Politicians have rejected calls to ask a regional local authority pension fund to stop investing in fossil fuels.

Councillors in Wrexham met yesterday (Wednesday, 23 June) to discuss a motion to lobby the Clwyd Pension Fund to divest from coal, oil and gas companies.

The fund controls money put away by public sector workers at Wrexham, Flintshire and Denbighshire councils for their retirement, as well as staff from other organisations in the area.

The motion was put forward by the Labour, Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats opposition groups on Wrexham Council, who raised concerns over the threat posed to residents by climate change.

However, it was defeated by members of the ruling independent/Conservative coalition, who claimed such a move would reduce the value of staff pensions.

It came despite an impassioned plea early on in the debate by Labour councillor Malcolm King, who said: “We all must be aware of the extraordinarily serious position the world's climate is in.

“There was a report just yesterday about flooding around the north Wales coast that would affect Wrexham quite badly.

“The most important thing about this is about future generations and not about us.

“What is going to happen in 20, 30 or 40 years’ time makes what we've experienced unobtainable for our children and particularly our grandchildren.

“Wrexham could show the way in that we could give a clear steer to the pension committee to get out of this as soon as we possibly can.

“You’ve got to be bonkers to think that the share price of oil and gas and coal is going to go up - it's been going down now for years.”

According to research published by campaign groups Friends of the Earth and Platform earlier this year, the Clwyd Pension Fund held £77.2m worth of investments in fossil fuel companies at the end of 2019-20.

It represents 4.3 per cent of the total fund of £1.8 billion being invested either directly or indirectly in such firms.

A report compiled using Freedom of Information laws showed it had the third highest amount of money invested in fossil fuels out of the eight Welsh local authority funds.

Plaid Cymru group leader Marc Jones backed the calls for it to change its strategy.

He said: “It would be quite perverse not to back this motion in light of the council's commitment in 2019 to tackle the climate emergency, and our commitment just a few weeks ago to adopt a decarbonisation plan.

“Stopping this council investing in fossil fuel firms is one of the few levers we have to persuade those corporations to consider renewable energy options.

“Other councils in Wales have done so and we should do too.”

However, deputy council leader David A Bithell claimed the amount invested in fossil fuels was actually closer to £25m or 1.1 per cent of the total fund.

He said any decision on how to invest money was for the committee which oversees the fund to make.

The authority's lead member for environment said: “This council has worked proactively to promote decarbonisation across the council at every opportunity.

“My belief is that it is not our role as elected members to interfere with trustee matters where thousands of people are affected with their pensions.

“I'm asking councillors not to support the motion because I think this is meddling in trustee matters.”

He was supported by Ceiriog Valley representative Trevor Bates, who said major oil and gas companies like Shell and BP were "not the enemy" when it came to tackling climate change.

He said: “Your lives, your family's lives, and indeed my life depends on fossil fuels.

“These companies are keeping the country moving or perhaps you want the country to stop.

“How do you think our police force would manage to police without petrol to drive their cars?

“Yes, we do need to change, but the change needs to be controlled. We can't just turn the tap off.”

The motion was rejected by 19 votes to 15 at the end of the debate.