Fossil Free Books

Immediate release. Friday 24 May 2024

BREAKING: Hay Festival suspends sponsorship from Baillie Gifford after pressure from industry workers

  • In response to the demands made by Fossil Free Books, Hay Festival has announced it will suspend its sponsorship from Baillie Gifford.
  • Authors have withdrawn from Hay Festival, including Dawn Butler MP, Baroness Shami Chakrabarti CBE, Farhana Yamin, Grace Blakeley, Nish Kumar, Charlotte Church, Noreen Masud and others.
  • Baillie Gifford invests between £2.5 and £5 billion in the fossil fuel industry[1] and is one of the main investors in illegal Israeli settlements according to NGOs, as well as investing nearly £10billion in companies linked to Israel's defence, tech and cybersecurity industries.[2]
  • 800+ authors and book workers - including publishers and booksellers - signed Fossil Free Books’ statement[3] calling on asset manager and arts sponsor Baillie Gifford to divest from fossil fuel companies and companies that profit from Israeli occupation, apartheid and genocide.
  • Fossil Free Books members available for comment and broadcast interviews: fossilfreebooksuk@gmail.com and +44 7486 709 336

Hay Festival announced today that it is suspending its sponsorship from Baillie Gifford.

A Fossil Free Books organiser said:

Hay Festival is right to listen to the concerns of hundreds of book workers who are working to create fossil-free and genocide-free festivals. Hay must now develop a fundraising policy that rules out any future sponsorship by companies that invest or profit from the fossil fuel industry, Israeli occupation, apartheid or genocide, and any other human rights abuses.

This announcement shows the power we have when we unite as workers. It’s proof of the change that is possible when we remain steadfast and unafraid in our solidarity with Palestinians and all communities subjected to human rights abuses, including at the hands of fossil fuel companies.

Our primary demand remains that Baillie Gifford divest. By their own admission, Baillie Gifford invests in fossil fuel companies, and companies with links to Israeli occupation, apartheid and genocide in Palestine.

Nine UK literary festivals and one prize are still sponsored by Baillie Gifford. Until they divest we continue call on authors to withdraw from or take creative action at these events.

We call on all remaining Baillie Gifford-sponsored festivals to join our call for the firm to divest.

Three days ago, Norway’s second largest asset manager, Storebrand, divested $141m of holdings in IBM over links to Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians[4]. According to the Global Fossil Fuels Divestment database, 1,615 institutions around the world with $40 trillion assets under management have committed to divesting from fossil fuels.[5]

  1. The £5bn figure is according to reporting by Scottish investigative outlet The Ferret. The £2.5bn figure is according to research by German NGO Urgewald. ↩
  2. This figure is according to research by Arts Workers for Palestine Scotland. ↩
  3. Read the Fossil Free Books statement and see a full list of signatories. ↩
  4. https://amwatch.com/AMNews/article17083628.ece ↩
  5. See the Global Fossil Fuel Divestment Database ↩

ENDS

Notes to editors

Fossil Free Books members available for comment and broadcast interviews: fossilfreebooksuk@gmail.com and +44 7486 709 336

Full letter and list of signatories.

UK literary festivals and prize sponsored by Baillie Gifford

Festivals and prizes sponsored by Baillie Gifford: Hay Festival, Cheltenham Literature Festival, Edinburgh International Books Festival, Cambridge Literary Festival, Stratford Literary Festival, Boswell Book Festival, Borders Book Festival, Wigtown Book Festival, Henley Literary Festival, Wimbledon BookFest, and The Baillie Gifford Prize for non-fiction.

Baillie Gifford’s investments in fossil fuel companies

Baillie Gifford have between £2.5-£5bn invested in fossil fuel companies (according to investigative reporting by The Ferret, and research by Urgewald, a German environmental and human rights NGO.

This includes shares worth:

  • $524m in British fossil fuel giant, Shell*
  • $267m in Norwegian oil company, Equinor
  • $77m in Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation
  • $726m in Brazilian oil company, Petrobras
  • $911m in Japanese coal company, Reliance Industries

* A Baillie Gifford representative has contacted us to say they divested from Shell three years ago - we have put Baillie Gifford in touch with Urgewald so that they can investigate their data. We are waiting for the results of that conversation.

CNOOC

CNNOC is the minority stakeholder in the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), a proposed 1,443-kilometre pipeline that will transport oil from Hoima in Uganda to Tanga in Tanzania. If EACOP goes ahead, approximately 13,000 households will lose their land. Community representatives opposing EACOP report being harassed and forced to sign consent forms without explanation, and over 50,000 people have been waiting for over three years for compensation. Others speaking out about the social and environmental consequences of the project have been intimidated and arrested. Currently, 24 banks and 29 insurers have said they will not provide financing to the pipeline. We ask Baillie Gifford to do the same.

Petrobras

Petrobas is a partially state-owned Brazilian oil company currently seeking permission to drill in the Amazon basin. This is opposed on the ground by many Indigenous groups in Brazil. Petrobras is one of the top 10 companies for projected fossil fuel development and exploration for the period 2022-2030 and the CEO has said he is prepared for the firm to be “the last to produce oil in the world.”

Royal Dutch Shell

RDS stands accused of severe environmental and international human rights violations in both the Niger Delta and South Africa. Since the 1950s, Shell has extracted fossil fuels in the Niger Delta, causing devastating oil spills, harmful gas flaring, and widespread water pollution. Resistance to Shell has been met with violence. In a stark display of corporate disregard for human life, in the 1990s, Shell was accused of complicity with the Nigerian military,​​ leading to the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa, an environmental activist, and other innocent individuals.

Equinor

Equinor is a Norwegian oil company and a majority stakeholder of Rosebank oil field, in the North Sea in Scotland. Individuals, grassroots groups, and organisations across Scotland are campaigning to stop Equinor’s massive Rosebank oil field.