THE coal industry took another blow this week after the UK’s largest private pension manager said it would sell investments in the sector and not pursue new opportunities.
Perhaps more damningly for coal, the pension fund – the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) – said its investment switch also included controversial weapons such as cluster munitions, white phosphorus and land mines, as well as tobacco.
This is the first time USS has officially announced its position on exclusions, and follows a review of the long-term financial factors associated with investing in certain sectors, said Bloomberg News which reported on the USS’s change in investment focus.
USS Investment Management, the main investment manager for USS, said that: “Traditional financial models used by the market as a whole to predict the future performance in these sectors had not taken specific risks into account”.
It added that changing political and regulatory attitudes to certain activities will damage the prospects of businesses involved in industries like tobacco and coal mining in the future, said Bloomberg News.
The USS, which oversees more than £68bn pounds of assets, will begin selling its holdings in these industries within two years.
