Wellcome Trust sells stakes in large oil and mining companies

For almost a decade the Trust resisted arguments that profiting from fossil fuel companies was incompatible with its objective of improving public health and wellbeing. Photograph: Elisabeth Blanchet/The Guardian

One of the UK’s biggest philanthropic investors has quietly sold its stakes in large oil and mining companies such BP and Shell.

The Wellcome Trust is one of the biggest funders of scientific research in the UK with a £38bn investment fund. For almost a decade it has resisted pressure from organisations, including the Guardian, who argued that profiting from fossil fuel companies was incompatible with the Trust’s objective of improving public health and wellbeing.