Shareholders for bank Barclays have voted against a resolution which would stop the financial giant investing in fossil fuels.
Barclays gives the most funding to coal and oil projects of any European bank, but just 14 per cent of shareholders backed the call for it to align its fossil fuel investment with Paris Agreement targets.
If passed, the resolution would have required Barclays to set robust short, medium and long term targets for phasing out its funding for fossil fuels.
The vote held at Wednedsday’s Barclays AGM “smacks of either indifference or incompetence,” according to Adam McGibbon, UK campaign lead for environmental group Market Forces which coordinated the resolution with the help of more than 100 of the bank’s shareholders, including a Church of England vicar, a former MP and a former vice-president for Bank of America.
Barclays’ investors have “some serious questions to answer about their commitment to climate change action,” he added.
Support The Big Issue and our vendors by signing up for a subscription.