#15

Tell your council to divest from fossil fuels

UK councils are currently investing more than £16 Billion in the fossil fuel industry predominantly via their pension funds.

Take action, and tell them this is unacceptable.

DoneChallenge others

Brewing instructions:

  • Step 1

    Find out if your local council is invested in fossil fuels

    Search for your local council on this map from GoFossilFree.org, here you can see if your council is invested in the fossil fuel industry, and how much they've invested too.

    If your council has no fossil fuel investments, skip ahead to step 3.

  • Step 2

    Contact your councillors

    You can find the contact details for your local councillors via the gov.uk website.

    Send them an email asking them to support divestment from the fossil fuel industry — there's a sample email you can use below.

  • Step 3

    Tell others to do the same

    A lot of people simply don't realise their council is invested in the fossil fuel industry.

    Sharing this page, and the resources above can help raise awareness and drive councils away from the fossil fuel industry and towards a cleaner future for everyone.

Why is this important?

There's still a staggering amount of public subsidies to the fossil fuel industry. A report estimated that in 2015 this figure was $5.3 trillion (or around 6.5% of global GDP). With so much money involved, it's no wonder there's still a fossil fuel industry.

The more people continue to invest in the fossil fuel industry, the more they'll carry on as normal. That's why divestment is an incredibly powerful action to take against climate change. It's a clear, unequivocal vote for a cleaner future built on renewable energy, and away from fossil fuels.

Useful links:

Sample email to send to your local councillor

Hello [councillor name],

It has come to my attention that, rather alarmingly, the council is currently heavily invested in the fossil fuel industry.

According to the site GoFossilFree: https://gofossilfree.org/uk/fuellingthefire/ the figure for our council is currently £[figure for your local council here], with the total figure of all UK councils at £16 Billion.

At a time when we all desperately need to help fight climate change, our council is actively making the problem worse by funding the continued use of fossil fuels. This is simply unacceptable.

If there are any plans currently in place to divest from the fossil fuel industry, I'd be interested to hear what more could be done to speed the process along. Alternatively, if there are no plans, I would ask that you encourage the council to divest from the fossil fuel industry entirely, and switch to more ethical and sustainable alternatives.

After all, to truly invest and save for the future, we need to ensure there's a future to save for, wouldn't you agree?

Kind regards,

[Your name]