Pension funds should use their huge financial power to help the fight against climate change, a Cabinet minister will say tomorrow.

In a speech to the Policy Exchange think tank, Work and Pensions Secretary Thérèse Coffey is to argue the multi-trillion pound retirement savings across the world can become a global “superpower” in the battle for a greener planet.

Her address will coincide with the Government setting out plans to align UK pension rules with the 2015 Paris Accord goal to limit global temperature increase to 1.5C.

The proposals, to be published in a Whitehall consultation document tomorrow, are designed to mobilise billions of pounds of UK pension savings behind the effort to curb climate change.

And a report from Friends of the Earth will reveal that UK pension funds have an estimated £128 billion invested in fossil fuels, equivalent to nearly £2,000 for every person in the country.

Speaking at the think tank in Westminster, Ms Coffey is expected to say:

“As the MP for Suffolk coastal, I am all too aware that while climate change is a global challenge, the consequences of failing to act will be most visible in local communities.

“Left unchecked, surging sea levels over the coming decades threaten to leave parts of Suffolk and other coastal areas of the UK permanently underwater.

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