Campaigners climbed onto the roof of East Sussex County Hall yesterday to demand the authority stops investing its pension fund in fossil fuels.

A report last year found that around £28.2m of the East Sussex Pension Fund is in investments linked to fossil fuels.

East Sussex County Council, which declared a climate emergency in 2019, administers the fund.

Yesterday’s protest saw Extinction Rebellion (XR) South East join with campaign group Divest East Sussex to take non-violent direct action against the council for the first time.

XR said the move was a ‘significant escalation in a long series of protests against the council’s inaction in the face of the climate crisis’.

Divest East Sussex joint coordinator Gabriel Carlyle said: ‘We have written to councillors. We’ve asked to meet with them. We’ve peacefully protested again and again.

‘We’ve lobbied, we’ve pleaded, we’ve begged.

‘None of it has worked. So we’ve decided to be less polite.’

XR warned it would continue to take non-violent direction action against the council if it did not divest.

A spokesperson for the East Sussex Pension Fund said: ‘The exposure to oil companies through investment products is 0.4% of Fund value.

‘It has a strong focus on responsible investment in its stewardship of assets and takes climate risk and environmental, social and governance factors into account when investing, having removed fossil fuel companies from its equity allocation and reduced the exposure in other parts of the portfolio.’

A council spokesperson said flares let off by protesters illustrated why the cash-strapped local authority paid for security at some meetings, a decision for which it has been criticised.

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