Scottish Green co-leader Patrick Harvie has criticised the Fossil Free Book campaign, accusing them of hitting “soft targets”.

The environmental campaigners have been calling on authors to boycott book festivals to with links to Baillie Gifford, because of investments in oil and gas, and coal, as well as Israel's defence, tech and cybersecurity industries.

Last month, the Edinburgh International Book Festival ended its long partnership with the company.

Jenny Niven, the chief executive of the event, said the “pressure” on the team had “simply become intolerable.”

READ MORE: Climate activists and Palestinian campaigners killing book festivals

Organisers of the Wigtown Book Festival soon followed suit, so too did the Hay Festival in Wales.

At the end of the week, it emerged that Baillie Gifford had ended all of its remaining sponsorship deals with literary festivals.

Speaking to BBC Scotland’s Sunday Show, Mr Harvie said he had “mixed feelings” on this.

He compared it to Extinction Rebellion protests “which impact on people rather than on the targets like the big fossil fuel companies.”

The Scottish Green co-leader said: “The critical thing here is what is your target? What are you trying to achieve?

“Now, if the objective of that campaign was to get Baillie Gifford to divest from fossil fuels and from companies that are tarred with association by with Israel, if that was the objective, it hasn't worked.

“The objective should not have been to defund literary festivals and I don't think that's what Fossil Free Books wanted to see.”

Mr Harvie said there a role for government to step in and stop events like the festivals being “dependent on the whims of big investment companies and the associations with toxic investments like that.”

“We've just put forward a proposal, for example, a very modest one pound levy on the mega gigs like the Taylor Swift concerts that we just seen in Edinburgh, and that could raise money to invest in cultural and creative work.”

READ MORE: Scottish Greens propose Taylor Swift ticket tax to help local venues

Asked if he thought the Fossil Free Book campaign was misguided, Mr Harvie said: “I don't think the goal was to shut down literary festivals. The goal should be to focus on the investors and the investment decisions that they make. And that's a very legitimate goal.”

“The danger here is a campaign that ends up hitting a soft target when it should have been aiming for a hard target,” he added.

Nick Thomas, a partner with Baillie Gifford, said previously: “We hold the activists squarely responsible for the inhibiting effect their action will have on funding for the arts in this country.

“Baillie Gifford is a long-term investor with high ethical standards and a complete focus on doing what is right by our clients.”

He added: “Only 2% of our clients’ money is invested in companies with some business related to fossil fuels.”