas, the Lib Dem MP Norman Lamb, and Labour’s former shadow environment secretary Kerry McCarthy – Divest Parliament is now urging all candidates at the forthcoming general election to add their support.

“Any candidate asking for our vote at this election should recognise their responsibility to not only uphold the UK’s international climate commitments, but also to protect people’s jobs, pensions and livelihoods and to safeguard the health of our planet for future generations,” said a Divest Parliament campaigner Daniel Selwyn.

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“We congratulate these 50 MPs for their commendable leadership on climate change and look forward to working with them more in the next parliament.”

Last month Lucas said MPs were exploring the potential of launching a legal challenge against the fund on the basis that it may have failed to adequately address climate risk in its investments.

Commenting on the campaign, Lucas said: “After two years of campaigning, I’m glad that more and more politicians from across the political spectrum are now recognising the huge financial risks associated with fossil fuel investments. We should be investing in the clean, renewable energy that we have in abundance, and leading the way in socially responsible investment.”

The Parliamentary Contributory Pension Fund declined to comment.