Barclays shareholders urge lender to stop financing fossil fuels

Barclays is being urged by a group of 11 institutional investors and over 100 individual shareholders to stop offering loans and financing to fossil fuel companies as part of the first ever shareholder climate resolution.

The group, which manages over £130.0bn-worth of assets, has filed a resolution calling on Barclays to set clear targets to phase out services to energy companies that contribute to climate change and do not align with the Paris climate goals.

The resolution was led by campaign group ShareAction and had been signed by over 100 additional individual shareholders. It was set to be voted on at Barclays's annual general meeting in May 2020.

“Piecemeal changes in energy policy will no longer cut it,” said Share Action campaign manager Jeanne Martin. “Banks must align their lending with the science.”

The Brunel Pension Partnership (BPP) was among the institutional investors backing the resolution and its chief executive, Laura Chappell, said: “Climate change poses significant risks to global financial stability and could thereby create climate-related financial risks to our own business operations, portfolios and client partner funds, unless action is taken to mitigate these risks.”

She added: “We hope the Barclays Board formally supports this resolution.”

Barclays was the largest financer of fossil fuels in Europe, and the sixth largest globally. Since 2015, the bank had provided over $85.0bn (£65.0bn) of finance to fossil fuel firms and high-carbon projects, according to ShareAction.

Sarasin & Partners was another institutional investor backing the resolution and head of stewardship Natasha Landell-Mills told City A.M. the resolution represented an “escalation” in pressure on Barclays that was “absolutely appropriate in light of the increasing urgency of the threats that we see from climate change”.

“The urgency of the problem we face is such that we don’t have lots of years to waste debating this,” she added.

A spokesperson for Barclays said: “We are working to help tackle climate change, and we meet with Share Action and other shareholders regularly to update them on our progress.”