For the investigation, DeSmog contacted all 42 dioceses to request information on how much they invest in fossil fuel companies, which investment managers they use and which funds specifically they are invested in. Eight dioceses responded with this information. 

For those that did not or could not provide this information, DeSmog used Companies House to search the 2018 Diocesan Financial Reports for all 42 Dioceses, the most recent publicly available, to find how much they have in investments. Some of the reports held all this information, for others this information was not available. 

For the dioceses whose financial reports stated which investment management company they invested with, how much they invested with them, and in which specific fund, we took this information and used the percentage of fossil fuel investments from that specific fund to calculate the percentage of fossil fuels the diocese was likely to have in its investments. 

Where information on specific funds, or specific amounts in each fund wasn’t available in the reports we took an average from charity funds listed on the investment management companies’ websites, as these were deemed the most probable funds for the church dioceses. Alternatively, if it wasn’t known which funds were for charities or information on fossil fuel investments was not available, we used the average of all the other investment management companies and funds for which there was information. 

In cases where the reports didn’t specify amounts in each fund, we assumed investments were split equally between investment managers that were listed. 

Below is a full list of all 42 Church of England dioceses, and DeSmog’s estimate for how much they each have invested in fossil fuel companies.

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