Highland MSP calls for arms and tobacco investment re-think
A Highlands Independent MSP has called on parliamentary authorities to remove investments in fossil fuels, tobacco and the arms industry from the MSPs’ pension fund.
In answer to a question from Mr John Finnie, it was today revealed that almost one-tenth of the Scottish Parliamentary Pension Scheme is invested in those three industries.
Mr Finnie asked the Scottish Parliament Corporate Body (SPCB) to provide MSPs with “an early report” on prospects for divesting from holdings in socially and environmentally destructive industries.
David Stewart MSP, answering on behalf of the SPCB, admitted that 4% of the pension fund was invested in oil and gas, 1% in oil and gas equipment and distribution, 2% in tobacco and 4% in the arms industry.
He agreed to write to the trustees of the fund, asking them to “consider the matter in much more detail”.
Mr Finnie said: “It looks like rank hypocrisy when the parliament claims to work for a healthy, sustainable and peaceful Scotland, but its money is going into bankrolling the very opposite.
“As Desmond Tutu has said, nobody should profit from the rising temperatures, seas and human suffering of climate change. Nor should we benefit from the sale of weapons of war, or from the cigarettes that kill 13,000 Scots a year.
“Glasgow University is leading the way in divesting from fossil fuels – the first university in Europe to do that – and I’m hugely proud of the Scottish student campaigners that made that happen.
“Now the Scottish Parliament should follow Glasgow’s example. I want an ethical investment policy that takes our money out of fossil fuels, tobacco and weapons, and puts it into socially useful activities like clean energy instead.”
