Fossil Free PERA Colorado – Coalition for Colorado's pension fund to divest from fossil fuels

It’s time to protect our pensions from the rapid decline of the fossil fuel industry.

WHY FOSSIL FREE PERA?

The Fossil Free PERA Coalition aims to ensure that the PERA Board of Trustees is looking at the long-term soundness of its investments, in particular in the context of fossil fuel investments and long-term climate risk that poses a threat to the fund’s portfolio.

Other pension funds are moving to divest from fossil fuels for fiduciary reasons, including the U.S’s largest state pension fund, New York City’s. Over 140 pension funds globally have divested from fossil fuels, according to a report released by Arabella Advisors. The UN Secretary General advises pension funds to divest from fossil fuels. The Fossil Free PERA Coalition calls on PERA to address the investment risks and projected losses around the likelihood of stranded assets, fossil fuels that will become unburnable in the wake of global commitments to curb climate change.

Currently, PERA has upwards of $1.5 Billion invested in over 300 oil, gas and coal companies. PERA has holdings in Extraction LLC, an oil and gas company that declared bankruptcy in 2020 and has undertaken some of the most controversial projects in Colorado, such as fracking in close proximity to the Bella Romero 4th-8th grade school in Greeley (which is underway less than 1,000 feet from the school playground). PERA is also invested in Suncor Oil Refinery in Commerce City, which is facing a $9 Million dollar settlement for violating air quality regulations, by filling the air with dangerous pollutants like sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide, and even hydrogen cyanide. These air quality violations have caused a variety of health problems for nearby residents, including asthma, cancer, and heart and lung complications. The areas most affected by Suncor’s pollution are low-income communities and communities of color. We are concerned that our public money is funding projects that compromise the health and safety of Colorado residents, including our children.

Over 1,100 institutions have committed to divest from fossil fuels with a $11+ trillion impact to date. Over 43 US cities have committed to some form of divestment from fossil fuels. In 2018, New York State, New York City and London called on their public pensions to divest. The World Bank is ending its lending to fossil fuel projects. Institutions as diverse as Norway’s Sovereign Wealth Fund, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the British Medical Association, Amundi Asset Management, Caisse des Depots (the French public financial institution), the City of Cape Town, KfW Group (Germany’s Development Bank), Allianz Insurance, and the Country of Ireland have all moved to divest from fossil fuels. In 2019, the City of Denver also formally divested its General Fund portfolio from fossil fuels.

Colorado can and should follow suit, showing bold leadership in a state that can lead the way in investing in cleaner, renewable energy technology.

*For a full list of institutions that have committed to divest from fossil fuels click here.

FINANCIAL CONCERNS AND FIDUCIARY RESPONSIBILITY

“At some point down the road towards the red light of 2 Degrees Centigrade, however, it is entirely plausible, even predictable, that continuing to hold equities in fossil fuel companies will be ruled negligence.”

Bevis Longstrethformer SEC Commissioner

A recent report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis states, “In the past several years, oil industry financial statements have revealed significant signs of strain: Profits have dropped, cash flow is down, balance sheets are deteriorating and capital spending is falling. The stock market has recognized the sector’s overall weakness, punishing oil and gas shares over the past five years even as the market as a whole has soared.”

Currently the price of fossil fuels companies’ shares is calculated under the assumption that all fossil fuel reserves will be consumed. If they can’t bring reserves up from the ground, their value will go down, exposing institutions to material loss. Stranded asset estimates range from $304 Billion (IEA by 2035) to $100 Trillion (Citi).

Coal, once the titan of the U.S. economy, no longer has even one representative in the S&P 500. Coal’s investors have lost billions, a trend which has been most clearly illustrated by Peabody Energy’s downfall; the company’s 93% drop in share value resulted in a loss of $16 billion for investors, according to IEEFA.

PERA has holdings in the coal industry, which has already undergone a massive wave of bankruptcies. Statistics show that over the next 35 years, the coal industry can expect to see annual returns reduced by 26% to 82%. Similarly experts project that oil and utilities are projected to see expected median returns fall by 38% and 60% respectively over the same time frame (Source: Mercer, Climate Change Investment Risk Management: A Guide for U.S. Public Defined Benefit Plan Trustees, 2016).

PERA also has holdings in Exxon Mobil Corporation, which reflects declining stocks over the past five years. According to Seeking Alpha, shares have delivered a total return of around 1 percent annually over the last five years, falling far short of the S&P 500. At the same time, the company’s return on capital employed has fallen from over 25 percent in 2012 to 9 percent in 2017 (Source: Exxon Stock Not So Slick, May, 2018, Seeking Alpha). Exxon also had to borrow money to pay out dividends and buy back shares (Source: Warning: Exxon Mobil may be in irreversible decline, CNN Money, Oct, 2016). According to the Wall Street Journal, despite billions of dollars in spending cuts and a modest oil-price rebound, Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, and BP didn’t make enough money in 2016 to cover their costs.

Could these trends continue? And how much are pension funds losing?

Leading global index provider MSCI found that fossil free funds outperformed conventional ones by 1.2% during 2010-2017. Furthermore, S&P 500 Low Carbon Index returns are steadily increasing since 2012. Lost revenue from oil and gas assets is probable as demand declines and new competitive alternative technologies emerge, like electric vehicles and other renewables with strong potential in Colorado such as wind and solar.

Mercer Investments, a leading adviser of institutional investors including pension funds, evaluated several climate change scenarios and found that climate-related financial risk would affect investment performance. According to Moody’s Investors Service, the oil and natural gas industry faces significant credit risk due to carbon-related global policy initiatives, changing consumer preferences and disruptive technological advancement. New regulations and policies designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will increase the operating costs and in turn place downward pressure on the profitability of carbon intensive sectors and industries.

According to The Guardian, New Yorkers could have made an extra $4,500 each if fossil fuel divestment had occurred earlier. In fact, over $5 billion could have been generated if the transition to investing in renewables had happened sooner (Source: The Guardian, 2016). And the worst is yet to come: A Cambridge University report suggests that pension funds could suffer permanent losses of more than 25% within five years, in the event of a climate-related market shock (Source: See Unhedgeable Risk, Cambridge University 2015, p. 7).

A 2019 study found that PERA, along with California state pension funds CalSTRS and CalPERS, lost over $19 billion in returns by not divesting from fossil fuel stocks 10 years ago. That works out to an opportunity cost of over $2,900 per PERA member. Based on analysis of public security filings over the past 10 years, PERA would have generated an estimated additional $1.77B in vallue had the fund divested its fossil fuel stocks 10 years ago.

ETHICAL CONCERNS

“There is consensus within the scientific community that increasing global temperature by more than 2 degrees will likely cause devastating and irreversible damage to the planet. … At least two-thirds of fossil fuel reserves will not be monetized if we are to stay below 2 degrees C of warming – creating stranded carbon assets.”

Wall Street Journal

Under the Paris Agreement, all countries committed to keep global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees C. Climate change is not a distant issue – we are already feeling the effects of global warming here in our state. Colorado is experiencing one of its driest years on record in 2020, much of the state is in extreme drought, and we have wildfires that have collectively burned over 175,000 acres of our state.

Fossil fuels are a main driver of climate change – and simply put we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible. Fossil fuel divestment can help to preserve a safe climate, fill the renewable energy investment gap. The fossil fuel era is ending, and must be replaced by a cleaner, renewable energy economy.

Fossil fuels are also at play in other major catastrophes such as air pollution, contaminated drinking and groundwater from fracking, negative public health impacts, exposure to toxic chemicals, and accidents including spills, fires and explosions. Furthermore, fracking operations use billions of gallons of freshwater, of particular concern in our state where drought is an ongoing threat.

The oil and gas companies that PERA is helping to finance are forcing a massive industry expansion all over Colorado – near our homes, schools, parks, and protected lands. Across our state, communities are experiencing dangerous consequences from this expansion of oil and gas drilling. Fossil fuel production in Colorado has led to poor air quality that fails to meet federal standards. The American lung association has given most of the front range a consistent F-grade air quality rating.

PERA’s investments include oil and gas companies like Suncor and Extraction, who have been known to emit toxic pollution dangerously close to homes and schools. In Commerce City, the Suncor Oil Refinery is facing a 9 million dollar settlement for violating air quality regulations, by filling the air with dangerous pollutants like sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide, and even hydrogen cyanide. These air quality violations have caused a variety of health problems for nearby residents, including asthma, cancer, and heart and lung complications. The areas most affected by Suncor’s pollution are low-income communities and communities of color.

In Greeley, Extraction Oil and Gas is operating fracking wells less than 700 feet from the playground of Bella Romero academy, exposing 4th-8th grade school children to dangerous levels of benzene. Across Colorado, people have suffered from nausea, nosebleeds and headaches due to nearby fracking. There has been an unusual uptick in health problems like asthma, childhood leukemia and low-birth weight babies close to drilling sites. Residents have filed complaints about toxic fumes, leaks, loud industrial noises, and earthquakes. There have also been over a hundred fires and explosions at oil and gas sites all over Colorado.

Furthermore, companies like ExxonMobil (who PERA has investments in) are under investigation for having deliberately misled the public, shareholders and governments over climate change science and climate risk for decades in order to protect their profits.

While it is true that we all live in a fossil fuel era, it needs to come to an end before more irreparable damage is done.

CLIMATE AND LITIGATION RISK CONCERNS

There are a growing number of lawsuits that seek billions of dollars in damages from the biggest contributors to climate change, which may significantly impact the value of oil and gas companies and investment returns for PERA over the long term.

According to Client Earth, pension funds are at an increasing risk of litigation if trustees fail to develop their approach to climate risk in line with improving data and market practices. Lawyers have already warned some of the UK’s largest pension funds of this risk. Fiduciaries have an obligation to act reasonably when making investment decisions for the funds they oversee. If this fiduciary responsibility is violated, those managing pension funds may be held personally liable for actions or inactions that harm the beneficiaries.

ClientEarth lawyer Joanne Etherton said: “As some of the biggest pension schemes in the UK, these schemes represent the retirement income of a large number of people, making it crucial that they step up their actions on protecting and future-proofing members’ pensions. Trustees’ legal duties are not static and a court would look to the evidence available and how their peers are responding in determining whether they are in breach – in short, legal duties on climate risk are evolving.”

The scientific and international communities have come to the overwhelming consensus that burning fossil fuels is causing climate change. Most people who have studied this problem with an open mind have concluded that the only way to prevent profound human suffering on a global scale is to transition from fossil fuels to renewables, and this transition is in process and growing quickly. In this context, it is reasonable to expect that the fossil fuel industry will experience a significant decline in the near future, as has already happened in the coal industry. Fiduciaries who have retained exposure to the fossil fuel industry when this happens will fall under heavy scrutiny.

According to a global study, climate litigation cases are growing rapidly, with U.S. lawsuits the most numerous. The study found that the number of lawsuits involving climate change has tripled since 2014, with the United States leading the way. Researchers identified 654 U.S. lawsuits—three times more than the rest of the world combined. Many of the suits, which are usually filed by individuals or nongovernmental organizations, seek to hold governments accountable for existing climate-related legal commitments. The study was done by the United Nations Environment Program and Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law.

Legislation regarding PERA’s massive fossil fuel liabilities is coming soon. Stay in the loop as developments unfold >>

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