Two years ago, the £3bn Wiltshire Pension Fund, which is part of the Brunel Pool pledged to divest from fossil fuels by the end of the decade. It now reports that it has divested from Prio and Phillips 66, while the pool and a third-party manager have sold off their stakes in MEG Energy and PetroChina.
These holdings previously accounted for 2% and 6% of the fund’s overall carbon footprint, respectively, according to its latest Stewardship Report.
Wiltshire’s LGPS pool, Brunel, has divested from MEG under its exclusions policy, which mandates divestment from companies deriving more than a quarter of their revenue from oil sands extraction. Under Brunel’s Activity-Based Exclusions Policy, MEG exited the portfolio due to its oil sands extraction revenues being equal to or greater than 25%.
Wiltshire’s emerging markets manager, Ninety One, also sold its stake in PetroChina, although the reason for the divestment was not disclosed.
The fund remains invested in ConocoPhillips, which contributes 0.3% to its carbon footprint. “Engagement and close monitoring with ConocoPhillips continues into 2025. They rank better compared to their peers (World Benchmarking Alliance Oil & Gas Benchmark), and they have the potential to meet CA100+ short-term target criteria,” Wiltshire stated.
The next major challenge for Wiltshire is its investment in Shell, which accounts for 3% of the fund’s carbon footprint. Brunel has been engaging with the energy giant for several years, but Wiltshire highlights that insufficient progress has been made. The fund now considers Shell to be misaligned with its responsible investment (RI) policy and has asked Brunel to divest.
However, as Wiltshire’s investment in Shell is part of a pooled fund with other Brunel partner funds, it is not currently in a position to divest independently.
At this year’s Shell AGM, Brunel co-filed a resolution questioning the firm’s LNG expansion strategy. Wiltshire welcomed Brunel’s “persistent commitment” to holding fossil fuel companies accountable on climate change, but also noted that the situation underscores the difficulties of working within an LGPS pool when striving to meet RI ambitions.
