UniSuper’s climate risk report is due in the next month

UniSuper’s climate risk report is due in the next month.

10 November 2020

Due to significant pressure from members, UniSuper has divested from dirty coal companies Whitehaven Coal and New Hope Group. But UniSuper is still invested in other dirty fossil fuels companies whose operations are incompatible with the goals of the Paris Agreement, including major oil and gas producers like Woodside, Santos, Origin, and Australia’s largest carbon polluter, AGL.

With UniSuper’s updated climate risk report coming out in the next month, you have an opportunity to influence their policy and let UniSuper know the consequences if the fund ignores your calls for divestment of all fossil fuels.

We have written a template email that you can edit and send to UniSuper using the form on this page. When customising your email, please be sure to add your own words to part 2 of the message, detailing the steps you will take if you are not satisfied with UniSuper’s policy. To make it easier we’ve listed some of the steps other UniSuper members are taking below.

UniSuper’s climate risk report (pre-launch)

Send a message telling UniSuper what you expect to see in its upcoming climate risk report.

Name*
First Last
Title/Position
University/Organisation
Email*
Postcode*
ZIP / Postal Code

Subject
Please edit and personalise your subject line and message to UniSuper
Message part 1
Dear UniSuper, I am a UniSuper member and am one of 12,000+ members that have signed onto the UniSuper Divest campaign. I am aware an updated climate risk report is due in the next month. I expect it will include a clear plan for divesting from all companies expanding the scale of the fossil fuel sector and/or pursuing business models incompatible with the Paris climate goals. This includes oil and gas companies, Woodside, Santos and Origin and Australia’s biggest polluter AGL.
Message part 2*
Please customise this part of the email. To make it easier we've made suggestions based on what other UniSuper members are doing at the bottom of this page.
Message part 3
I am pleased the fund has divested from a number of coal companies, and want to acknowledge this important step towards aligning the fund’s portfolio with the values of members. However, the fund still has a long way to go to end investment in all coal, oil and gas companies that are undermining the climate goals of the Paris Agreement. Clearly, your thermal coal divestment decision recognises the poor financial outlook for that sector. While I would point out there is sufficient moral and environmental justification for avoiding investments in companies whose profitability relies on the failure of the Paris Agreement, the fund must also recognise the unacceptable transition risks facing the oil and gas sectors if we are to hold warming to 1.5°C. A number of super funds exclude investment in any fossil fuel companies, while Suncorp has recently instituted a plan to phase out investment exposure to oil and gas production by 2040, with interim steps towards that goal. It is clear that any super fund wanting to take the lead on climate action and avoid the stranded asset risk facing the oil and gas industry must stop investing in the companies that are expanding the scale of these industries (see marketforces.org.au/outofline). Sincerely
Updates
- I want updates about the UniSuper Divest campaign
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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 more information about the different fossil fuel free options here.

Be sure to tell UniSuper exactly why you have switched 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.

Divest from UniSuper to a fossil fuel free superfund.

You can see how UniSuper’s approach to fossil fuels compares to other super funds here, and information about how to switch superannuation funds here.

Meet 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. They have a meeting coming up with the senior leadership of UniSuper on the 20th of November.

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

Make 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.

Commit to attending 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.

About this campaign

UniSuper DIVEST is a project of Market Forces, supported by UniSuper members across Australia. The campaign is designed to support signatories to take ownership of the campaign and organise to share it widely among fellow UniSuper members. Together we will take this campaign into the media and right to the doors of UniSuper.

UniSuper DIVEST recognises and supports the important work of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) in pushing for climate action, including motions passed in October 2019 declaring a climate emergency and calling on UniSuper to divest from fossil fuels. This campaign supports these efforts and seeks to demonstrate widespread support for fossil fuel divestment among UniSuper members.

Market Forces’ research has identified the big Australian companies that are undermining climate action by expanding the scale of the fossil fuel industry and whose future is tied to worsening the climate crisis. These are the companies the open letter calls on UniSuper to divest from.

UniSuper should not be investing any of its members’ retirement savings in these climate-wrecking companies. While the fund offers investment options that exclude some fossil fuel investments, these options represent a tiny proportion of assets under management and require members to actively seek out and switch into them. Climate action is effectively quarantined to those niche options and the members that are able to find their way into them. Meanwhile UniSuper continues to invest billions of dollars in fossil fuels through mainstream investment options. UniSuper, as a whole, is still overwhelmingly backing companies that are driving us towards runaway climate change.

Learn more about UniSuper’s climate performance.

This campaign provides a platform for members to demand UniSuper divests from fossil fuel companies that are undermining the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C.

Market Forces is an affiliate project of Friends of the Earth Australia. Learn more at marketforces.org.au/about