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County Councillor Eric Kerry, Chairman of the Nottinghamshire Pension Fund Committee  

The Nottinghamshire Pension Fund Committee has had a busy start to 2022 – the pension fund held our Annual General Meeting (AGM) in the middle of January, which took a detailed look at our investments, strategy, and membership.

It was a meeting that would have been important for thousands of people across Nottinghamshire; our pension fund consists of 145,000 members, some in retirement, others contributing to a pension for the first time in their career.

Our pension fund must deliver the best possible returns from our investments; so our members have a secure financial safety net in their later years.

As Chairman of the committee, I take our responsibility to our pension fund members as a serious matter; equally, I realise both our members and the public expect us to do our job responsibly.

I heard the demand for more sustainable investment during our AGM. Part of the meeting allowed questions from pension fund members, employers, and interested residents - the overwhelming majority asked about how we are making sure our fund takes account of the climate emergency.

The simple answer is our pension fund is very much up for the challenge of getting cleaner, greener investments, and we wholeheartedly support the agreement reached at COP26 in November to keep 1.5 degrees alive.

Nottinghamshire Pension Fund asks companies to align their businesses with the Paris Agreement and policymakers to take policy action to facilitate the transition to a low-carbon economy. 

Our most recent climate risk analysis has indicated our pension fund already has a lower exposure to fossil fuel reserves and a lower carbon footprint when compared to the market as a whole. 

As a pension fund, we’ve been increasing our investment allocation to infrastructure, a significant proportion of which are in clean energy, while reducing equity investments. Within our equity investments, we are planning on investing in a new low carbon sustainable fund this year.

The transition speed will get faster as global corporations embrace net zero. As they transition, so will our investments, and we will continue to encourage positive change in the boardrooms.

We’ve got the proper operation in place to deliver the thousands of pensions we are accountable for in a responsible way, and I am enthusiastic about the work we are doing to secure the transition and for a more sustainable future.