Climate Protesters Target Barclays Office Over Fossil Fuel Links

(Bloomberg) -- Climate change protesters staged demonstrations at Barclays Plc’s office in Northampton, U.K. on Wednesday, beginning weeks of action aimed at persuading banks and investors to sever ties with fossil fuels.

Seven members of the Extinction Rebellion campaign group breached Barclays’s offices in the town about 60 miles north of London, before spraying the foyer with fake crude oil, according to a statement from the group.

“To save our futures, Barclays and Barclaycard need to go carbon negative by 2025 and should invest $85 billion into greener industries instead,” said Luke Adams, a 24-year-old student who took part in the protests, according to an emailed statement.

Barclays is the fossil fuel industry’s biggest backer in Europe and the sixth-largest globally, financing $85.2 billion in the three years to 2018, according to the environmental group Rainforest Action Network. The bank’s annual meeting last year was briefly interrupted by climate protesters.

“We recognize that climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing the world today, and are determined to do all we can to support the transition to a low carbon economy, while also ensuring that global energy needs continue to be met,” Barclays said in an emailed statement.

Finance leaders including BlackRock Inc. head Larry Fink and outgoing Bank of England governor Mark Carney have said firms must do more to tackle threats to the environment, while JPMorgan Chase & Co. economists warned last month that a delayed policy response risks potential irreversible catastrophic outcomes and loss of human lives.

Some financiers, including hedge fund titan Chris Hohn, have pledged support for Extinction Rebellion protesters -- even as they’ve made headlines by occupying buildings, blocking roads and gluing themselves to public transport.

The group is also urging religious organizations to end support for fossil fuels as part of protests spanning the 40 days of Lent, a festival when many Christians give something up. Members of Christian Climate Action, a group working with Extinction Rebellion on the Lent protests, on Wednesday sprayed fake crude oil on protective boarding around the Houses of Parliament in London.

To contact the reporters on this story: Suzy Waite in London at swaite8@bloomberg.net;Benjamin Robertson in london at brobertson29@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Shelley Robinson at ssmith118@bloomberg.net, Marion Dakers, Keith Campbell

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