Future Super adds ‘carbon neutral’ to fossil free credentials

Australia’s first fossil fuel free super fund, Future Super, has extended its low-carbon credentials to become the world’s first climate neutral pension fund, after mapping the emissions of the remaining companies it invests in and matching them with carbon offsets.

Future Super revealed on Friday that it was buying carbon offsets in partnership with South Pole Group, a global  carbon analytics and offsetting business, after calculating the carbon footprint of its fossil-free portfolio.

While the super fund screens out coal, oil and other carbon intensive investments – giving it an investment footprint 7.5 times smaller than that of the ASX – it wanted to address the emissions of the companies left over, produced, say, through their use of electricity.

These are then offset through investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency projects.

This makes Future Super even more of an exception in the Australian pension fund sector, which continues to be heavily invested in the the mining and burning of fossil fuels, and other carbon intensive industries.

According to Future Super, this means that the average person with a super balance of $50,000 has a portfolio which produces carbon emissions equal to 625kg CO2 per month.

“The analysis shows that switching from a mainstream super fund to Future Super is one of the biggest actions you can take to reduce your personal carbon footprint,” said Future Super managing director, Simon Sheikh.

“Switching to a fossil fuel free super fund has a bigger impact in reducing your personal carbon footprint than driving a Prius or putting solar panels on your roof.

“We believe the risks associated in investing in harmful sectors like the fossil fuel industry are simply too high,” Sheikh said.

“The average age of a Future Super member is 37, with a likely retirement around 2045-2050. Global leaders have already agreed that we must significantly curb carbon emissions by this time, with many scientists suggesting the need for a complete decarbonisation along this timeline.

“Economists and scientists have calculated that this means leaving up to 80 per cent of the known fossil fuel reserves that are on the books of major mining companies, in the ground. And yet most super funds haven’t done the analysis about how exposed their member’s savings are to carbon risks,” he said.