Environment activists ‘clean up’ Worthing Barclays bank

The activists taking part in the protest said they hoped to make it clear that Barclays must clean up their act before it is too late.

Protestors stood outside the bank in Chapel Road dressed as cleaners with props and ‘cleaned’ the outside of the branch.

During the protest, activists gave passers-by leaflets listing these points: Barclays are Europe’s largest funder of the fossil fuel industry, Barclays is the bank used by HMRC. This means the public’s taxes are funding the fossil fuel industry and Barclays contributes billions towards projects that directly accelerate deforestation of Rainforests.

A statement from the activists read: “Pouring money into the extraction of fossil fuels is destroying ecosystems, contributing to climate breakdown and harming indigenous communities, all of which undermine the future of life on earth. Barclays is the seventh largest provider of financial services to the fossil fuel industry in the world and overall largest in Europe.

“These dirty investment policies directly threaten our future and our children’s futures.

“By cleaning their branch, we hope to make it clear that Barclays must clean up their act before it’s too late.”

A spokesperson for Barclays said the company was determined to play its part in addressing the ‘urgent and complex challenge’ of climate change.

They added: “In March 2020, we were one of the first banks to set an ambition to become net zero by 2050, across all of our direct and indirect emissions, and we committed to align all of our financing activities with the goals and timelines of the Paris Agreement.

“We have a three-part strategy to turn that ambition into action: achieving net zero operations, reducing our financed emissions, and financing the transition.

“In practice, this means we have set 2030 targets to reduce our financed emissions in four of the highest emitting sectors in our financing portfolio, with additional 2025 targets for the two highest-emitting sectors – energy and power.

“We are also investing our own capital – £175m – into innovative, green start-ups.”