Paris, 15 February 2023 – Barclays' latest annual report, published today, includes a new oil and gas policy (1), but unlike its peers HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group and NatWest, Barclays has not committed to take action against oil and gas expansion. This ignores the main conclusions of scientists and the International Energy Agency that to limit warming to 1.5°C, we need to stop developing new oil and gas production and transport projects as quickly as possible. This failure to act against new oil and gas projects means Barclays will be able to carry on providing finance to companies such as ExxonMobil and TotalEnergies, which are among the biggest developers of new oil and gas projects. Reclaim Finance calls on the bank to up its game, or risk being accused of greenwashing.
Barclays' new oil and gas policy includes one new commitment: an exclusion policy on financing for companies that are mainly active in oil sands extraction, and for projects directly linked to oil sands production and transport. This is nowhere near enough to meet its own commitments to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, following a 1.5°C trajectory.
Lucie Pinson, Director of Reclaim Finance, says: "What a missed opportunity! There are 526 pages and a hundred or so mentions of fossil fuels but not one major new commitment that would bring Barclays closer to meeting the climate imperative of actually limiting global warming, that is to say no more support for new oil and gas projects. Coming from a bank that is committed to net zero, this is what the UN would call greenwashing."
While the IEA says that it is possible to meet the world's energy needs and limit warming to 1.5°C without opening up new projects, and the IPCC says that this is essential to avoid the worst effects of climate change (2), the United Nations is calling climate promises made by financial actors that do not end their support for fossil fuel expansion “greenwashing”.
In the last six months, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group and NatWest have all taken steps to reduce their support for oil and gas expansion (3). The measures taken are minimal, mainly confined to project finance which accounts for less than 10% of all fossil fuel finance (4), but at least indicate an understanding of the issues by Barclays' competitors.
Barclays is the European bank providing the most support for fossil fuels and has, according to the report "Throwing Fuel To The Fire: GFANZ financing of fossil fuel expansion", provided more than US$ 8.4 billion to the companies developing the most new oil and gas projects since it joined the Glasgow Financial Alliance For Net Zero in April 2021. In 2022, it supported companies such as ExxonMobil and TotalEnergies (5), which are among the seven largest oil and gas developers in the world (6).
Last Friday, some 30 investors wrote to five European banks, including the British bank, asking them to commit to cease direct financing of new oil and gas fields by the end of the year (7).
ENDS
Contact:
- Lucie Pinson, Director, Reclaim Finance, lucie@reclaimfinance.org, +33679543715
- Helen Burley, International Media Relations, helen@reclaimfinance.org, +447703731923
- Anaïs Lehnert, Communications Manager, anais@reclaimfinance.org, +33670085898
Notes:
- Barclays, Annual Report 2022, Feburary 2023.
- IPCC, Sixth Asessment Report, April 2022.
- See the scores of the British banks in the Oil & Gas Policy Tracker. The three banks mentioned have made comparable recent commitments on oil and gas expansion. HSBC excludes new project finance for new oil and gas fields (approved after 2021) and for directly linked midstream infrastructure. NatWest excludes loans on oil and gas companies’ reserves used specifically for upstream oil and gas activities (for existing customers, only in 2025). Lloyds Banking Group excludes both project finance and reserve loans dedicated to the development of new oil and gas fields (approved after 2021).
- According to Banking on Climate Chaos 2022, project finance accounted for about 5% of the 60 largest global banks' financing to the fossil fuel sector over the period 2016-2021.
- Barclays participated in, among other things, a $10 billion loan to ExxonMobil in August 2021, and an $8 billion loan to TotalEnergies in April 2022, according to data provided by Profundo, based on Bloomberg et Refinitiv databases.
- In 2022, according to the Global Oil and Gas Exit List, ExxonMobil and TotalEnergies are respectively the 6th and 7th largest developers of oil and gas (upstream).
- ShareAction, press release, Febraury 2023.