Save the Children UK has rejected a £750,000 donation from an international energy firm on the grounds that it would breach the charity’s recently adopted policies on accepting money linked to fossil fuels.
Neptune Energy made the donation instead to the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Rescue Committee, according to reports in The Telegraph newspaper today.
The donation will be used to address the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.
Save the Children UK said: “We decided earlier this month that we would stop taking donations as soon as possible from companies whose core business is in fossil fuels.
“The only exception during a transitional period before this policy comes into force would be a large donation to our flexible Children’s Emergency Fund.
“The reason is that this will be used in a crisis for which relatively little money is available, such as in the Horn of Africa.
“We have changed our policy following a lead given by children all over the world who have protested about the threat the climate crisis poses to their future.”
Neptune said a separate scheme to match donations for Ukraine made by its employees had raised about £30,000.