Wellcome Trust defies campaigners to increase fossil fuel investment

Environmentalists say move puts health research funding charity 'on the wrong side of history'

The Wellcome Trust has defied fossil fuel divestment campaigners and increased its investments in coal, oil and gas over the last year.

Campaigners said the news was "hugely disappointing" and put the health research funding charity "on the wrong side of history" after the global climate change deal reached at UN talks in Paris earlier in December. The trust did sell its 142m stake in Shell, but increased other investments including those in the mining companies BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.