In response to Cardiff Council's vote to divest pensions from fossil fuels Thursday, 18th July, Sophie Howe, Future Generations Commissioner for Wales said:

“I welcome Cardiff Council‘s vote yesterday evening to divest pensions from fossil fuels following my call last year for all local authorities in Wales to divest from fossil fuels. Whilst the final decision rests with the Cardiff and Vale Pension Fund trustees, yesterday’s vote is part of a growing movement of change in Wales – in a week where Extinction Rebellion Cardiff took to the streets of our capital to highlight the need for immediate action on climate change and the latest Strike4Youth taking place outside the Senedd tomorrow.

“This is exactly the direction of travel public bodies need to go in order to demonstrate how they are taking action to improve the social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being of current and future generations, and coincides the publication of guidance I have issued to on how public bodies can ensure they are being globally responsible as required by the Well-being of Future Generations Act (Wales) 2015.

“It includes steps public bodies and others can take to ensure fair and ethical investment and divestment where no stocks, bonds, investment funds are funding gas, oil or coals industries, and reduce our burden on the planet.

“Yesterday at the United Nations I took part in a debate where cities from across the world were highlighting the contributions they were making to meeting the global Sustainable Development Goals. Getting Welsh local authorise to demand their pension funds no longer make investments which contribute to damaging the planet is an important contribution to this global picture”