21 November 2019

As the largest publicly owned investor in New Zealand, the ACC board should divest from fossil fuels, demonstrating our leadership role on climate change, Green Party MP Chlöe Swarbrick said today.

“As the largest publicly owned investor, ACC have accepted they have huge influence in the market, including a billion dollars invested in fossil fuels.

“New Zealanders would be shocked to learn that a publicly owned investor is banking on the climate crisis.

“It’s entirely within the ACC Board’s mandate to decide to end such investment on ethical grounds, as they did with tobacco in 2006.

“If not, the Government should end this investment in fossil fuels through a direction under the Crown Entities Act.

“The Green Party is focused on ensuring New Zealand retains its leadership role in driving and inspiring action to reduce emissions and protect our climate for future generations.

“We’ve seen a groundswell of public support, and with our Zero Carbon Act passing unanimously, ending what is effectively state-sponsored investments in fossil fuels should be a next step in this work.”

The briefing on ACC’s ethical investment policy to the Education and Workforce Select Committee was triggered in June 2019 by Chlöe Swarbrick and has today reported back.

The report takes note that the ACC board can make the decision to divest, or the Government can direct them to do so. The Green Party have encouraged this in the report.

You can read the Select Committee’s report here: https://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-NZ/SCR_93179/fbdd56e1613502d4eac577ed57fe546afd10eee3

You can find the question Chlöe Swarbrick put to Minister Robertson today during Question Time on the topic here: https://vimeo.com/374554105

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