Barclays, one of the UK’s biggest bank chains, has been hit by controversy recently after it was discovered they are “the biggest fossil fuel financing bank in Europe by a 31% margin.”
Headed by the Extinction Rebellion (XR) activist group, ‘Better Without Barclays’ is a campaign that is designed to make people take their investment away from Barclays.
Emma, who works for Extinction Rebellion Midlands, said: “Between January and November last year, Barclays provided £5.6 billion to the fossil fuel industry.
“HMRC banks with Barclays, so all of our taxes, state pensions, benefits and more pass through, and there is nothing we can legally do to stop our money financing fossil fuels.”
On Valentines Day this year, XR started an element of the ‘Better Without Barclays’ campaign called ‘Break up with Barclays’ to urge the bank and government into taking notice.
Emma said: “It was designed to ask people to show their love for the planet by breaking up with Barclays and close their accounts.
“We also encouraged HMRC and the government to show their commitment to tackling the climate crisis by committing to changing banks to one that does not finance fossil fuels.
“Many individuals have closed their accounts and changed banks, but so far no response from government and HMRC.”
Photo by Callum Shaw on Unsplash
In 2020, the PM “committed to ending taxpayer support for overseas fossil fuel projects” in a speech given at the opening of the Climate Ambition Summit with the UN and France.
As well, at COP26 in November 2021, “ more than 20 countries and institutions joined the United Kingdom in committing to end direct international public finance for unabated coal, oil, and gas by the end of 2022 and to prioritize clean energy finance.”
According to Emma, the Extinction Rebellion campaign “will be running until at least the beginning of April.”
She added: “XR UK’s immediate demand is an immediate end to fossil fuel investments."
The calls for Barclays to end fossil fuel investments do not just mean pulling their finances from these endeavours, although that is a major part of it.
Emma said: “They must work with indigenous communities and communities in the global south to provide reparations for the damage their financing has caused so far.”
The projects financed by the bank include the Dakota Access Pipeline, Trans Mountain Pipeline and Canadian tar sands extraction, which are some of the most destructive projects in the world.
Emma commented: “Barclays cannot lose a large chunk of its UK customer base.
“If the government were to stop funding Barclays it would be a massive shift.
“HMRC’s annual turnover is £608billion.
“The removal of that money if Barclays do not divest swiftly could be a complete game changer in terms of UK banks’ financing of fossil fuels.”
Photo by hellooodesign on Unsplash
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