The Geological Society Update on financial links with fossil fuel and arms corporations

The document provides an update on The Geological Society's financial ties to fossil fuel and arms corporations. While it acknowledges a new responsible investment policy from September 2020 that excludes certain arms and high-emissions fossil fuels, it highlights a significant decrease in investment transparency between 2015 and 2019. The report details extensive corporate sponsorship from oil and gas companies and argues that these ties, along with investments in companies like Shell and Total, are incompatible with the Paris Agreement's temperature goals.

• The Geological Society updated its responsible investment policy in September 2020 to exclude companies involved in the production of illegal or indiscriminate weaponry, those deriving material revenue from socially harmful activities (such as arms or alcohol), and companies deriving material revenue from thermal coal or high emissions oil extraction, such as tar sands.
• Despite the new policy, the Society held energy sector investments in Shell, Total, and NextEra in Q1 2020, all of which have major fossil fuel holdings.
• There has been a substantial decline in the transparency of the Society's investment disclosures, with named holdings dropping from over 75% of tradable assets in 2015 to approximately 11.5% in 2019.
• The Society maintains extensive corporate sponsorship from the oil and gas industry; BP and Halliburton are platinum sponsors, and 15 of 23 bronze sponsors are linked to the sector.
• Educational materials produced by the Society continue to be sponsored by fossil fuel companies, specifically Statoil (now Equinor) for 'The Rock Cycle' and Centrica for 'Plate Tectonics'.
• SGR argues that the Society's financial ties to fossil fuel companies are inconsistent with the Paris Agreement, noting that many of these companies' ambitions do not align with limiting global warming to 2°C or below and have not committed to Science Based Targets initiative criteria.
• The Society has taken some steps toward the energy transition, including renaming its Petroleum Group to the Energy Group, liquidating the Petroleum Geology Conferences joint venture in early 2020, and focusing its 2021 science programme on the Energy and Materials Transition.

APA

Scientists for Global Responsibility (2021). The Geological Society Update on financial links with fossil fuel and arms corporations. https://www.sgr.org.uk/sites/default/files/2021-06/The_Geological_Society_progress_report.pdf

Chicago

Scientists for Global Responsibility. The Geological Society Update on financial links with fossil fuel and arms corporations. 2021. https://www.sgr.org.uk/sites/default/files/2021-06/The_Geological_Society_progress_report.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Scientists for Global Responsibility |title=The Geological Society Update on financial links with fossil fuel and arms corporations |date=February 2021 |url=https://www.sgr.org.uk/sites/default/files/2021-06/The_Geological_Society_progress_report.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{scientistsforglobalresponsibility2021geological, author = {{Scientists for Global Responsibility}}, title = {{The Geological Society Update on financial links with fossil fuel and arms corporations}}, institution = {Scientists for Global Responsibility}, year = {2021}, month = feb, url = {https://www.sgr.org.uk/sites/default/files/2021-06/The_Geological_Society_progress_report.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }