Go Fossil Free
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Leading health charities should divest from fossil fuels, say climate scientists
Senior scientific figures, including influential climate researcher Michael Mann, have called on the world’s two leading health charities to review their fossil fuel investments in light of a series of Guardian investigations published this week.
The Big Carbon investigations uncovered examples of industry misinformation campaigns, legal transgressions and alleged human rights abuses.
Mann, along with other senior scientists and commentators, said the immense moral authority of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust was in danger of being undermined by their continued investments in companies with such questionable corporate practices.
The series of investigations revealed:
• According to internal documents, oil company Royal Dutch Shell assumes a rise in global temperatures of 4C, twice the 2C limit widely considered the threshold for dangerous climate change – in contrast to public pronouncements from Shell’s chief executive that the company is committed to tackling climate change.
• Oil services company Schlumberger has received a record-breaking fine for repeated and deliberate breaches of US sanctions against Iran and Sudan.
• Oil giant BP pursued and signed a partnership with Russian state oil and gas giant Rosneft, which is currently subject to sanctions for its actions in Ukraine and the Crimea. Rosneft has also been characterised as one of the most expansionist fossil fuel extractors in the world, and is aggressively pursuing Arctic oil extraction.
• BP is also accused of serious human right breaches in Colombia. A trade union leader, Gilberto Torres, is bringing a high court action in London against the company over its alleged complicity in his kidnap and torture for organising a strike to try and close a major oil pipeline there. He was held for 42 days in 2002. BP denies the claims and said it will “vigorously” defend the case.
• US coal giant Peabody Energy was accused by international health experts of exploiting the Ebola health crisis in order to justify the continued extraction of coal.
A Guardian analysis of the $43bn (£27.5bn) Gates Foundation’s most recent tax filing in 2013 found that it held $1.4bn of investments in the world’s biggest fossil fuel companies, including $372m in BP, $5.5m in Shell and $1.7m in Peabody Energy. Wellcome’s $28bn endowment holds $229m in Shell, $191m in BP and $185 in Schlumberger. It does not hold any direct investment in Peabody Energy.
The investigations are part of the Guardian’s Keep it in the Ground campaign which is calling on both charities to divest from fossil fuels. Both have made a huge contribution to human wellbeing through their work on health research and development.
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Professor Michael Mann, who produced the hugely influential “hockey-stick graph” report on global temperature warming that was published by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report in 2001, said he was disappointed that the asset trust that holds the Gates Foundation endowment had declined to review its investments in light of the stories. “Gates has done so much good work in other areas, but on climate he disappoints,” he said.
“I do indeed support the Keep it in the Ground campaign. Preserving the environment for future generations is a moral imperative, and if we are to achieve that goal, we must rapidly ramp down our burning of fossil fuels. Continuing to finance fossil fuel corporations, including through stock ownership, is inconsistent with that goal.”
Martin McKee, professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the transgressions revealed by the Guardian were odious, yet they paled against the existing moral imperative to stop the fossil fuel industry further destabilising the climate.
“These are clearly horrendous activities and do add to the argument for divestment from fossil fuels. But this is not new and not restricted to the fossil fuel industry. Human rights violations don’t change the fundamental arguments for divestment. Firstly, that investment by scientific organisations fails to send out a consistent message on action on climate change and secondly, it’s actually a bad investment,” he said.
Professor Anne Glover, former chief scientific adviser to the European commission, said maintaining a safe climate was becoming an increasingly distant goal.
Scientists’ urgent call to divest …
“I cannot see how we can achieve this by business as usual so we must persuade fossil fuel companies to adjust their future business plans. Discussion doesn’t seem to be having much impact, with Shell announcing plans to drill for oil in the Arctic. Major investors have an opportunity to demonstrate global leadership and exert the pressure that fossil fuel companies may find it easier to respond to,” she said.
Tom Burke, an environmental policy adviser for Rio Tinto (one of the companies from which the Guardian is arguing the charities should divest), said the Guardian’s investigative series “certainly does increase the pressure”.
“The Wellcome and the Gates Foundations are very big players,” he said. “They also claim a moral authority by acting for the public good. And you are raising questions about whether their ability to act for the public good with one hand is being undermined by what they are doing with the other hand.”
Professor Danny Harvey, convening lead author for the IPCC, said: “To invest in fossil fuels is to promote action that will eventually lead to catastrophic global warming, and will be profitable in the long run only if the world utterly fails to respond to the greatest threat that exists to the future wellbeing of the human race.”
Dr Kevin Trenberth, who was a lead author on the 2001 and 2007 IPCC reports which won a Nobel Prize, said: “Climate change is a serious problem in the longer term, and the best way to address it is to limit fossil fuel use: keep the fossil fuels in the ground. It is important for foundations to take a responsible view of this problem.”
A spokesman from Bill Gates’s personal office did not comment on the Guardian investigations but added: “Bill is privately investing considerable time and resources in this effort. We respect the passion of advocates for action on climate change, and recognise that there are many views on how best to address it.”
The Wellcome Trust also declined to comment on the corporate practices of the companies it has a stake in. A spokeswoman said: “When managing the investment portfolio that funds our mission, we consider companies’ social and environmental responsibilities carefully and engage to encourage them to take these seriously. We do not comment on individual companies.”
