Non-profit ShareAction and more than 20 investors with $1.24tn in assets under management will call on Barclays at its May 9 annual meeting to commit to “explicit restrictions” on financing for all companies exclusively focused on fossil fuel extraction, as well as to make its fracking policy global.
A global policy would include North America where most of Barclays’ fracking clients are based, according to ShareAction, which co-ordinated a letter issued on the day of the bank’s AGM.
Investors who signed the letter include Nest Pensions, blockchain platform Cardano, the Church of England Pensions Board, Brunel Pension Partnership, and asset manager Rathbones.
Last month, ShareAction highlighted a “loophole” in Barclays’ energy policy, which it claims allows the bank to continue to provide significant financing for fracking, specifically in the US where it is not banned. The UK and EU have bans or restrictions in place on fracking.
In February this year, Barclays announced that it had stopped direct financing of new oil and gas projects, and that its capital and resources are focused on scaling low-carbon technologies and energy clients engaged in transition with a $1tn target of sustainable and transition finance by 2030.
Kelly Shields, campaign manager at ShareAction, told The Banker that the non-profit’s engagement with Barclays previously led to the bank tightening its restrictions around oil sands finance after years of campaigning on the issue.
ShareAction said it will ask questions regarding banks’ climate commitments at 17 banks’ AGMs in the coming weeks. “We’ll be putting probing questions directly to [banks’] boards on how they plan to end their financial addiction to expanding oil and gas, and redirect financial flows toward green activities such as sustainable technology development or renewable power generation,” Shields said.
This follows similar questions put to the boards of US banks by investors who called for banks to publish their clean energy to fossil fuel financing ratios.
Also at its May 9 AGM, held in Glasgow, Barclays faces protests from non-profits such as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Fossil Free London, Christian Climate Action and Biofuelwatch who allege that the bank “funds arms companies that are complicit in Israel’s genocide and apartheid against Palestinians”.
In a statement, the non-profits claimed that Barclays holds £2bn in shares of companies whose weapons, components and military technology have been used in violence against Palestinians by Israel.
“They also provide over £6.1bn in loans and underwriting to these arms and military technology companies,” the statement claimed.
Barclays did not respond to a request for comment about the non-profits’ claims regarding defence companies or questions about potential loopholes in its energy policy. But in a statement on its website, the bank said that asking why it invests in nine defence companies supplying Israel “mistakes what we do”.
“We trade in shares of listed companies in response to client instruction or demand and that may result in us holding shares. We are not making investments for Barclays and Barclays is not a ‘shareholder’ or ‘investor’ in relation to these companies,” the statement said.
“We have noted the UK and US governments’ concern with respect to civilian deaths and the targeting of aid workers, and will continue to monitor developments closely,” the statement added.
A spokesperson from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign told The Banker that holding shares in arms companies on behalf of its clients “does not abrogate Barclays’ ethical and moral responsibilities, or its international obligations”.
About its energy policy more broadly, Barclays noted in a statement that ShareAction had recognised the progress made with the lender's updated oil and gas policies.
In February, ShareAction said that Barclays' updated energy policy “contains some positive commitments from the bank including its decision to set basic climate tests for its oil and gas clients, alongside its promise to stop financing new oil and gas projects directly”. The non-profit also said “the strategy could have gone so much further”.
In its statement for The Banker, Barclays added that it “mobilised” $67.8bn of sustainable and transition finance last year.
“We recognise the importance of meeting current energy needs, while financing the scaling of the clean energy system of tomorrow to ensure energy is secure, affordable and reliable,” it said. “The International Energy Agency’s Net Zero Emissions 2050 Scenario recognises that reserves with shorter lead times – such as shale oil and gas – remain an important part of near-term energy supply.”
This article has been amended after publication to include Barclays' comments about its energy policy and that it aims to reach its sustainable finance target by 2030
