You rightly highlight the potential for pension savers to use their collective financial clout to bring about action on climate change (Green your pension: how you can help the environment, 4 October). But this potential extends beyond those currently saving into a pension. Millions of Britons are already receiving pension benefits, often through salary-related pension schemes that invest assets worth more than £1.5tn. So pensioners also have the power to influence change. By urging the trustees of their pension fund to invest their assets more sustainably, pensioners can help ensure a better environment for their children and grandchildren.
Pension trustees must also be more willing to understand and act in line with their members’ priorities. If that means challenging the recommendations of their advisers, so be it. And, as a pension fund member, you can always become a trustee yourself. It’s your money – who better to decide what’s to be done with it?
Rory Murphy
Chair of trustees, Merchant Navy Officers Pension Fund
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