Investment firm Baillie Gifford has decided to end all its sponsorships of literary festivals following calls for the firm to divest from fossil fuels and companies involved in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. This move impacts major events like the Hay Festival, Cheltenham Literature Festival, and others which had partnerships with the firm.

Under increasing pressure from more than 800 authors and writers, the company has withdrawn its financial support. The Edinburgh, Hay, Borders, Cheltenham, and Wimbledon BookFest were among the festivals confirming the separation from Baillie Gifford, reported various sources including The Guardian.

Read: Literary coalition call on Baillie Gifford to cut ties with Israeli defence on Nakba anniversary

During this year’s London Book Fair, former Edinburgh International Book Festival director Nick Barley had said that he did not personally feel attacked by a 2023 boycott of the event, but admitted that he agreed Baillie Gifford “should do everything it can to change its investments.” He added that the final decision lies with the pensioners who choose how their savings are invested. Ultimately, Barley stated that writers have the right to criticise any organisers and that they never attempted to obstruct them.

Coincidentally, the termination comes as the United Nations also called for a ban on fossil fuel advertising in the same week.

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Fossil Free Books (FFB), in an email to their supporters, detailed their ongoing campaign against Baillie Gifford’s investment practices: “In the wake of a concerted campaign by Fossil Free Books pressuring asset manager and prominent sponsor of many UK literary festivals Baillie Gifford to divest from fossil fuels and companies profiting from Israeli occupation, apartheid and genocide, the firm has announced that it is ending sponsorship of all book festivals.”

Read: Writers boycott Hay Festival over sponsorship concerns

The statement from FFB continued to outline the scope of Baillie Gifford’s controversial investments and the firm’s resistance to divestment pressures: “Over the last eighteen months, research by multiple human rights NGOs has shown that Baillie Gifford holds investments worth billions in fossil fuel companies and companies with links to Israeli occupation, apartheid and genocide. Our research into Baillie Gifford’s investments is ongoing and we expect to release some significant news regarding the firm’s problematic investments in the coming days.”

Read: Edinburgh Literary Festival ends ties with Baillie Gifford

The email also highlighted the broader implications of their campaign and the response from the literary community: “Two weeks after we launched our statement calling on Baillie Gifford to divest from these companies, it has now been signed by over 800 authors and other book workers. This is a significant step forward for authors, academics, editors, translators, publishers, journalists and festival staff organising as workers, and for international solidarity with Palestine.”

Fossil Free Books voiced concerns over the backlash faced by authors involved in the campaign and reiterated their commitment to creating safe spaces at literary festivals, encouraging dialogue and addressing the nexus of arts funding and ethical investment.

Writers and activist groups have subsequently criticised the investment firm’s move, saying it “would rather divest from literary festivals than genocide, and fossil fuels.”

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While Baillie Gifford has not released a statement since ending its sponsorships, the company had previously told How To Be Books that it felt FFB’s comments were “misleading”. A spokesperson added: “The suggestion that Baillie Gifford is a large investor in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is seriously misleading. It is based on conflating two different types of exposure.

“We are large investors in several multinational technology companies, such as Amazon, NVIDIA and Meta (our clients have approx. $19bn invested in these three), that have commercial dealings with the state of Israel that are tiny in the context of their overall business. Practically every consumer and investor in the developed world is using the services of these companies,” they continued.

Baillie Gifford also emphasised their relatively small investment in fossil fuels, “We are not a significant fossil fuel investor. Only 2% of our clients’ money is invested in companies with some business related to fossil fuels. This compares to the market average of 11%. Of those companies, some have already moved most of their business away from fossil fuels, and many are helping to drive the transition to clean energy.”