OXFAM has become the latest charity to cease banking with Barclays, owing to the bank’s continued links to the fossil-fuel industry, after protests were held by a group of Christian climate campaigners.
Other organisations, including Christian Aid, Greenbelt, and Sheffield Cathedral have also severed ties with Barclays (News, 28 July 2023), which has been the largest investor in fossil fuels in Europe since 2016.
Last Friday, members of the campaigning group Christian Climate Action (CCA) held a prayer walk around the Oxfam headquarters in Oxford. In December, the group had written to the charity, urging it to change its banking arrangements.
One of its members, Holly-Anna Petersen, said: “When people give their money to a charity, they do so because they want it to be spent bringing good to the world. But if a charity banks with Barclays, that donation is funnelled into Europe’s dirtiest bank. Oxfam is just one of a whole host of organisations that are getting ready to jump the Barclays ship, because it doesn’t look good being caught in bed with a company that is actively funding the destruction of our children’s future.”
On Tuesday, four days after the vigil, Oxfam announced that it was in the process of changing banks. A spokesperson said: “We wrote to Barclays in December to give notice of our intention to withdraw any funds currently held by them and that we will cease using them for foreign exchange with immediate effect. This is something we have been considering for some time due to their record on climate change.
“Through our work with communities around the world, we see first hand the injustice of the climate crisis which is destroying homes, livelihoods, and lives on an unprecedented scale. We decided that the extent of Barclays’ continued financing of fossil fuels was such that, where possible, we should move our business elsewhere.”
A spokesperson for Barclays said: “Barclays has reduced its financed emissions of the energy sector by 32 per cent since 2020, which exceeds our 2025 target. We are committed to financing the energy transition, investing in the climate technologies required to build low-carbon capacity as we support those clients investing to achieve net zero.”
Last Friday, CCA also held a prayer vigil outside the offices of the Baptist missionary organisation BMS World Mission, in Didcot, Oxfordshire. Several BMS World Mission staff joined the vigil.
The Revd James Grote, a Baptist minister for more than 40 years, who has worked overseas with BMS World Mission, said: “The climate emergency demands that we all examine and change how we use our resources and live more justly. We all need to do it, including organisations that we love and cherish, and that’s why I was outside the offices of BMS World Mission asking them to switch from banking with Barclays. It’s another small step towards cutting fossil-fuel emissions which are destroying the life of the planet that God has given us to love and to cherish.”
A spokesman for BMS World Vision said that it now holds fewer than five per cent of its monies with the bank, and will be reviewing current arrangements this year. “As a Christian charity with a deep concern for God’s creation and how we steward its care, BMS World Mission shares the spirit of prayer and challenge that marks out Christian Climate Action and all who attended Friday’s vigil. Their courage and singleness of purpose has much to teach Christians in our calling to resist dominant powers. We are reviewing all our banking relationships in 2024, and it has been a privilege to pray alongside CCA for the future of those relationships and of God’s creation.”
About one third of Church of England dioceses bank with Barclays, and CCA has now begun a campaign to encourage a switch.
The issue of climate change will also feature in the coming Parliamentary by-election in Rochdale: a retired priest, the Revd Mark Coleman, 64, is standing as an independent candidate. He was Rector and Area Dean of Rochdale until his early retirement, because of Parkinson’s disease, in 2020. A supporter of the climate-campaign organisation Just Stop Oil, he has been imprisoned twice for taking non-violent action with the group.
He said: “When I was in prison, I had a great sense of God protecting me, surrounding me with love. . . The rich and powerful, and the governments which collude with them, are not keeping the people safe. The opposite is true. They worship these dangerous technologies of oil and military power. These do not bring peace for ordinary people. But there is always good news. Together we can come together and revitalise democracy.”
Backing his campaign are the joint environment officers for Rochdale, which is a Labour constituency, Jane Touil and Pat Sanchez. They have criticised the party’s policy not to reverse North Sea oil and gas licences.
Ms Sanchez said: “Mark is honest. He won’t pretend we can wait for the radical changes we need to protect future generations. The situation will only change with urgent action at national level. I know my support for Mark means leaving the Labour Party, which makes me sad, but not as sad as seeing Labour let huge climate-destroying oil and gas projects go ahead.”
Joe Ware is Senior Climate Journalist at Christian Aid