Toxic Barclays: Croydon Extinction Rebellion protesters outside the branch on the High Street this morning. Barclays is Europe’s biggest investor in fossil fuels, and made £2bn pre-tax profit in their latest quarter
Extinction Rebellion activists were busy outside Barclays on Croydon High Street this morning, raising a “Toxic Barclays” banner and leafleting passers-by about the bank’s role in fuelling the unfolding climate catastrophe.
Barclays is Europe’s largest financier of fossil fuels, the use of which is a principal cause of the climate catastrophe.
Although the International Energy Agency says “there is no need for investment in new fossil fuel supply”, last year Barclays invested nearly £20billion in fossil fuels. Since the Paris Climate Agreement, their total investment in fossil fuels is almost £150billion.
A spokesman for Croydon XR said, “Scientists say keep the coal in the hole in order to stop global warming.
“Barclays are going against everything scientists are saying”.
In April, the United Nations reported that the world is on a “fast track” to disaster, with scientists warning it is “now or never” to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.
Britain recorded its hottest ever temperature this summer, and there were three times the usual number of wildfires.
Drought conditions are set to continue across the country, with a hosepipe ban in place in Croydon and across the Thames Water region into 2023.
At COP27 last week, the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, warned, “We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator.”
Today’s local activism on Croydon High Street was one of more than 100 protests outside Barclays branches across the country.
Barclays recently announced much higher-than-expected pre-tax profits of nearly £2billion for a single three-month period. Higher interest rates have helped increase Barclays’ profits, while seeing the cost of living soar for ordinary working people.
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Where there’s brass there’s muck.
For years Barclays bankrolled the apartheid regime in South Africa.
Earlier this year, they were criticised by the mild-mannered charity War on Want for UK “actively arming, upholding and profiting from Israel’s violence against the Palestinian people”.
Proving that they are equal opportunities money-grabbing bastards, in 1998 they had to be threatened with legal action before coughing up $3.6m to Jews whose assets were seized from their French branches during World War II.
Barclays have a cavalier attitude to the law. In 2010 they paid $298 million to stop the US government giving them a kicking for ignoring laws banning financial transactions with certain countries.
In 2012 they had to pay HMRC £500 million in tax they had tried to avoid. That same year they were fined a total of £290 million for manipulating Libor and Euribor. The Financial Services Authority also fined them £59.5 million.
The list goes on.
In 2013, the US energy regulator FERC fined Barclays £299 million for attempting to rig the US electricity market.
In 2014, the Financial Conduct Authority fined Barclays £26 million over systems and controls failures.
In 2016 they paid $70 million to settle a US court case about them having defrauded and deceived investors with inaccurate marketing material, charges they initially denied.
In 2020, the campaign group ShareAction criticised them for being the biggest bankroller of fossil fuel companies in Europe, investing $85 billion in extraction and $24 billion in expansion.
2020 was the year when Barclays were found to be using software to spy on staff using their computers and reporting them to their managers if they took too many breaks.
In 2021 their group CEO group “agreed to step down” amid investigations of his ties to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Barclays are scum.
Quite impressed that they found a High Street bank that still has any branches left open.
HSBC invest in fossil fuels (and money laundering). btw, this takes me back to 1970 when, as a student in Sheffield, I went to open a Barclays account and came across loads of Apartheid protestors. Nothing changes