ADVERTISEMENT
Manila Bulletin devider Business devider Banking & Finance devider Barclays bank to stop financing new oil, gas projects

Barclays bank to stop financing new oil, gas projects

Published Feb 10, 2024 01:40 am

LONDON, United Kingdom -- British bank Barclays said Friday it would stop directly financing its energy clients' new oil and gas projects, but still ran into fierce criticism from campaigners who said the moves don't far enough.

As part of its updated climate strategy, the bank added it would scale back lending for existing fossil fuel projects as the sector faces intense pressure from activist investors to help tackle climate change.

"Barclays today publishes a revised Climate Change Statement to progress its climate strategy and continues its focus on clients actively engaged in the energy transition," it said in a statement.

There will be "no project finance, or other direct finance to energy clients, for upstream oil and gas expansion projects or related infrastructure", the lender added.

Barclays will also impose "restrictions for new and non-diversified oil and gas clients engaged in expansion".

Additional curbs will be introduced "on unconventional oil and gas, including... extra heavy oil".

Barclays also expects "energy clients to produce transition plans or decarbonisation strategies" by 2025.

And it will require energy clients to commit to other targets, including the reduction of methane and carbon emissions from operations.

Reclaim Finance, a non-governmental organisation focussed on the sector, said Barclays' plans fell far short.

"It is good to see that Barclays' new policy includes some relevant elements, notably reducing methane leakage and the adoption of transition plans by 2025," said Reclaim Finance director Lucie Pinson.

"But ultimately the British bank has once again failed to address the most urgent issue of halting oil and gas expansion. Barclays pretends to want to tackle this issue, but will continue to finance diversified companies in the oil and gas sector that are already customers."

Barclays is Europe's biggest financier of fossil fuels, according to data cited by Reclaim Finance.

Make My Money Matter, an organisation campaigning for ethical investments, also slammed Friday's news.

"Barclays announcement is inadequate in scope and in ambition," said Tony Burdon, chief executive of Make My Money Matter.

"While they finally caught up with other major European banks like Lloyds by ruling out direct project finance for fossil fuels, the reality is this covers just a fraction of their oil and gas lending."

And Fossil Free London was also highly critical.

"Barclays is failing to show genuine leadership with this new energy policy," said the NGO's spokeswoman Joanna Warrington.

"This leaves the door wide open to continue financing billions to Shell, ExxonMobil, and TotalEnergies -- those most aggressively developing new fossil fuels."

The British lender's move to curb financing of oil and gas projects follows similar announcements from European bank heavyweights BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, HSBC, ING and Societe Generale.

Barclays had announced in March 2020 that it wanted to become a "net zero bank" by 2050.


Related Tags

banks and financial institutions Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) BANKS
ADVERTISEMENT
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1561_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1562_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1563_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}

{{ articles_filter_1564_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.mb-article-details { position: relative; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview, .mb-article-details .article-body-summary{ font-size: 17px; line-height: 30px; font-family: "Libre Caslon Text", serif; color: #000; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview iframe , .mb-article-details .article-body-summary iframe{ width: 100%; margin: auto; } .read-more-background { background: linear-gradient(180deg, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0) 13.75%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0.8) 30.79%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000) 72.5%); position: absolute; height: 200px; width: 100%; bottom: 0; display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center; padding: 0; } .read-more-background a{ color: #000; } .read-more-btn { padding: 17px 45px; font-family: Inter; font-weight: 700; font-size: 18px; line-height: 16px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; border: 1px solid black; background-color: white; } .hidden { display: none; }
function initializeAllSwipers() { // Get all hidden inputs with cms_article_id document.querySelectorAll('[id^="cms_article_id_"]').forEach(function (input) { const cmsArticleId = input.value; const articleSelector = '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .body_images'; const swiperElement = document.querySelector(articleSelector); if (swiperElement && !swiperElement.classList.contains('swiper-initialized')) { new Swiper(articleSelector, { loop: true, pagination: false, navigation: { nextEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-next', prevEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-prev', }, }); } }); } setTimeout(initializeAllSwipers, 3000); const intersectionObserver = new IntersectionObserver( (entries) => { entries.forEach((entry) => { if (entry.isIntersecting) { const newUrl = entry.target.getAttribute("data-url"); if (newUrl) { history.pushState(null, null, newUrl); let article = entry.target; // Extract metadata const author = article.querySelector('.author-section').textContent.replace('By', '').trim(); const section = article.querySelector('.section-info ').textContent.replace(' ', ' '); const title = article.querySelector('.article-title h1').textContent; // Parse URL for Chartbeat path format const parsedUrl = new URL(newUrl, window.location.origin); const cleanUrl = parsedUrl.host + parsedUrl.pathname; // Update Chartbeat configuration if (typeof window._sf_async_config !== 'undefined') { window._sf_async_config.path = cleanUrl; window._sf_async_config.sections = section; window._sf_async_config.authors = author; } // Track virtual page view with Chartbeat if (typeof pSUPERFLY !== 'undefined' && typeof pSUPERFLY.virtualPage === 'function') { try { pSUPERFLY.virtualPage({ path: cleanUrl, title: title, sections: section, authors: author }); } catch (error) { console.error('ping error', error); } } // Optional: Update document title if (title && title !== document.title) { document.title = title; } } } }); }, { threshold: 0.1 } ); function showArticleBody(button) { const article = button.closest("article"); const summary = article.querySelector(".article-body-summary"); const body = article.querySelector(".article-body-preview"); const readMoreSection = article.querySelector(".read-more-background"); // Hide summary and read-more section summary.style.display = "none"; readMoreSection.style.display = "none"; // Show the full article body body.classList.remove("hidden"); } document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", () => { let loadCount = 0; // Track how many times articles are loaded const offset = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]; // Offset values const currentUrl = window.location.pathname.substring(1); let isLoading = false; // Prevent multiple calls if (!currentUrl) { console.log("Current URL is invalid."); return; } const sentinel = document.getElementById("load-more-sentinel"); if (!sentinel) { console.log("Sentinel element not found."); return; } function isSentinelVisible() { const rect = sentinel.getBoundingClientRect(); return ( rect.top < window.innerHeight && rect.bottom >= 0 ); } function onScroll() { if (isLoading) return; if (isSentinelVisible()) { if (loadCount >= offset.length) { console.log("Maximum load attempts reached."); window.removeEventListener("scroll", onScroll); return; } isLoading = true; const currentOffset = offset[loadCount]; window.loadMoreItems().then(() => { let article = document.querySelector('#widget_1690 > div:nth-last-of-type(2) article'); intersectionObserver.observe(article) loadCount++; }).catch(error => { console.error("Error loading more items:", error); }).finally(() => { isLoading = false; }); } } window.addEventListener("scroll", onScroll); });
Join Our Newsletters

Sign up by email to receive news.

© 2025 Manila Bulletin The Nation's Leading Newspaper. All Rights Reserved.