EXTINCTION Rebellion (XR) activists say they are outraged at Islington Council’s pension fund investment in oil company Shell.

Sebastian Sandys, one of the group’s campaigners, stood on the steps of the Town Hall with the former council leader Richard Watts and Islington South and Finsbury MP Emily Thornberry in 2019 when the council declared a climate emergency and pledged to do all they could to tackle it.

That is why, he said, he is more disillusioned than ever that the council continued to invest in such an “unethical” company.

“They would not invest in tobacco or arms, so why are they investing in fossil fuels?” he asked. “Ethically there’s very little difference.”

Islington’s “woeful” record on recycling and a decision to rebuild Edmonton Incinerator were other reasons XR had distanced themselves, said Mr Sandys. He called on Islington to have “an urgent meeting” with Fossil Free Islington – a local branch of a national divestment movement.

Nationally, XR are planning spring rebellion events for this month, which usually include eye-catching demonstrations.

Locally, Mr Sandys said Islington should re-route its £1.7billion pension fund into companies that do not support fossil fuel extraction.

He added: “It’s shocking that they’ve made this declaration and they still invest in Shell and the reason given is that it’s in the best financial interest of the pension fund.

“The investments that they make in the Shell oil companies gives a lie to anything else they say or do in relation to the environment or the natural world.”

But pensions chief Labour councillor Paul Convery stood by the council’s strategy and argued that not only were they responsibly investing “on behalf of our pensioners” but that by working with oil companies they had more chance of effecting change.

He said: “Another reason we hold some shares in this is because we’re part of a larger group of local authorities’ pension funds that have an ethical and environmental standpoint, who take this argument to these companies.

“It’s a dilemma we face: do we just exit and clean our hands of them or continue to engage and argue with them?”

Islington plans to move to a “tougher” carbon index on companies in the next 18 months and it is possible Shell may not meet their future threshold, Cllr Convery said, although as a company “making big efforts to decarbonise” they “remain in that index” for now.

Cllr Convery said Islington is on a “timetable” to achieve its goal of being a “net zero” council by 2030.

He said: “I know, in Extinction Rebellion’s view, they may call that ‘greenwash’ because they want absolute zero carbonpurity, and I get that, but what we’re doing is continuing to responsibly invest on behalf of our pensioners while moving towards net zero – and we’ve always said we won’t achieve it overnight.”