According to the International Energy Agency, there can be no more new investments in fossil fuels if we want a liveable future. (1)

Baillie Gifford investment firm - lead sponsor of this festival - has up to £5bn invested in fossil fuel corporations. (2)

These corporations fuel the climate crisis. They’re making huge profits from global disaster, and hide behind esteemed cultural institutions, like the Edinburgh Book Festival, as sanction for their continued operations.

The only meaningful change is divestment. I call on Baillie Gifford to divest its £5bn from fossil fuel companies. If it does not do so, I call on the Edinburgh Book Festival to find alternative sponsors for 2024. If it does not, I call on all authors to commit to boycotting the festival in 2024.

I stand in solidarity with all people harmed by the climate crisis, including people in the global south who have lost their homes, their livelihoods and been forced to migrate. I stand in solidarity with people in the UK, including those whose homes have been flooded, whose health has been damaged by air pollution, and those who continue to suffer the dire consequences of corporate greed and political negligence.

(1) https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/may/18/no-new-investment-in-fossil-fuels-demands-top-energy-economist

(2) An estimation based on Baillie Gifford’s TCFD Climate Report which states their investments in companies which make more than 5% of their revenues from oil, gas and thermal coal mining and sale activities:https://www.bailliegifford.com/literature-library/corporate-governance/baillie-gifford-co-tcfd-climate-report/

Signed