ACTIVISTS in Reading are staging further protests amid “limited progress” on climate action by banks.
Extinction Rebellion has announced it is continuing to put pressure on Barclays Bank, which it says has continued to support companies responsible for around three quarters of new oil and gas fields.
Activists will take part in a silent protest outside the branch in Broad Street, central Reading, in opposition to what they call “green-washing” of the bank’s investments.
It follows previous protests outside the Broad Street branch of the bank by members of Extinction Rebellion back in February.
The action took place concurrently with other protests, which accused Barclays of “funding apartheid” by facilitating funds for arms in Israel, according to activists.
Extinction Rebellion cites figures from the Fossil Fuel Finance Report which showed that Barclays is the biggest financer of fossil fuels in Europe– and the seventh largest in the world– having given around $190 billion into fossil fuel projects.
These include lending to hydraulic fracturing (fracking) companies in the USA, a coal mine in Columbia, and meat production company JBS, which they say is the biggest contributor to global emissions of its type.
Executive Secretary of the Framework Convention on Climate Change at the UN said that the World Bank needs to take a “quantum leap” to provide finances to tackle the climate crisis.
The silent protest is taking place outside Barclays, Broad Street, on Saturday, April 27.
More information about Extinction Rebellion is available via: extinctionrebellion.uk
