A council has been accused of hypocrisy over its failure to stop investing in fossil fuels through its pension fund.

The Medway Lib Dems say the Labour administration are “playing games” with the climate crisis after it was revealed the local authority's pension scheme is still invested in fossil fuels.

It comes despite the Labour group having tried to pass a motion to divest while it was in opposition.

At a full council meeting on July 18, Stuart Bourne, spokesman for the Lib Dem group, asked how much of the Local Government Pension Fund, which is the pension plan council staff use, had been divested from coal, gas, and oil in the first year of the Labour administration.

He cited the group’s attempt to pass a motion which sought to force the council to remove the investments from its pension portfolio in April 2022.

Currently, 2835 Medway Council employees contribute to the Kent County Council (KCC)-run pension scheme, the Kent Pension Fund (KPF), which has a total value of £7.8 billion.

The contributions from all 152,000 members are invested into various industries by the 17 fund managers, which include Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Schroders, and Baillie Gifford.

In response to the question, Medway Council’s portfolio holder for climate change and strategic regeneration Cllr Simon Curry (Lab) said the council had limited power to influence what the fund managers invested in, but recently the KPF had changed its guidelines.

Previously, the KPF had a policy that its responsibility was to maximise the returns for those making pension contributions, and so couldn’t restrict investment managers with ethical considerations, such as in relation to the climate.

But in June, the fund made the decision to gradually divest and have a net-zero portfolio by 2050, in order to make the actions which are predicted to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Cllr Curry said: “We are aware that fossil fuel company shares represent a small proportion of the overall investments.

“The fund has set a clear ambition to reach net-zero portfolio emissions by 2050 and reduce emissions emanating from its equity allocation by 43% by 2030 and 69% by 2040, which is consistent with the latest (2022) decarbonisation targets required by the latest science to limit global warming to 1.5 C by 2100.

“Investors have an important role to play in driving the transition to a low-carbon economy and the fund will identify opportunities to invest in companies and industries that are aligned with the transition.

“The fund has set an ambition to invest 15% of portfolio in substantial assets by 2030 including climate solutions.”

He added a discussion of how to influence the investments to be more in line with combatting climate change was on the agenda of the next Kent Human Resources Network meeting.

Mr Bourne said he was disappointed with the answer and asked by how much additional investment in fossil fuels had been made since the Labour group took control of the council in May last year.

Cllr Curry didn’t have the information at the time but later said Medway Council had not invested any money in fossil fuel backed organisations since May 2023.

In a statement following the meeting, Mr Bourne said: “The climate emergency isn’t a tool to score cheap political points against your opponent.

“It needs responsible politicians working hard to implement policies that will save our planet.

“Let’s hope Medway Labour stops playing these games and focuses on a plan to end investing in companies that are destroying our planet.”

Campaigns for divestment from fossil fuels saw Baillie Gifford garner media attention after the Edinburgh International Book Festival and the Hay Festival suspended sponsorships from the fund manager in May.

As a result Baillie Gifford ceased all sponsorships of literary festivals in June.