Authors including Zadie Smith, Ali Smith and Katherine Rundell have called on the Edinburgh international book festival to drop any sponsor that invests in fossil fuels.
The lead sponsor of the literary festival, which is due to start on 12 August, is investment firm Baillie Gifford. Based on calculations by media outlet The Ferret, the company has up to £5bn invested in corporations that profit from fossil fuels. An open letter signed by a group of more than 50 authors and event chairs stated that these corporations are “making huge profits from global disaster, and hide behind esteemed cultural institutions, like the Edinburgh book festival, as sanction for its continued operations”.
The letter, which has also been signed by journalist and author Gary Younge and novelist Jessie Burton, asks that Baillie Gifford stops investing in fossil fuel companies. If the firm does not do so, it calls on the festival to find alternative sponsors for 2024. If these demands are not met, the letter asks all authors to boycott the festival next year.
This comes after climate activist Greta Thunberg pulled out of her scheduled appearance at the festival earlier this month, accusing Baillie Gifford of “greenwashing”.
Baillie Gifford is an Edinburgh-based independent investment partnership founded in 1908. The firm supports a number of initiatives in the literary world, including the sponsorship of some of the UK’s largest book festivals, including Hay and Cheltenham as well as Edinburgh. It also sponsors the UK’s most prestigious nonfiction prize, the Baillie Gifford prize, the most recent winner of which was Rundell.
Author Yara Rodrigues Fowler, who was named one of Granta’s Best of British Young Novelists in April, said that “in the midst of climate breakdown, Baillie Gifford is investing almost £5bn into the cause of this crisis”.
“Edinburgh international book festival allowing them to sponsor cultural events gives them a social licence to continue funding the destruction of our only home,” she added. “The book festival must adopt an ethical sponsorship policy and drop Baillie Gifford as a sponsor next year if they do not end these deadly investments.”
Guy Gunaratne, author of Mister, Mister, echoed these concerns. “In recent years the festival has gone a long way in facilitating conversations about climate and environmental justice, featuring some of the most prominent authors currently writing on the issue,” they said. “For these conversations to go beyond words on the page, they must send a clear message to their sponsors.”
In response to the letter, Nick Barley, festival director, thanked the authors for their letter. “We fully acknowledge your concerns about the devastating impact of fossil fuel exploitation on the climate: as individuals and as a charity we firmly agree. For these reasons we promise to think about your letter carefully. The last thing we want is to let anyone give the impression we are on opposite sides.”
“We ask that you allow us some time to consider your comments,” he added. “We’d also like to share with you the reasons why we have accepted this sponsorship agreement. Like all arts organisations in the UK, we wouldn’t have enough funds to operate without private sponsorship. We looked very closely at the work of Baillie Gifford and it seems to us that they are in fact investing in companies that are seeking to resolve the crisis.”
Barley proposed that the festival organisers and the signatories “talk at the festival – with each other and with audience members who share the same concerns.”
A representative from Baillie Gifford told the Guardian that the firm “has nothing further to add” to the statement it issued last week in response to Thunberg’s withdrawal, in which Baillie Gifford partner Nick Thomas said the company is “not a significant fossil fuel investor”.
However, the representative went on to say that the firm would like to draw attention to the notes at the end of the statement, specifically a section that reads: “Baillie Gifford describes its investment style as ‘long-term growth’. That means they look for companies with the potential to grow significantly over a decade or more. These companies tend to be using technology to provide society with progressive products, services, healthcare and materials.”
These notes highlight that 2% of Baillie Gifford’s clients’ money is invested in companies with more than 5% of their revenue coming from some form of fossil fuel activities, compared with the market average of 11%. “Baillie Gifford invests more than double – 5% of clients’ money – in companies dedicated to clean energy solutions”, the notes go on to say, is “transparent about how investment teams incorporate climate considerations into client portfolios”, and “has set out its climate commitments, including a net zero commitment for its own operations”.