Photo: Fossil fuels funeral parade, Hastings, 13 May 2017

Hastings joins day of climate change action

Thousands of actions will be taking place across the world, from Papua New Guinea to Panama, as part of Rise for Climate, a day of action calling for a fast and fair transition to a world without fossil fuels (oil, coal and gas) and 100% renewable energy for all. Fossil Free Hastings encourages local people to participate.

Following the photocall, members of Fossil Free Hastings and others will be collecting signatures for the Divest East Sussex petition, calling on East Sussex County Council to stop investing local people’s pensions in fossil fuels.

The East Sussex Pension Fund – which is administered by the County Council and holds the pensions for a wide range of organisations from across East Sussex – is estimated to have at least £150m invested in fossil fuels.

Stranded assets

The Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, has warned that investors in fossil fuels face ‘potentially huge losses’ from climate change action that could make vast reserves of oil, coal and gas ‘literally unburnable’ (so-called ‘stranded assets’). Three members of the East Sussex Fund – Hastings Borough Council, Lewes Town Council and Brighton and Hove City Council – have already passed motions calling on the Fund to divest from fossil fuels.

Sun, earth, wind and water

St Leonards resident Emily Johns said: “We can’t keep powering our lives with dirty fuels from the last century. It’s time to repower our communities with clean, renewable energy from the sun, earth, wind and water. We need every local government and institution to commit to building 100% renewable energy and stopping new dirty energy projects in their community. Anything less than that is out of line with what science and justice demand.”

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