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Barclays Guildford Has Its Door Superglued in UK-wide Action by Environment Campaigners
Published on: 27 Nov, 2023
Updated on: 27 Nov, 2023
Protestors superglue the door lock at Barclays Bank in North Street Photo XR
By Martin Giles
Climate activists are reported to have superglued the door locks of the Guildford branch in North Street among 50 Barclays branches nationwide.
The early hours action was claimed by Extinction Rebellion (XR), acting in coordination with allied group Money Rebellion and others which, they say, glued the doors shut at almost 50 branches.
Posters were pasted to the glass doors at the Haywards Heath branch. Photo XR
The campaigners want to persuade Barclays customers to switch their accounts and pressure Barclays to “stop mega-funding fossil fuels projects”.
In a press release, XR says: “Since the Paris Agreement Barclays has supported fossil fuels with $190 billion of investments. New fossil fuels are incompatible with the Paris Agreement goal of keeping temperatures below 1.5 Centigrade.”
The fifty Barclays branches affected are believed to have included Farnham as well as those in London, Glasgow, Leeds and Lincoln.
The door of the Barclays’ Farnham branch being glued. Photo XR
XR says that its action is part of a “significant new wave of property-focused climate action”. “Superglued locks shutting down a branch may impact its business in the short term, but the longer-term damage is to Barclays’ reputation as customers discover how its outdated business model destroys the environment, and take their money elsewhere.”
An XR activist added: “We’re responding to public attitudes and targeting the perpetrators of climate breakdown, not ordinary people and we apologise for any inconvenience caused to staff and customers. The inconvenience we’ve caused this morning is small in comparison to the catastrophic events already happening due to Barclays’ financing of fossil fuels.”
A Barclays spokesperson said this afternoon: “Aligned to our ambition to be a net zero bank by 2050, we believe we can make the greatest difference by working with our clients as they transition to a low-carbon business model, reducing their carbon-intensive activity whilst scaling low-carbon technologies, infrastructure and capacity.
“We have set 2030 targets to reduce the emissions we finance in five high emitting sectors, including the Energy sector, where we have achieved a 32 per cent reduction since 2020. In addition, to scale the needed technologies and infrastructure, we have provided £99bn of green finance since 2018, and have a target to facilitate $1 tillion in sustainable and transition financing between 2023 and 2030.”
The Guildford branch of Barclays Bank has been targetted before in November 2022 and earlier this year in January.
See: Extinction Rebellion Targets Barclays Bank Again in Protest Against Fossil Fuel Funding and ‘This Is An Intervention’ – Extinction Rebellion Protest Bank’s Investment in Fossil Fuels
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Responses to Barclays Guildford Has Its Door Superglued in UK-wide Action by Environment Campaigners
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"Found any?" - "Nope, it all looks green to me!" (See Opinion: The Future is Congested, the Future is Grey)
Peta Malthouse
November 27, 2023 at 11:56 pm
Trouble is you don’t know who to trust. The reach of the oil companies goes far into governmentt in every country and every organisation.
It’s not enough to hear that they intend to be net zero by 2050. How do they intend to do so worldwide and how is their money lending policy assisting to achieve that? Their comment is selective in naming five areas. What are they and what other areas are there which are not named?
Is this what they call ‘greenwashing’? There needs to be real informed debate in this country but it is hard to come by.
Any chance The Dragon could ask Stop Oil to comment on this statement? I trust The Dragon. Trouble is main stream media just want the news to consist of soundbites these days.
Editor’s response: Thank you for your trust. We try hard to be accurate and fair. Unfortunately, our resources are very limited and don’t allow us to be as pro-active as we would like to be.
Bethan Moore
November 28, 2023 at 1:48 pm
Peta Malthouse is right, it’s so hard to know who to trust. I did move my accounts a few years ago for this reason and found out that your best bet is to move your account to a building society. There are also some more ethical banks out there too.
You can do a bit of research to find the best for you then use the switching service. It’s a little bit of temporary fuss but is one of the most impactful consumer choices you can make. Hope that’s helpful (although I realise I’m just a random person).
M Durant
November 28, 2023 at 10:24 am
If they really cared about the environment they should go around Surrey and clean the rubbish from green areas. I do it regularly. There is plenty of it.
Their actions amounts to criminal damage, they should be made to pay for the damage they cause and given a criminal record.
Bank branches are shutting down across the country, we are lucky to have any bank branches at all on our High Street, not everybody can bank online, and many elderly people are struggling with no banks open in their area.
Anthony Mallard
November 28, 2023 at 2:21 pm
Can someone tell me what protesters hope to achieve by the criminal damage they caused? It inconveniences and alienates the ordinary members of the public who simply want to go about their business unhindered.
There are other ways that these so called Environment Campaigners could achieve their ambition and take people along with them.
Jim Allen
November 28, 2023 at 4:09 pm
The animal rights were out in Slyfield today, at the abattoir, but everyone was ignoring them.
The people are tired of all this nonsense.
Let’s hope they all leave December alone.
Alan Judge
November 28, 2023 at 4:32 pm
The ironic thing here is that Barclays are probably happy for people to switch to other banks; current accounts are loss leaders.For the most part the accounts are free and provide card services, cheques etc that all cost money.
Back in the day, people just banked with one institution. Those days are long gone and people will happily move their savings from one bank or building society to another, chasing the best rates.
When people use the switching service, it only switches the current account, the savings stay where they are.
Mike Smith
November 29, 2023 at 7:32 pm
Rather a silly thing to do considering that Guildford’s Extinction Rebellion supporters’ group ‘Net Zero’ are currently looking for town-centre premises to operate from. What if some disgruntled Barclays customers decided to retaliate in kind?
Mark Stamp
November 30, 2023 at 4:58 pm
Zero Carbon Guildford are not affiliated with Extinction Rebellion and do not condone action of this type.