In 2019, Ireland became one of the first countries in the world to divest its investment fund away from companies that make substantial profit from fossil fuels. However, the majority of private Irish pension funds still include companies involved in oil and gas exploration, extraction and refinement.

The Government’s 2019 Climate Action Plan stated it would “consider how a new requirement could be placed on pension providers to disclose what portion of any fund is made up of fossil fuel assets, and to provide an option to pension holders to opt for a fund which does not include fossil fuel”. Despite a deadline for the end in 2019, this was not achieved and no actions on pensions are included in the latest plan from 2021.

With an auto-enrollment scheme for pensions due to start in 2022, how much extra money will the Irish public be investing in companies contributing to the climate crisis once everyone is automatically signed up?

HELP US INVESTIGATE

We want to find out how Irish pensions are contributing to the climate crisis, and if people are given the option either by pension providers or their employers about investing in fossil fuel companies.

We want to investigate what is being done by the Government and other regulators to improve this and if there are any incentives, from a financial perspective, to invest in more sustainable funds?

If you want to make a contribution to help this investigation happen, click the 'Fund This Proposal' button. Noteworthy investigations are sourced from and crowdfunded by the public.

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