The Guardian’s Keep it in the Ground campaign, which is calling on the world’s two largest health charities to move their investments out of fossil fuel companies, has amassed more than 200,000 supporters.
Launched by the paper’s editor-in-chief, Alan Rusbridger, in partnership with the global climate movement 350.org, it is asking the Wellcome Trust and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to divest from the top 200 oil, coal and gas companies within five years.
Rusbridger said: “The argument for a campaign to divest from the world’s most polluting companies is becoming an overwhelming one, on both moral and pragmatic grounds. It is a small but crucial step in the economic transition away from a global economy run on fossil fuels.”
Since the campaign started, other key institutions have made a commitment to divest from fossil fuels. In April, Syracuse University announced it is divesting its $1.18bn (£800m) portfolio from oil, coal and gas companies, making it the largest university in the world to do so. This was followed by the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.
The Church of England has since divested the £12m of its £9bn fund from tar sands and thermal coal. It has not moved out of all fossil fuels, but stated that if engagement with companies did not yield results, it would do so.
It is the first time the church has imposed climate change restrictions on its investment policy. The Rev Prof Richard Burridge, deputy chair of the ethical investment advisory group that undertook the review, described the move as part of its “moral responsibility”.
In April, the Guardian Media Group announced it would divest its £800m fund from coal, oil and gas, making it the largest organisation in the world to have made the commitment.
Prince Charles is also on the brink of ending his fossil fuel investments. The move came as seven UK based charitable foundations – including three trusts linked to the Sainsbury family – announced they were removing their fossil fuel investments and re-investing the money in the green economy.
The institutions join a fast-growing global divestment movement worldwide. More than 220 other institutions have committed to divest from fossil fuels, including pension funds, foundations, universities and religious organisations.
Divestment decisions are expected soon in the UK at the universities of Oxford, Edinburgh, Warwick and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where campaigns are ongoing. Swarthmore College in the United States decided on Saturday not to divest.
Signatories to the Guardian petition come from more than 170 countries with supporters including the actor Tilda Swinton, activist Bianca Jagger and chef Yotam Ottolenghi.
Ed Davey, the UK minister for energy and climate change, has backed the campaign, alongside high-profile scientists such as Prof Anne Glover, the former chief scientific adviser to the European commission and Lord May, the UK government’s former chief scientist.
“Given that Henry Wellcome essentially gave away his fortune in the hope of making the world better, I can only believe that he would be on the side of the people who want to keep the carbon in the ground,” May said.
The Wellcome Trust, which has an endowment of more than £18bn, is one of the world’s largest funders of medical research. In 2014, a minimum of £450m was invested in fossil fuel companies including Shell, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and BP. The trust has so far rejected the call to divest.
Its director, Jeremy Farrar, has argued that engagement with fossil fuel companies is more effective than divestment. “We use our access to company boards to press for more transparent and sustainable policies that support transition towards a low-carbon economy,” he wrote.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have more than $1.4bn (£1bn) invested in fossil fuel companies, according to a Guardian analysis of their most recent tax filings in 2013.
A spokesman for Bill Gates said: “We respect the passion of advocates for action on climate change, and recognise that there are many views on how best to address it. Bill is privately investing considerable time and resources in the effort [to develop clean energy].”
