General Synod this year highly commended a joint report Climate Change Action and Fossil Fuel Investments from the Church in Society Committee and Investment Committee on Climate Change Action and Fossil Fuel Investments and, highly conscious of its responsibilities as a Christian Church, passed the Motion which:
A) Calls on all members, congregations and Dioceses to develop approaches consistent with a low carbon economy;
B) Encourages the Church in Society and Investment Committees to work with and as part of the Church Investors Group as a means of informing and setting the Scottish Episcopal Church’s policy on investment in an era of climate change and helping small investors to implement such policies;
C) Seeks to follow the example of other churches in restricting its direct investments in companies deriving over 10% of their revenues from the extraction of thermal coal or tar sands;
D) Asks for an annual meeting with the Scottish Episcopal Church’s Investment Managers, currently Baillie Gifford, at which the means of agreeing any limits to investments in companies with a poor environmental profile and encouraging the use of targets and processes suggested by the Church Investors Group might be discussed;
E) Seeks to put in place a mechanism, which would allow the policy of the Church Investors Group on voting at company meetings, to be put into effect;
F) Encourages the Scottish Episcopal Church Pension Fund Trustees to follow similar approaches.
The Investment and Church in Society Committees will continue to work together in implementing the recommendations of the report.
