Authors threaten boycott of Edinburgh book festival over sponsors’ fossil fuel links
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 started 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, the Guardian reported.
This comes after climate activist Greta Thunberg pulled out of her scheduled appearance at the festival earlier this month, accusing Baillie Gifford of “greenwashing”.
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.
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.”
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.”