Guardian Newspaper Targets Gates Foundation Over Oil Assets

The London-based Guardian newspaper has taken aim at two leading charities—the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK’s Wellcome Trust—pressuring them to divest from fossil fuel-related assets. 

Earlier this week, the publication launched an online petition calling for the foundations to sell off holdings in the 200 largest oil companies within the next five years. The initiative has already gathered more than 100,000 signatures, according the Guardian’s campaign blog. 

“Your investments in fossil fuels are putting this progress at great risk, by undermining your long term ambitions.” —the Guardian to the Gates Foundation & Wellcome Trust 

Opening the year at $44 billion, the Gates Foundation ranked as the largest charitable fund worldwide. Stocks in major non-renewable energy companies accounted for $1.4 billion of that as of the foundation’s most recent filing in 2013, the campaign website stated. 

The petition called on the Gates and Wellcome funds to follow the lead of “many philanthropic organizations” and divest from fossil fuels.

“Your organizations have made a huge contribution to human progress and equality by supporting scientific research and development projects,” the document stated. “Yet your investments in fossil fuels are putting this progress at great risk, by undermining your long term ambitions.”

Last June, the Gates Foundation demonstrated its willingness to divest in certain circumstances. The fund dropped its holdings of UK security company G4S. The giant firm had drawn criticism for its operations in Israel, where—according to a number of media and activist agencies—G4S ran prisons in which children were held without trial and tortured. 

Under public and investor pressure, the company announced its own divestment from Israeli operations over the next two-and-a-half years.  

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