Dear Bill and Melinda Gates and Gates Foundation Trustees,
We, the undersigned Gates Cambridge scholars and alumni, are writing this letter to urge the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to divest from fossil fuels. Today, divestment from fossil fuels is an ethical choice befitting the ideals of the Gates Foundation and its belief in humanitarian leadership.
There is no greater challenge facing humanity today than that of global climate change.
The scientific consensus is clear: to limit further warming between two thirds and four-fifths of currently known reserves of fossil fuels have to stay in the ground. We welcome the recent move by the Gates Foundation to double its current investments in renewable technology initiatives, but also insist that divesting from fossil fuels is a logical and necessary follow-on from this.
We are motivated to write this letter as recipients of Gates Cambridge Scholarships, which were endowed in 2001 by a generous donation to the University of Cambridge from the Gates Foundation. Our scholarship calls us to demonstrate leadership and a commitment to improving the lives of others, values shared by the Gates Foundation.
As scholars from across the world, we know that our home countries and communities will experience climate change in very different ways, but without doubt the impact will be significant. Many of us come from places that are already suffering the effects of the 0.8 degrees temperature rise in recent decades. We know far too well what another 1.2 or above will mean.
Climate change affects the poor the most. Disastrous climate change with extreme weather such as storms, droughts, floods and rising sea levels will drive hundreds of millions of people away from their homes and place their livelihoods in jeopardy.
Climate change undermines improvements in global health, as well as in local and international food security: areas the Gates Foundation has championed. As much recent research - including some of our own ongoing work - shows, a stable climate is essential for ensuring the well-being of humans across the world. Providing clean, reliable, energy not based on fossil fuels has the capacity to positively transform communities, reduce pollution, and enhance the health of impoverished populations.
The Gates Foundation aims to tackle dynamic and complex global problems and it has recognised climate change as precisely such a challenge. In this regard, the Foundation's investment in breakthrough energy technology is heartening and must be amplified by appropriate community action and policy. Investing in green technology alone is not enough; a multi-pronged approach is critical, and divestment from fossil fuels augments the Foundation's resolve to reduce global warming.
The importance of such an act has already been recognised by several prominent international organisations. The world's largest investment fund, the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund, recently decided to sell its shares in coal. And it is not alone: across the globe, the call for universities, institutions, and pension funds to divest is growing at a rapid pace. Among those who have already divested are the Rockefeller Foundation, Stanford University, banks, pension funds, and even whole cities. Divestment movements and other sustainable economic initiatives are growing and we as Gates Scholars want to ensure that they continue to do so.
Divestment by the Gates Foundation constitutes an act of leadership compelling others to make policy decisions appropriate to the moment's urgency. Divesting sends a powerful message to fossil fuel companies and places pressure upon these businesses to adopt environmentally sound practice. The Gates Foundation can and should use its power, money and privilege to pave the way for a more enlightened global economy.
Here at Cambridge, the University Council has recently convened a working group with the mandate to review how the University's endowment can be more closely aligned with principles of social and environmental sustainability. The review will explore a range of options, from divestment to positive reinvestment. This review is driven by a growing recognition that it is untenable to separate our monetary investments from the vision of the world we want to see. If we undertake research or studies in pursuit of a just future, then we need to ensure that our financial affiliations do not compromise the thrust of our academic work.
Responsible, well-informed, and philanthropically guided financial conduct is crucial in a world where the rise in temperatures will have a devastating impact upon human lives, ecosystems, and stable political systems. It is for this reason that 224,000 people have already signed the Guardian's campaign urging the Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust to keep fossil fuels in the ground. Our hope as beneficiaries of the Gates Foundation's philanthropy is that the Foundation will grasp this unique and historic moment to align its investment practice with the commitment to improving the lives of others in order to create a prosperous global society.
Our research and studies span the broad range of fields and degrees at the University of Cambridge. We come from sciences like polar studies and clean energy, social sciences like gender and politics, and the humanities like french thought and english literature. Yet all of us acknowledge the importance of divesting from fossil fuels as a step to create the equal and ethical future for the planet that the Gates Foundation also aspires to bring into being.
Signed,
Hanna Danbolt Ajer, MPhil Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, 2014
Chiara Avancini, PhD Psychology, 2014
Aliya Bagewadi, MPhil Land Economy, 2015
Geneviève Barrons, MPhil African Studies, 2013
Mia Bennett, MPhil Polar Studies, 2013
Sytske Besemer, PhD Criminology, 2008
Anjali Bhardwaj-Datta, PhD History, 2009
Libby Blanchard, MPhil, 2012, PhD Geography, 2013
Helena Billington, MPhil Epidemiology, 2014
Andrea Binder, PhD Politics and International Studies, 2014
Erica Cao, MPhil Music Studies, 2013
Hannah Carlan, MPhil Social Anthropology, 2013
Matthew Cassels, PhD Psychiatry, 2014
Edward Chouchani, PhD, 2013
Pepe Clarke, MPhil Conservation Leadership, 2014
Joshua Cohen, MPhil Computational Biology, 2013
Camille Cole, MPhil Historical Studies, 2013
Margaret Comer, PhD Archaeology, 2015
Sarah Cooley, MPhil Polar Studies, 2015
Adam Cowden, MPhil Planning, Growth and Regeneration, 2014
Ragnhild Freng Dale, PhD Polar Studies, 2013
Sonya Davey, MPhil Geographical Research, 2014
Jacqueline Davis, PhD Psychology, 2014
Rafael Dernbach, PhD German, 2014
Elizabeth Dzeng, PhD Sociology, 2007, 2011
Irene Falk, PhD Clinical Neurosciences, 2014
Luke Fletcher, PhD Politics and International Studies, 2010
Maximilian Fries, PhD Oncology, 2013
Catherine Gascoigne, PhD in Law, 2013
Emily Gladden, MPhil Criminology, 2011
Bérénice Guyot-Réchard, PhD, History, 2009
Kerstin Göpfrich, PhD, Physics, 2013
Philip Graff, PhD Physics, 2012
Ana Maria Guay, MPhil Classics, 2015
Jodi Gustafson, MPhil Conservation Leadership, 2015
Victoria Herrmann, PhD Polar Studies, 2014
Isaac Holeman, PhD Management Studies, 2013
Jonathan Hollander, PhD Materials Science, 2011
Timothy Humpton, PhD Biochemistry 2014
Asiya Islam, PhD Sociology, 2015
Noah Isserman, MPhil, PhD, 2008
Jose Manuel Izquierdo, PhD Music, 2013
Evelyn Jagoda, MPhil, 2015
Jonathan Kanen, PhD Psychology, 2015
Drasko Kascelan, PhD Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, 2015
Shraddha Kaur, PhD Biological Sciences, 2015
Michelle Kelley, MPhil Scientific Computing, 2014
Anna Kendrick, PhD Spanish, 2011
Tae-Yeoun Keum, MPhil Political Thought and Intellectual History, 2009
Eszter Kovacs, PhD Geography, 2010
Bo Shiun Lai, PhD Pathology, 2013
Devinn Lambert, MPhil Biological Sciences, 2014
Judith Lebiez, PhD in German, 2013
Noa Levin, MPhil European Literature and Culture, 2014
Sheina Lew-Levy, MPhil Human Evolution, 2014
Julia Fan Li, MPhil, PhD Innovative Finance, 2008
Jeffrey Lockhart, MPhil Multi-Disciplainary Gender Studies, 2014
Stephanie G Lopez, MPhil in Latin American Studies, 2015
Mathew Syriac Madhavacheril, BA Aff. Natural Sciences (Physics), 2009
Luke Maishman, PhD, Pathology, 2010
Amanda Marzullo, LL.M., Law, 2011
Stephanie Mawson, PhD History 2014
Oliver McMillan, PhD Engineering, 2014
Alice Meyer, PhD English 2013
Marc Mierowsky, PhD English, 2011
Evan Miles, PhD Polar Studies, 2012
Ananya Mishra, MPhil Modern South Asian Studies, 2014
Tisha Mirza, PhD Pathology, 2012
Paulo Savaget Nascimento, PhD Engineering, 2015
Emma Nicholls, PhD in History, 2014
Japinder Nijjer, PhD Applied Maths, 2015
Afrodita Nikolova, PhD, Education
Cillian Ó Fathaigh, PhD French Thought, 2014
Ian Ostericher, PhD Archaeology, 2015
Annika Pecchia-Bekkum, PhD Medicine, 2014
Arazi Pinhas, PhD in Astronomy, 2015
Andrey Poletayev, MPhil Physics, 2011
Victor Roy, PhD Sociology, 2013
Christopher Rae, PhD Biological Science, 2015
Elsa M. Trevino Ramirez, PhD Latin American Studies, 2010
Alexandra Reider, MPhil Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic 2013
Alejandro Rivera Rivera, MPhil Engineering for Sustainable Development, 2015
Rachel Robertson, MPhil Philosophy, 2014
Rebecca Saunderson, MPhil, 2013
Amirah Sequeira, MPhil History and Philosophy of Science, 2014
Evandro da Silveira da Silva, MPhil Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, 2014
Niamh Skelly, MPhil in Social and Developmental Psychology, 2011
Dakota Spear, MPhil Zoology, 2015
Rose Spear, PhD Materials Science and Metallurgy, 2011
Zoe Stewart, PhD Clinical Biochemistry, 2013
Tara Suri, MPhil Multi Disciplinary Gender Studies, 2013
Dan Stori, PhD in Medicine, 2012
Jan Trnka, PhD Biochemistry, 2004
Collin VanBuren, PhD Earth Sciences, 2013
Callie Vandewiele, PhD, Latin American Studies, 2014
Andrea Cabrero Vilatela, MPhil in Micro and Nanotechnology Enterprise, 2011
Naomi Woo, MPhil Performance Studies, 2013
Songqiao Yao, Mphil Geography, 2014