Public Pension Funds Have Lost Billions On Their Fossil Fuel Investments
For U.S. public pension funds, divesting from oil, coal, and gas would result in overall higher financial value.
That is the key takeaway from a new study examining the past decade’s portfolio performance for several of the largest public pension funds in the country. The analysis by researchers at the University of Waterloo, published today in partnership with the organization Stand.earth, has found that the total cumulative value of six major U.S. public pension funds would have been about 13 percent higher had they divested from fossil fuel holdings ten years ago – equivalent to around $21 million in earnings.