The Scottish Parliament Pension Fund has close to £1million invested in coal, oil and gas companies that are driving climate change.
Friends of the Earth Scotland analysis said investment in fossil fuels is £923,585 – or £7160 for each of the 129 MSPs.
In total, 34 of the current crop of MSPs are not standing for re-election, with those nearing retirement collecting a parliamentary pension that will have been been financed in part by fossil fuel company profits.
A freedom of information request revealed that the Scottish Parliament’s pension fund has a £733,000 stake in BHP, a coal, oil and gas producer and one of the top 20 companies deemed most responsible for the climate crisis.
BHP are part-owners of South America’s largest open-cast mine, Cerrejon in Colombia.
Its expansion impacted local people and the company is under investigation by the OECD for alleged environmental and human rights abuses, said FoES.
BHP is facing a £3.8billion damages claim over the Mariana dam collapse in Brazil in 2015 that killed 19 people.
The parliament pension fund previously invested in oil giants Shell and BP, as well as tobacco and arms companies. It has no ethical policy to prevent such investments, says FoES.
A board of MSPs oversees the fund. Baillie Gifford makes day-to-day investment decisions and has made clear it can offer fossil fuel-free funds if the switch is requested. More than 20 of the 2016-21 MSPs pledged their support for moves to end fossil fuel investments.
The Scottish Government has ruled out future investment in fossil fuels overseas and Glasgow is hosting the COP26 climate change conference in November.
FoES’s divestment campaigner Ric Lander said: “In the last Scottish Parliament MSPs took important steps to address climate pollution.
“Yet as they retire, their pensions will be drawn from polluter profits.
“It can’t be right for our lawmakers to require climate emissions cuts across the country whilst at the same time they invest in companies that are seeking to increase production of harmful fossil fuels.
“The Welsh Parliament has divested from fossil fuels, as have the Irish state investment bank. The Scottish Parliament can do the same.”
The Scottish Government has been approached for comment.
