Friends of the Earth Cymru are calling for local authorities in Wales to stop investing in an industry that contributes significantly to climate-changing emissions, causes plastic pollution, and leads to over 5,000 deaths in Wales every year.

Eight Local Authority Pension Funds (LAPFs) in Wales are investing over £60 million in tobacco firms such as British American Tobacco according to information gained through Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. 

Welsh LAPFs are also investing around £1bn directly or indirectly in fossil fuel companies.

Climate change

Bleddyn Lake, a spokesperson from Friends of the Earth Cymru, said: “This news should be a wakeup call to pension fund trustees and fund managers to switch to more ethical investments.”

“Local authorities in Wales need to act now by taking their money out of tobacco firms, fossil fuel companies and other industries fuelling catastrophic climate change.

“Continuing to invest in these companies legitimises their operations. LAPFs who invest in them are basically profiting from climate change.

“Local authorities must stop supporting these companies: ditch the fossil fuels and bin the tobacco.”

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned that we only have 12 years at most to act decisively to prevent dangerous runaway climate change

Environmental impacts

While the health implications of smoking have been well publicised for many years, the environmental damage caused by the tobacco industry is only now coming to the fore.

According to a recent report, annual tobacco production results in almost 84 million tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions – more than twice the emissions of the whole of Wales.

Tobacco farms take up more than 20,000 square miles of land, use up more than 22 billion tonnes of water, and cause deforestation in Asia and Africa.

Cigarettes are also one of the most pervasive forms of litter in the world. Plastic filters can take up to 12 years to degrade and cigarette butts leak toxins that contaminate water and harm marine life and the environment.

Suzanne Cass, chief executive officer for ASH Wales said: “Across Wales local authorities are investing time and money in implementing tobacco control policies designed to reduce smoking prevalence. 

“It is highly ironic therefore that at the same time they are investing in excess of £60 million in the tobacco industry.”

Health impacts

Cass continued: “From a financial point of view tobacco is quite simply a bad investment. Growing awareness of the harms of smoking mean smokers could become a dying breed, with many turning their backs on tobacco and fewer young people than ever taking up the habit.

“There is no sustainable future for the tobacco industry and we would urge local authorities to put their pension funds to better use.”

Smoking is to blame for 80 percent of lung cancer cases across the UK. In 2017 there were 1,891 deaths from lung cancer in Wales.  

It accounts for one in every four cancer deaths in the country, killing more than bowel and breast cancer combined.

Smoking is also a leading cause of cardiovascular disease and it costs the Welsh NHS an estimated £302 million a year to treat those with smoking related conditions.

Currently 19 percent of Welsh adults smoke with prevalence highest in our most deprived communities, leading to stark health inequalities.

This Author 

Brendan Montague is editor of The Ecologist. This article is based on a press release from Friends of the Earth.