On the 3rd February, Healthy Planet are publishing their report “Unhealthy Investments”, co-authored with MedAct, The Climate and Health Council, Medsin and the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare.
This will be a crucial step towards further engagement on fossil fuel divestment from the health sector. I have been involved with the fossil fuel divestment movement over the past year, both with my university and Healthy Planet, after coming to terms with the enormity of climate change and the need for urgent action. Divestment offers a way to treat one of the root causes of accelerating climate change - the burning of fossil fuels - through moving investments away from the fossil fuel industry whose reserves hold over five times that which is safe to burn if we are to stay below the ‘safe’ 2 degree limit of global warming.
UK Universities currently hold around £5.2 billion worth of investments in fossil fuel companies through their endowment funds. However, it is not simply a matter of money, the main drive behind a lot of divestment decisions has been a moral one - a growing sense that if it is wrong to wreck the planet, then it is wrong to profit from that wreckage. Investing in fossil fules can be seen to contradict the fundamental principle to "first do no harm". So far 21 universities, 35 cities, 65 religious organisations and numerous other organisations from around the world including the British Medical Association have committed to divest. Just last October, the University of Glasgow became the first university in Europe to join the list of commitments.
Medical institutions and the health community have a unique awareness of climate change through its current and future impacts on human health, but also through the potential immense health co-benefits of tackling climate change such as reducing the disease burden of air pollution and increasing active transport. This gives an important dimension to the divestment dialogue and the engagement of medical schools and health organisations is sure to be very valuable. Akin to the health sector leading divestment from the tobacco industry, there is a similar narrative in the response to the health threat of climate change coupled with tactics utilised by the fossil fuel industry to thwart climate policy and mar public perception of the reality of climate science.
Come and join us in exploring this issue further on the 3rd February - more information is available here: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/unhealthy-investmentsshould-health-organisations-divest-from-fossil-fuels-tickets-15237083527
Eleanor Dow - deputy coordinator of Healthy Planet UK and medical student at the University of Edinburgh
Congratulations to everyone involved in writing and launching this excellent report. Fossil fuels are no longer an ethical investment, and the health sector can lead by example in divesting from them.
Great to see the Guardian coverage here: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/feb/04/health-sector-should-divest-from-fossil-fuels-medical-groups-say
Dr Frances Mortimer,
Medical Director, Centre for Sustainable Healthcare
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