Pension campaign to target oil groups

A new campaign hopes to harness shareholder power to force oil companies to prepare for future catastrophes to ensure there is no devastating repeat of BP's Deepwater Horizon disaster.

FairPensions has linked up with Greenpeace to call on pension holders to question what it calls the oil industry's increasingly risky business model. With billions of pounds of pension-fund money invested in the oil companies, the campaign – which launches today – hopes to help pension-scheme members to avoid the financial hit they took this summer through their funds' holdings in BP.

"If oil companies simply continue to pursue 'business as usual', the oil crunch will have severe impacts on people, the planet and our pensions," said Duncan Exley, acting chief executive of FairPensions.