💰BARCLAYS AGM – WEDS 7th MAY💰

Save the date in your diaries folks – the 2025 Barclays AGM is scheduled for Wednesday 7th May. We will be meeting at the Gandhi statue in Parliament Square at 9:30 a.m. and will then be outside the AGM venue (QEII Centre, Broad Sanctuary, Westminster) at 10am until 11:30. We are also inviting people to hold vigils in their local areas, outside their high street Barclays branch.

What will be happening Outside the AGM?

We will be meeting at the Gandhi statue in Parliament Square at 9:30am, to do a check-in and hold a short meditation alongside XR Buddhists. At 10am, we will then move to the QEII Building, and hold a vigil outside the building, with a banner reading ‘Stop Banking on Climate Chaos’. The event will wrap up at 11:30.

We invite you to join us. You can either turn up on the day and look for the people wearing Christian Climate Action t-shirts, or you can email christianclimateaction@gmail.com if you have any questions.

What is happening in locations across the UK?

We are also inviting people across the UK to gather in a groups outside their local Barclays branch and hold a vigil outside. No matter what the size of the vigil – prayerful protest is beautiful.

This can either be done on the date of the Barclays AGM, or the weekend before or after.

If you would like to hold a vigil outside your local Barclays branch, let us know at the christianclimateaction@gmail.com email address. We would love to support you in making that happen.

Why are we protesting against Barclays?

While it is fossil fuel companies who are extracting and burning fossil fuels, they can’t do this without the funding of banks. Banks have such a huge impact on the world around us by what they choose to fund. Many banks have chosen not to fund fossil fuels, due to the suffering the climate crisis is causing. You can find these banks listed on the bank.green website. However Barclays is the biggest funder of fossil fuels in Europe.

Barclays has poured a staggering $235.2bn into oil, gas and coal since 2016. Despite its greenwashing campaigns, Barclays is continuing to increase its spending on fossil fuels, from $21.6bn in 2022, to $24.2bn in 2023. Barclays is financing the disastrous Adani coal mine which cuts through the homelands of the Wangan and Jagalingou people in central Australia. It has funded $5.3bn of Tar Sands projects since 2016 and is the world’s 5th biggest funder of Arctic oil and gas.

Resources

We are creating different resources that you can use at your local vigils and will update this page regularly.

Barclays Flyer: This flyer can be printed out and used to inform people why you are doing a vigil outside your local Barclays branch.

CCA Prayer Book: Your prayer can be silent, or if you would like a selection of prayers to read out loud, here is a CCA prayer book which was put together by a member of CCA.

Barclays Sign: This is a sign which was created by a clever member if CCA. It shows the amount of money that Barclays has put into fossil fuels, and it is depicted on a Barclays credit card

Letter: If you are thinking of doing a vigil in your local area, you may wish to hand in a letter to the branch manager. This is not an essential thing to do, however if you do wish to, we have created a template letter for you to use.