Authors launch fresh call for Baillie Gifford to divest from Israel and fossil fuels

More than 200 authors, including Sally Rooney, Maaza Mengiste and Max Porter, have signed a statement calling on Baillie Gifford to divest from all companies involved in Israel and the fossil fuel industry.

Asset manager Baillie Gifford sponsors literary events including Hay Festival, Cambridge Literary Festival, and The Baillie Gifford Prize for non-fiction. It invests in some companies that have been linked to the Israeli state, including Airbnb and the cement maker Cemex, while a small percentage of its investments also have links to the fossil fuel industry.   

A new statement, released by the Fossil Free Books (FFB) collective today, reads: “Until the firm agrees to divest, we call on all literary organisations, including festivals, to end their relationships with Baillie Gifford. If our demand is not met, we reaffirm our commitment to take action through disruption and by withdrawing our labour.”

It continues: “A literary industry free from fossil fuels, genocide and colonial violence is possible and it is necessary.” The full statement can be read here. 

Last year, more than 150 authors and book workers – including Greta Thunberg, Ali Smith and Gary Younge – signed statements calling on Edinburgh International Book Festival to cut ties with the controversial sponsor unless it divests fossil fuels. Later in the year, authors including Rebecca Solnit, Emma Dabiri and George Monbiot signed a second statement calling on Cheltenham Literature Festival to demand Baillie Gifford divest from the fossil fuel industry.

Today’s statement follows a Society of Authors extraordinary general meeting, during which members voted in support of a statement calling for industry-wide divestment from fossil fuels. During the same meeting, members voted against releasing a statement that condemned Israeli violence in Gaza by a slim margin. 

A Baillie Gifford spokesperson has called the FFB’s statement “seriously misleading”. According to the spokesperson, Baillie Gifford’s clients have approximately $19bn invested in Amazon, NVIDIA and Meta, whose “commercial dealings with the state of Israel are tiny in the context of their overall business”. 

The asset manager also has approximately $300m invested in Airbnb, Booking.com and Cemex, which have been identified as having either "connections to the Israeli state or activities in the occupied territories", Baillie Gifford said. The spokesperson continued: “We have been engaging with those companies. This work has been going on since the conflict broke out and in all three cases progress has been made.”

The spokesperson added that Baillie Gifford is “not a significant fossil fuel investor” and said that only 2% of its clients’ money is invested in companies with some business related to fossil fuels. 

In a statement posted on its website, Edinburgh International Book Festival confirmed that it will continue working with Baillie Gifford that the firm is "part of the solution in transitioning towards a more sustainable world" and that "information shared about them is misleading". 

The statement continues: "As the conflict in Gaza continues to unfold, so many of us want to challenge the status quo and register our horror. The Book Festival is where this can happen; it is where progressive and nuanced discussion can happen in a safe and respectful space. We welcome authors who take up the opportunities to speak to their concerns from the stage, and want the voices of activists to be part of these conversations."