East Sussex Climate Change 'Chicken' Protest Sets 'World Record'

Campaigners in East Sussex claim to have set a world record after an online protest on Saturday, aimed at convincing the county council to reduce pension investments in companies exploiting fossil fuel resources.

Divest East Sussex members donned chicken masks to stage an online 'chicken-in' protest as part of an effort to get East Sussex County Council (ESCC) to stop investing in giant oil and gas companies.

The group targeted East Sussex Pension Committee chair Councillor Gerard Fox, telling him "not to let ESCC's fossil fuel chickens come home to roost".

Over 57 people reportedly took part in the event, which set the world record for the ‘Most people to attend a Zoom protest wearing a chicken mask’.

The protest featured a specially-written song ('Things are getting hot down here in the henhouse') and a short play ('Silly chickens and their fossil fool investments') in which the chickens travelled to Lewes to question Mr Fox. 

Councillor Gerard Fox (Cons, Hailsham New Town) is the chair of the five-person East Sussex Pension Committee, which has ultimate decision-making powers over the East Sussex Pension Fund.

As at 31 March, campaigners claim the fund – which is the Local Government Pension Scheme for Brighton and Hove as well as East Sussex – had some £137.8m invested in fossil fuels (oil, coal and gas).

A spokesperson from Divest East Sussex said:

"In June BP and Shell announced that they would be writing-down up to $39.5bn of their oil and gas assets - moves that Fortune magazine described as ‘just the tip of the iceberg for fossil fuels’.

"In July over 240 members of the public submitted questions to ESCC about its investments in fossil fuels, demanding to know how it squared these investments with its October 2019 declaration of a ‘climate emergency’."

But before Saturday's protest, the pension committee chair had said that investments in companies exploiting fossil fuels were already under constant review.

Fran Witt from Divest East Sussex added:

"With the window of opportunity to prevent catastrophic climate change rapidly shrinking — and the big oil companies writing-down almost $90bn worth of their assets over the past nine months — there’s never been a more important time for ESCC to ditch its investments in fossil fuels (its ‘fossil fuel chickens’) before they come home to roost.

"Failure to limit global warming to 1.5ºC will lead to calamitous impacts for some of the world’s poorest people.

"But keeping global warming to 1.5ºC will require dramatic cuts in carbon emissions over the next ten years – cuts which are simply incompatible with the business models of these companies.

"Moreover, the pandemic has brought forward the point of ‘peak demand’ for fossil fuels - that is, the point after which consumption starts permanently falling - creating the prospect of big losses for investors like ESCC.

"Having already declared a ‘climate emergency’ ESCC now needs to put its words into action and stop funding the companies that are driving the climate crisis."

More Radio has been unable, so far, to determine independently whether or not Saturday's protest fell into any officially recognised world record category.