Sixty-seven per cent of industry delegates surveyed in a session at the Pensions UK Investment Conference 2026 believe pension schemes are not doing enough to mitigate climate change.

The result was revealed during a live poll of attendees at the session, Do Environmental Strategies Have a Future?, which saw Conservative former Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Michael Gove, debate against former Green Party leader, Caroline Lucas, on the topic.

Delegates were asked their thoughts by the session chair, IFM Investors executive director, public affairs, Gregg McClymont, at the beginning of the session. The question was then put to them again at the end of the debate to see if their views had changed; the result, however, remained largely the same.

Lucas opened the debate with a stark warning to pension schemes: “We’re asked to consider if environmental strategies have a future. My short answer would be that if they don’t, then neither do we.”

She argued that climate change and ecosystem collapse are a “complex and systemic financial risk”.

“Research shows that UK pension portfolios could face valuation declines of up to 30 per cent by 2050 under plausible climate scenarios. To ignore these risks, or even worse, deliberately choose not to respond to them because of an ideological obsession with deregulation, is not just environmentally reckless, it’s economically irresponsible as well,” she explained.

On existing pension regulations, Lucas pointed to a “significant structural gap” between risk measurement and capital deployment.

“The UK’s approach to date has been governance-heavy and disclosure-centric. It has required trustees to measure emissions, to conduct scenarios, and to publish reports. Those are valuable steps, but they don’t automatically redirect capital flows,” she said.

Gove, however, argued that the responsibility of the pension sector is to its members.

“Your ultimate responsibility is to follow your fiduciary duty in order to ensure that your members secure the best and most secure returns for their retirement. Why do I say that? Because it is the government’s direct responsibility to deal with climate change, through taxation or subsidy,” he stated.

He continued: “Whatever the government seeks, to direct, mandate, nudge, or otherwise control how you invest, they are taking you away from your principal duty, which is to look after your members’ investments.”

Despite this, Gove acknowledged that if investment in renewables was "wise long term" then investors, whether from pension funds or elsewhere, can "follow the money”.

In terms of what pension funds could be doing, Lucas highlighted thermal coal as a divestment option.

She stated: “There is an amendment to the Pensions Bill that is going through parliament right now that would seek to make sure that we don’t, essentially, undermine UK government policy, which for a long time has been to exit from coal.

"Yet, pension funds are still able, to the tune of around £10bn, invest in coal in other countries, which of course still has the impact of creating a more unstable climate for us all.”

On this, Gove argued that pension funds should not be singled out, as he argued that the government “guilt-trips” pension funds on their responsibility to act.

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