World cannot function without oil, says Barclays chairman
THE chairman of Barclays has warned that the world cannot function without fossil fuels, as climate change campaigners disrupted the bank’s annual meeting in London.
Nigel Higgins, who leads the board of the FTSE 100 bank, told shareholders that the lender had restricted its financing of energy companies and reduced carbon emissions from its energy portfolio by a third in recent years.
However, he added: “The world at the moment cannot function without fossil fuels.
“We don’t believe that a simple exit from the sector is the right thing to do because it doesn’t square with the other requirements for energy security and meeting the demands as a consequence of energy poverty around the world.”
His comments came after more than a dozen shareholder proxies and climate activists stood up to challenge Mr Higgins on Barclays’ sustainability record, accusing the bank of being the worst fossil fuel funder in Britain.
The start of the annual meeting was delayed by nearly 30 minutes after protesters from Extinction Rebellion and Fossil Free London started chanting slogans at Barclays’ management team.
A group even sang a version of the Spice Girls’ Stop, with the words: “Stop right now, no more oil and gas. Stop burning fossil fuels and end this madness. Hey, you, burning up the Earth ... we’ve had enough.”
Mr Higgins said the bank had committed to ending thermal coal financing in OECD and EU countries by this year, and had “substantially exited” the carbon-heavy oil sands sector.
He added that it has also increased funding of renewable alternatives.
He defended the bank’s weak stock market performance, arguing that boosting capital returns and avoiding the costly blunders it has recently suffered would increase its valuation.
There has been a reappraisal of fossil fuels across the City in recent years, with many lenders seeking to reduce their investments in the industry.
However, Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine has forced bankers and investors to rethink their position as the West scrambles to free itself from Russia’s influence on energy supplies. Mr Higgins said: “The state of energy provision today, and the questions of energy poverty and energy security, mean we cannot simply abandon this sector.”
Meanwhile, influential shareholder adviser ISS urged investors to use the meeting to question the board over its support of Jes Staley, the former chief executive who was forced to resign over how he characterised his ties to late paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, but this was not addressed.
‘We don’t believe that a simple exit from the sector is the right thing to do’