The BMJ’s campaign for divestment from fossil fuels is aimed at health professionals and medical organisations, since divestment is one way of exerting influence on politicians and industry on behalf of our patients and the public. We seek your commitment and invite you to sign our online declaration of intent to divest from fossil fuels (below). We urge you to follow up your commitment by implementing divestment in your personal finances and in the medical organisations that you belong to.
We urge medical organisations to join us in taking a lead to create better health through divestment. We will allow medical organisations to record when they have successfully implemented divestment.
Often, individuals and organisations are motivated to divest but don’t know how. In collaboration with the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change (which the BMA and BMJ help to fund) we offer guidance to help you successfully divest.
Please indicate your commitment to divesting from fossil fuels by signing the declaration, either on an individual basis as a health professional or on behalf of your medical or healthcare organisation.
See the list of commitments to divestment from fossil fuels.
You are also welcome to send a rapid response to our divestment editorial, or to email us at [email protected].
Reading list
1. Yamey G, Sridhar D, Abbasi K. The extricable links between health, wealth, and profits. BMJ2018;363:k4418. doi:10.1136/bmj.k4418. pmid:30348639
2. Law A, Duff D, Saunders P, Middleton J, McCoy D. Medical organisations must divest from fossil fuels. BMJ2018;363:k5163. doi:10.1136/bmj.k5163. pmid:30541749
3. Smith R. Actions that health professionals can take to counter the climate emergency and improve their health. BMJ Opinion, 8 November 2019. https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2019/11/08/actions-that-health-professionals-can-take-to-counter-the-climate-emergency-and-improve-their-health/