By Lawrence White and Iain Withers
LONDON/MANCHESTER (Reuters) – Climate activists and other disgruntled investors glued themselves to chairs, set off alarms and chanted slogans at shareholder meetings hosted by Barclays and Standard Chartered on Wednesday.
Amid anger over lenders’ financial support for Big Coal, protesters also repeatedly interrupted Barclays chairman Nigel Higgins as he tried to get the meeting there underway.
“Stop the greenwashing, take it off the table,” a man who did not give his name said, before being escorted out of the meeting, which is being held in the northern English city of Manchester to reflect Barclays’ increased focus on regional lending.
“Your climate policy is not worth the paper it’s written on,” a second female protester shouted after gluing her hand to her chair.
Meanwhile, climate activists attending the StanChart meeting in London were heard chanting, “Life on Earth before your profit, Standard Chartered, please just stop it”, while wearing masks of the face of CEO Bill Winters adorned with devil horns.
Banks like Barclays and StanChart have committed to cutting lending to linked to fossil fuels, with a view to achieving net zero carbon targets in the coming decades.
But campaigners have criticised their efforts and called for tougher stances on financing of coal production and so-called dirty energy, which continue to threaten targets to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial norms by 2050.
(Writing by Sinead Cruise; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
