Considering switching funds? Here are some tips:

If you’ve already told UniSuper you would consider leaving the fund if it failed to divest from all companies expanding the fossil sector, here are some resources to help you with the process.

• UniSuper provides this guide to rolling over part or all of your account to another super fund.
• See how UniSuper’s approach to fossil fuels compares to other super funds
• General information about switching superannuation funds (via Finder)

How to make maximum impact

1. Tell UniSuper exactly why you are considering leaving
2. Contact us to let us know your plans, and we’ll help you amplify your decision
   
3. Share your divestment decision and story directly with colleagues and friends
4. Share on social media. Be sure to tag UniSuper. Get in touch with us and we can help with this).

This page contains factual information that is not intended to imply any recommendation or opinion about a financial product.

Some of the further steps other Unisuper members have been taking include:

Switching to one of UniSuper’s fossil fuel free options

You can find information about UniSuper’s different fossil fuel free options here. 

Tell UniSuper exactly why you are considering switching, and make the point that it shouldn’t be up to members to seek out and switch into a fossil fuel free option – that should be the default position for the entire fund.

Organising support among colleagues, departments and institutions

Members can organise letters and statements of support for the campaign from a large group of colleagues, departments, academic associations, and even entire universities. Please contact us if you’d like some tips on getting started or want to be put in touch with other supporters.

Meeting with a UniSuper representative to voice your concerns 

Each university elects up to four representatives to the UniSuper Consultative Committee to be ‘the voice of the members.’ This committee engages directly with the UniSuper board and is responsible for nominating four directors.

You can email the people on your consultative committee and request a meeting using this template.

Making an official complaint to UniSuper 

UniSuper takes complaints seriously and they are fed up to higher management. To make a complaint, visit this page here on the UniSuper website.

Commiting to attend future UniSuper Divest actions

Actions keep the campaign front and centre, engage more potential supporters and allies, and demonstrate to UniSuper that members aren’t going away until they have a plan to divest from all fossil fuel projects.

Publishing an article in The Conversation or another news outlet

Articles are good at keeping the news current and keeping the pressure on UniSuper to divest. They also help build the narrative for why divestment is important, which educates other UniSuper fund members and captures the attention of the UniSuper staff and board.

Requesting a meeting with UniSuper executives or board members 

Other UniSuper members have engaged the board by engaging their Vice Chancellor, or requested a meeting with one of the board members on their campus. You can see who is on the UniSuper board here.

Detailed analysis: Major flaws in UniSuper’s climate risk report

Oil and gas exposure

UniSuper’s 2020 climate risk report provides no strategies or targets to reduce investment exposure to companies expanding oil and gas production.

The report states “Our base case for oil and gas growth doesn’t assume growth in the sector” and “investments in fossil fuel producers are likely to decline”. However, UniSuper has failed to account for the scale of oil and gas decline required to meet the Paris climate goals, nor any strategies or targets to manage down the fund’s exposure to these industries in line with that decline.

With the recognition that oil and gas production must decline, UniSuper needs to:

• Stop investing in any company that is expanding oil and gas production; and
• Set targets to reduce the scale of oil and gas reserves owned by companies within the fund’s portfolio.

Failure to take these steps allows UniSuper’s investments to promote oil and gas expansion that is incompatible with the fund’s own stated expectations, indicating a failure to align the fund’s climate risk rhetoric with action.

Rewarding delay

UniSuper’s only near-term strategy to manage climate risk is to require all material Australian portfolio companies to have “Paris-aligned commitments by the end of 2021”.

On its face, this appears a strong target, and for the first time UniSuper has listed all companies that it applies to.

However, UniSuper’s definition of what constitutes a “Paris-aligned commitment”, and an analysis of some of the companies UniSuper claims are ‘on track’ shows this approach rewards companies for doing nothing more than setting a long-term net-zero aspiration, while continuing to operate outside Paris-aligned carbon constraints in the meantime.

UniSuper defines a Paris-aligned commitment as any one of:

• Net-zero operational emissions by 2050
• A Science Based Target (5-15 years)
• At least 45% emission reduction by 2030

Almost all companies UniSuper’s report marks as ‘On track’ for these commitments have announced net-zero by 2050 goals. 

However, by giving credit for any of the above, rather than requiring short, medium and long term emissions targets, UniSuper’s approach does nothing to ensure investee companies act to reduce their contributions to climate change in line with a 1.5°C warming outcome.

This amounts to UniSuper green-lighting companies to talk the talk by announcing long term goals, without having to walk the walk of bringing down emissions in the near term.

Looking at some of the largest greenhouse gas emitters in UniSuper’s portfolio demonstrates the shortcomings of this approach:

Rio Tinto

• 2019 operational emissions (scope 1 & 2): 26.8 MtCO2-e
• Interim emission target: -15% reduction by 2030
  • ⅓ of the emissions reduction UniSuper notes is required across the economy by 2030 in order to align with Paris

South32

• FY2020 operational emissions: 23.3 MtCO2-e
• No current emission targets other than net-zero by 2050

BHP

• FY2020 operational emissions: 15.8 MtCO2-e
• Interim emission target: -30% reduction by 2030
  • ⅔ of the emissions reduction UniSuper notes is required across the economy by 2030 in order to align with Paris

No action on scope 3 emissions

UniSuper’s commitments also fail to require companies to manage down the emissions generated when their products are used, known as scope 3 emissions. These are particularly relevant for producers of emissions-intensive products such as coal (both thermal and metallurgical), oil, gas, and iron ore (which is processed along with metallurgical coal in the steelmaking process).

The scale of UniSuper’s investee companies’ scope 3 emissions profiles is staggering, representing major exposures to climate change transition risk.* For example, BHP’s scope 3 emissions were 563 MtCO2-e in FY2020, mostly attributable to steelmaking clients processing BHP’s iron ore and metallurgical coal, and the use of BHP’s petroleum products. For a sense of scale, Australia’s total national emissions in 2019 were around 532 MtCO2-e.

Some other major scope 3 emitters in UniSuper’s portfolio include:

• Rio Tinto (494 MtCO2-e in 2019)
• South32 (110 MtCO2-e in FY2020)
• Woodside (27.9 MtCO2-e in 2019)
• Oil Search (10 MtCO2-e in 2019)

Other than Rio Tinto, all of the companies listed above produce fossil fuels. Only setting operational emissions targets fails to account for these products’ lifecycle emissions, and therefore their contribution to climate change and exposure to transition risk. 

UniSuper must manage down its fossil fuel exposure by ending investment in any company that is expanding production of coal (including metallurgical coal), oil, or gas, and setting targets to reduce scope 3 emissions and / or fossil fuel reserves in its investment portfolio.

*Transitional risks are the financial impacts that policy, regulatory and market shifts to drive decarbonisation may have on companies and investments.