Barclays faced a chaotic annual shareholder meeting on Thursday as Palestine and climate activists repeatedly confronted the lender’s board over its ties to Israel and fossil fuel financing. The UK’s biggest bank has come under fire in recent years for its links to Israeli government bonds and defence firms producing equipment used in attacks in the Gaza Strip, as well as companies driving large amounts of planet-heating emissions.
Disruption broke out at the beginning of the meeting in Westminster, with groups of people being pulled out by security. Chairman Nigel Higgins’ opening remarks were repeatedly interrupted as protesters stood up holding Palestinian flags and shouting comments such as “Free, free Palestine” and “Everyone here is profiting from genocide”. Mr Higgins responded that the board had “heard your point” and would take questions on the topic during the meeting’s Q&A section.
A few minutes later, climate protesters rose from their seats and started singing: “Stop, in the name of love, before you break this Earth.” One shouted: “This bank is financing the climate and nature crisis that we have to stop. Softly-softly, slowly-slowly is not good enough. You are endangering life on Earth.”
As the meeting moved to shareholder questions, the board was repeatedly quizzed about its recent fossil fuel financing. Shareholders accused executives of failing to act with enough urgency over the climate crisis and criticised the board for leaving a key industry climate group, the Net Zero Banking Alliance. A representative from ShareAction called on the board to affirm that it will stick to its climate goals in light of its continued lending to oil and gas firms.
Mr Higgins said Barclays has “no intention of backtracking on its commitments” and remains on track to meet climate targets aligned with the UN Paris agreement. On its oil and gas lending, he said the bank hit “quite demanding” targets for reducing financed emissions early, although he acknowledged progress is “not going to be linear”. In light of growing global energy demand and price shocks driven by the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, he said: “We feel we have to balance the planet with energy security, energy affordability and also ramping up our transition and sustainable financing activities.”
The board was also challenged about Barclays’ ties to the Israeli government after a UN report last year identified the bank as one of several firms implicated in profiting from a “genocidal economy” in Gaza. Mr Higgins said the bank disagreed with that characterisation and follows policies set by the British Government, which continues to support Israel’s right to defend itself. He added that the bank provides finance to defence companies that supply arms for the defence of the UK and Ukraine. When asked if the bank would commit to supporting Palestinian sovereignty, he said he would not go into specific client financing policies.
