Fossil fuel financier Barclays is trying to weasel out of concrete climate action. Crucially, a new report has shown that the climate-wrecking bank won’t backdown from financing fracking.
Barclays finances fracking
New analysis by responsible investment non-profit ShareAction has revealed that Barclay’s recently updated energy policy flies in the face of the net zero commitment the company set in 2020. It found slippery loopholes which allow the company to continue providing a significant amount of finance for fracking.
The bank amended its energy policy in February, following negotiations with ShareAction and Barclays shareholders. It pledged to no longer directly finance new oil and gas projects and to restrict its financing of ‘pureplay’ companies. Specifically, these are corporations that focus exclusively on fossil fuel extraction and exploration.
However, Barclays has exempted pureplay companies working on short-term extraction projects from this commitment. Of course, fracking activities are typically short-term.
The analysis found that Barclays directed a third (34%) of its financing during 2016-2022 to upstream oil and gas companies to pureplay fossil fuel extraction and/or exploration companies.
It identified that Barclays has been decreasing the volume of its financing to pureplay companies since 2016. However, the same isn’t true of its financing for fracking.
Notably, the analysis showed that proportionally the majority of this financing – on average 57% – goes to companies specialising in fracking. On top of this, it rose to 80% in 2022 – or US $902 million – the latest year for which figures were available.
“Close the loopholes”
Alongside this, ShareAction’s analysis revealed how Barclays has taken advantage of another sneaky gap in its energy policies. In particular, the company has also committed to restrict financing for fracking in the UK and Europe. However, fracking is mostly banned or suspended in these regions, while the bank’s fracking client base is largely located in the US.
Campaign Manager at ShareAction Kelly Shields said:
Barclays’ energy policy contains loopholes that allow the bank to continue to financially support fracking – a risky activity that contributes to climate change and can destroy habitats and contaminate water supplies.
Barclays’ stance on fracking leaves it out of step with other large banks that have listened to the concerns of investors and customers and started taking steps to cut off support for this fossil fuel.
We’re calling on Barclays’ shareholders to ask the bank to close these loopholes and rule out financing for all pureplay oil and gas companies, including fracking clients, wherever they are in the world.”
Taking action against unethical Barclays
In November, Extinction Rebellion glued shut over 50 Barclays branches to draw attention to the fossil fuel financier’s climate-wrecking investments.
The latest Banking on Climate Chaos report named Barclays among its “dirty dozen”. That is, the bank was one of the top financiers of fossil fuels between 2016–2022. During that period, it poured $190.5bn into the polluting sector.
Moreover, the report found that Barclays is Europe’s number one financier of fracking and the eighth largest globally. Many of Barclays’ peers such as HSBC and BNP Paribas have applied restrictions to financing for fracking in North America as well as the UK and Europe. BNP Paribas committed to cease financing for fracking in 2017.
YouGov surveyed the UK public last summer and over a third of UK adults said they would be likely to change banks if they discovered their bank was investing in companies that use large quantities of fossil fuels.
Of course, the public has already been boycotting the company over its unethical investments. Specifically, thousands of people have recently cancelled their bank accounts with Barclays over its unconscionable financing of Israel’s genocide.
So, once again, big banks like Barclays will continue to underpin the colonial extractivist economy at any cost – so long as its not their own.
Sign ShareAction’s petition to ask Barclays to close their policy loophole and stop financing fracking.
Feature image via Youtube – NBBJ ESI Design
