PROTESTERS targeted town, city and county halls up and down the country today to demand that local councils play their part in tackling the climate crisis by divesting from fossil fuels. 

The co-ordinated actions were held to coincide with the Cop26 conference’s finance day, during which world leaders discussed the role of money in achieving net-zero greeenhouse gas emissions around the world. 

Day of action organiser Divest said that the rallies aimed to highlight that the climate crisis is not only the responsibility of global leaders but also of local authorities, which have invested about £10 billion of workers’ pension fund money in fossil fuels, the group said. 

In Glasgow, campaigners demonstrated in Buchanan Street against the council’s £800 million investment in fossil fuels. 

Protester Isla Scott, of Divest Strathclyde, said: “As host city of Cop26, Glasgow should be calling out fossil fuel polluters. Instead, they’re backing them. 

“While the city makes grand claims about going fossil-free, its pension fund is still pouring hundreds of millions into financing the very companies who are driving the climate crisis.”

In Manchester, protesters donned pyjamas and rang alarm clocks outside the offices of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, calling on Mayor Andy Burnham to put greater pressure on the pension fund to divest. 

“Investing our pensions in fossil fuel companies is financially risky as well as morally wrong,” said Maggie Walker, one of the campaigners. 

“We want Andy Burnham to call on Tameside council, who manage the fund, to ensure that the fund is run in line with GM’s [Greater Manchester’s] ambition to be a green city.”

Actions also took place in Derbyshire, Edinburgh, East Sussex, Bradford and Norfolk, co-organised by Friends of the Earth and Platform. 

Robert Noyes of Platform said: “Every day that we put off divesting from fossil fuels, we keep pouring billions into companies’ harmful operations.

“With climate action more popular than ever, it is no longer acceptable for local authority pension fund managers to provide polluters cover from the kinds of policies needed to keep global heating below 1.5° by staying invested.

“With the eyes of the world on the UK, forget climate leadership, it’s time for climate catch-up and a permanent end to fossil fuel finance from UK institutions.”