As future doctors we call on the Wellcome Trust and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to remove their investments from fossil fuel companies. We share a responsibility to our future patients to address unmitigated climate change – described as “the biggest health threat of the 21st century” – and to advocate for a transition to a healthier, more sustainable economy. The British Medical Association has already divested and many other medical and health organisations are following suit. Continued investment in the fossil fuel industry violates health workers’ obligations to do no harm and grants the industry the social licence to explore and exploit still further reserves, resulting in catastrophic global warming.
Of currently listed fossil fuel reserves 80% must remain unburned to keep surface temperature warming below 2C above pre-industrial levels. Climate change threatens health both directly through frequent flooding, heatwaves and natural disasters, and indirectly by worsening food insecurity, conflict and mental health. Fossil fuels also directly harm workers and local communities by toxic exposures, air pollution and local environmental degradation. A transition to renewable energy generation and low-carbon, active transport would prevent millions of deaths worldwide from cardiovascular, respiratory, and other diseases.
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