Waltham Forest’s Pension Fund has a £4m stake in a fund that paid $5bn for the construction of a sprawling natural gas complex in Texas, despite the council’s divestment from fossil fuel companies in 2022

By Josephine Moulds and Simon Lock, with additional reporting by Marco Marcelline

Waltham Forest pension savers are unwittingly bankrolling the rapid expansion of US gas terminals, despite the council’s divestment from fossil fuel companies.

Revelations by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism show the Waltham Forest Pension Fund invested in a fund that paid $5billion towards the construction of Rio Grande LNG, a sprawling liquefied natural gas complex right next to the Mexican border.

In 2016, Waltham Forest became the first local authority to commit to pulling its pension fund investments from all fossil fuel companies. It remains the only council to achieve this.

But that divestment process, which saw Waltham Forest pull £53.4m of oil, gas and coal stocks, now appears to be in question.

Findings by the Bureau show that pension savers are unwittingly investing in funds managed by BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) that have financed Rio Grande LNG and Allete, which owns an 18,000-acre coal mine in North Dakota.

The Rio Grande LNG project was able to proceed thanks to a $5bn commitment from GIP Fund V – which is supported by nearly £200m of UK savers’ pensions, from Waltham Forest to Greater Manchester.

Council reports show that Waltham Forest Pension Fund invested £4m in GIP’s Fund V in 2025, with the council holding more than £28m in GIP‑managed infrastructure investments overall.

The Echo understands that this investment was made outside the London Collective Investment Vehicle (LCIV) – the pooled body that manages most pension assets for all 32 London boroughs.

Waltham Forest declined to comment when approached by the Bureau.

Charlie Loveday, Green candidate for Wood Street ward, told the Echo: “These revelations that Waltham Forest’s pensions are still invested in dirty fossil fuels are shocking. Residents were told the council’s public pension fund was no longer invested in oil and gas, yet this investigation has exposed the gap between what Labour say they’re doing on climate and the reality.

“What we need is complete transparency over how residents’ and council workers’ money is invested to ensure there are no more links to fossil fuels or human rights abuses.”

The NGO Sierra Club warns the Rio Grande gas complex will give rise to the same level of emissions of 50 coal-fired power plants every year, while campaigners say the project is already contributing to habitat loss in an area critical for ocelots, falcons and sea turtles.

Scores of giant white orbs containing liquefied natural gas are popping up along the 1,200km stretch of Louisiana and Texas’ coastline, amid a building frenzy triggered by US president Donald Trump’s second term.

If all the planned terminals are built, they would generate the same amount of greenhouse gases each year as every EU country combined, says Jeremy Symons, a former official at the US environmental regulator.

Credit: The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

Roishetta Ozane, a resident turned activist, lives near a number of these gas terminals. She told the Bureau that pollution from the nearby gas, petrochemicals and oil infrastructure have caused asthma and an increase of cancer in the area – an account borne out by academic research.

“We’re seeing more women develop health issues that are living near these facilities, having pre-term babies or having miscarriages,” she said. “We’re seeing our air quality deteriorate. We have a drinking water crisis.” She said residents had to deal with noise pollution from construction and the flaring of excess gas from the terminals.

Two of her children have asthma. Her doctor said pollution may have exacerbated the seizures suffered by her son, who died last year. “When my son passed away, I was like, what are we doing this for?” she said. “We’re fighting for our children, for our future, for our community, but yet they’re dying.”

In total, the Bureau found eight US-based LNG terminals backed by UK pension money. Taken together, those terminals would give rise to more CO2 every year than the entire UK, several times over, according to Sierra Club data.

When it comes to curbing carbon emissions, council pension funds and campaigners have tended to focus on selling their shares in companies like BP and Shell. But a growing portion of pension funds are invested in so-called “private markets”. Typically this involves putting money into a number of big funds, which in turn invest in everything from private equity to property to company loans.

Private markets can offer healthy returns but tracking where the money ends up can be difficult, and they’re often excluded from the scope of council climate commitments.

Global Infrastructure Partners and the LNG port operators did not respond to requests for comment.

The revelations come as Waltham Forest is committing to divesting its pension funds from companies linked to the arms trade.

The pension committee confirmed it can pull its funds without any ‘material, detrimental impact’ on the council’s financial health at a meeting on Wednesday, 25th March.

But local activists, including Waltham Forest for a Free Palestine (WF4FP), have criticised a lack of speed and “shifting definitions” of arms companies since the council began looking at divesting in 2024.

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