Wellcome director speaks out against call to divest fossil fuel

The Wellcome Trust director Jeremy Farrar has rejected The Guardian newspaper’s call for the trust to divest from fossil fuels, instead saying the organisation embraces the influence it wields as an investor.

“This strategy recognises the unavoidable fact that fossil fuels are essential to the economy, life and health, and will remain so for decades under any conceivable scenario,” Farrar wrote in The Guardian on 25 March.

Farrar added that the trust made its investments on a case-by-case basis and was confident its engagement with company boards has impact. “When we are not satisfied that a company is engaging with our concerns, we are perfectly prepared to sell,” he said.