A SCOTTISH environmental campaign group is staging a mass protest urging a pension fund to divest “from genocide and climate disaster”.
Friends of the Earth Scotland (FoE) are hosting an “unhappy birthday party” in Glasgow, outside of the Royal Concert Hall, as the Strathclyde Pension Fund celebrates its 50th anniversary on Thursday.
Campaigners are calling for the fund to stop investing in fossil fuel companies that are fuelling the climate crisis and the genocide in Gaza, including Shell, TotalEnergies, and Italian oil giant Eni.
Sally Clark, member of FoE, said: “With 2024 confirmed as the hottest year on record and extreme weather devastating millions of lives around the world, it has never been more urgent for Strathclyde Pension Fund to stop gambling with our lives.
"Instead [they should] invest in a future worth having by funding genuine solutions like home insulation, social housing and renewable energy that can benefit communities here in Scotland and around the world and ensure we have a liveable planet for everyone.”
According to investment figures from June 2025, Strathclyde Pension Fund invests £43.8m in Eni, £11.2m in TotalEnergies, and £10.7m in Royal Dutch Shell. An additional £9m is directly invested in Israeli companies.
The fund has been consistently urged to cut ties with companies fuelling the climate crisis and genocide in Gaza. In 2021, Glasgow City councillors voted in favour of divesting the fund from fossil fuels, though timelines for such divestment and strategies for ending investments have never been implemented.
Groups set to take part in the protest include Unison Scotland, Glasgow Trade Unions Council, Time to Divest Glasgow, Friends of the Earth Scotland, Extinction Rebellion Glasgow, and Divest Strathclyde.
Unison’s Stuart Graham said: “It has now been four years since Strathclyde Pension Fund promised to cut ties with companies fuelling climate breakdown, but still no action has been taken. And now some of the same companies are literally fuelling the genocide in Palestine.
“If you are a member of Strathclyde Pension Fund, are you happy in the knowledge that your current or future retirement is, with its current investment profile, based on companies that are complicit in genocide and climate catastrophe? Or would you prefer it to be through ethical investments that create green jobs, housing and decent local infrastructure for Glasgow and beyond?
“Same question to every council taxpayer. The Pension Fund must wake up and realise that life and building a better future for everyone is the biggest priority for investment.”
The protest comes after a report by a United Nations (UN) Commission confirmed that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, incited by Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior members within the Israeli government.
It also follows First Minister John Swinney’s announcement that Scotland will no longer fund firms providing arms to Israel and MSPs voting in favour of an immediate boycott of Israel and companies complicit in the genocide. Campaigners are calling on Strathclyde Pension Fund to follow the Scottish Government’s lead.
Imaan Niven, a member of Time to Divest Glasgow, said: ‘‘Over the past three months, since the launch of our campaign, the genocide in Palestine has worsened, but we can see the tide turning. From our First Minister and now the UN declaring it a genocide, to sports and music boycotts, and the Scottish Government voting to divest from Israel, change is coming.
“Strathclyde Pension Fund has failed to even acknowledge demands for divestment, putting itself at the risk of breaking international law for their part in failing to prevent and instead, aiding and profiting from the death and destruction in Palestine. We urge SPF to meet our demands before it is too late. The time to divest is now.”
