A group of student doctors have asked health research funders to stop investing in fossil fuels.

The open letter which asked the Wellcome Trust and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to remove funding was published in the Guardian last week.

The authors said the global health threat from climate change and the damage to human health from fossil fuels mean there is an obvious moral need for the health sector not to help fund it.

The letter comes after the Guardian’s ‘Keep it in the Ground’ campaign which also asks the Wellcome Trust and Gates Foundation to divest.

The authors said the relationship between the health sector and fossil fuels is similar to how it used to be with the tobacco industry.

They wrote: “Thirty years ago, health professionals declared investments in the tobacco industry violated their responsibility to protect and promote health.

“The threat to public health posed by fossil fuels is even greater.”