Edinburgh Science Festival to ban financial links with fossil fuel firms
Organisers of the Edinburgh Science Festival are to impose a blanket ban on sponsorship deals with fossil fuel companies – claiming the oil and gas sector is “not moving fast enough” to meet climate change targets.
They will sever links with firms backing the 2019 event due to feeling “increasingly compromised” by the conflict between accepting sponsorship from fossil fuel companies and programming events scrutinising climate change.
The move has been revealed days after activists in the “Science Unstained” campaign met organisers to protest about newly-announced sponsorship deals with Exxon and Total for educational projects.
Science festival director Simon Gage said: “We routinely review our sponsorship policy and recently decided we will no longer seek sponsorship from fossil fuel companies.
“With climate change issues ever-present and urgent, we feel increasingly compromised by the conflict between accepting sponsorship from fossil fuel companies and programming events that scrutinise the main causes of climate change.
“The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change calls for a dramatic and immediate reduction in the amount of fossil fuels consumed if we’re to keep global warming to no more than 1.5C. This calls for a step-change in the way the world uses fossil fuel and the way companies that extract them operate.
“Whilst we see change happening in the oil and gas sector and appreciate the demands on them are complex, we’re of the view that it’s not moving fast enough to meet IPCC targets, and that there’s a conflict between their behaviour and the underlying science.
“Climate change is an urgent threat of unprecedented magnitude. We’re committed to doing all we can to bring it to the world’s attention.”
The Science Unstained campaign had accused the festival’s organisers of “accepting money made from the wilful destruction of our climate.”
Activist Tara Wight: “Following a year of campaigning, we welcome the decision by Edinburgh Science.
“By being associated with science outreach events, fossil fuel companies aim to clean up their image and present themselves as responsible organisations in alignment with scientific consensus on climate change.
“They’ve known about the science of climate change for decades but, instead of taking action, they’ve continued to expand and intensify the extraction of fossil fuels.
“Sponsoring educational and cultural organisations is a cheap and effective means of improving their public image while continuing to destroy the earth. The decision by Edinburgh Science to drop fossil fuel sponsorship is an important and necessary step for upholding their scientific integrity.”