Pension trustees are facing renewed calls to help protect pensions, particularly those of younger savers, from planetary and economic collapse, with an open letter calling for industry action gaining backing from 44 civil society organisations across seven countries. 

The letter, which will be delivered to delegates gathered at the World Pension Summit in The Hague tomorrow (6 November), argued that "the promise of a decent retirement in the second half of this century feels increasingly like a pipe dream as climate breakdown accelerates". 

Given this, it urged pension trustees and professionals to take action, stating: “We call on you to use the money and influence you wield on our behalf, to prevent drastic economic collapse, driven by food system shocks, water insecurity, heat stress, increased pandemic risk, and mass displacement as vast swathes of land become first uninsurable, and then uninhabitable.”

In particular, the letter encouraged trustees to acknowledge expert evidence that climate change risks destabilising the economy and threatens the value of pensions, and to ensure younger savers’ voices are represented in key investment and strategy decisions. 

It also encouraged pension trustees to use their influence as major investors to push companies and governments to urgently stop the development of new fossil fuel projects and facilitate a rapid and just green transition, to stop all new financial flows to companies pursuing fossil fuel development, and to reaffirm their commitment to the Paris Agreement, and only employ consultants and asset managers that are similarly aligned. 

The 44 signatory organisations from seven countries: Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands and the UK.

Signatories to the letter include several UK divestment campaign groups, such as DivestUSS, Fossil Free West Yorkshire, Hampshire Pension Fund Divest, alongside broader organisations such as the Transparency Task Force, ShareAction and the Finance Innovation Lab, and Positive Money UK, and unions, such as the National Education Union. 

The letter also had backing from several European groups, including ActionAid Denmark, Milieudefensie - Friends of the Earth Netherlands, Reclaim Finance, Finance Watch, Urgewald, Follow This, and Fair Finance International. 

There was also several organisations representing the voice of younger savers, including SOS UK, Green New Deal Rising, Dutch Youth Climate Movement and Studenten Voor Morgen (Students for Tomorrow).

The letter stated: "We have never needed resilient leadership more urgently than we do now.

"You must act now to guarantee a safer, more sustainable and resilient future for those of us with a retirement plan, and for the billions worldwide who lack pensions altogether, but whose welfare depends on the same climate stability and
economic resilience.

This article originally appeared on our sister title, European Pensions.

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