The United Kingdom's workplace pension funds may be given more leeway to exit fossil fuel investments and put money in environmentally friendly opportunities at their clients' request, The Guardian reported June 18, citing a paper from the U.K.'s Department for Work and Pensions.

According to the report, the proposals found in the paper "Clarifying and Strengthening Trustees' Investment Duties" would allow the country's £1.5 trillion pension fund industry to divest shares in companies that work in coal, gas and oil industries if they deem that the assets are unlikely to yield profit as the world shifts toward a more low-carbon economy.

"Our proposed regulations are intended to reassure trustees that they can (and indeed should) take account of financially material risks, whether these stem from investee firms' traditional financial reporting, or from broader risks covered in non-financial reporting or elsewhere," the paper said.