As the earth breaches all planetary limits, Barclays needs to go much further and faster before it’s too late.
Responding to Barclays’ newly announced oil and gas policy, Zahra Hdidou, Senior Climate and Resilience Advisor, ActionAid UK said:
“In their continued financing of fossil fuels, banks like Barclays are profiting from climate catastrophe whilst global temperatures rise year on year.
“Barclay’s new policy is an improvement, but today’s announcement is only a minor policy tweak - one we hope will become the bank’s first step on a much longer journey.
“While there are now some limitations on specific projects, their policy would still channel financing to fossil fuel corporations and drive devastating fossil expansion. By itself, this policy hardly makes a dent in the harm suffered by the women, girls and frontline communities in the Global South who bear the disproportionate effects of pollution, land grabs and climate disasters.
“With the news this week revealing that 2023 was the first time that the world has exceeded 1.5°C of warming over a 12-month period, climate action needs to be urgent, not incremental. As the earth breaches all planetary limits, Barclays needs to go much further and faster before it’s too late.”
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Contact the ActionAid press office on uk.media@actionaid.org or on 07753 973 486.
Zahra Hdidou is available as a spokesperson, please contact the press office to arrange.