This news is massive. Over 70,000 people – petitioned Barclays Bank to pull out of fracking. We’ve just heard that the chairman of Barclays has told shareholders that they’re planning to pull their money out of Third Energy – the company that’s set its sights on fracking Yorkshire. Thank you. You’re so close to winning this.
If we can convince a mega bank like Barclays to pull out of fracking it will be a massive blow to the fracking industry.
Please share the petition and make it even more powerful:
Monica – a Friends of the Earth supporter from Ryedale – was at the Barclays annual general meeting to hand in your name with the massive petition. And it was her question to Chairman John McFarlane that prompted him to announce the plans in front of a packed hall. Here’s what she told us:
“After coming to the AGM for three year running, I was so delighted to hear the chairman say the bank are planning to divest from this area. I hope they will follow through on the promise and this is not an empty commitment. I certainly feel reassured and hope that I don’t have to go back next year”.
I hope so too!
This news comes just as the movement to get companies, museums, galleries and pension funds to pull out of fossil fuels is gathering momentum.
This May, as part of the Global Divestment Mobilisation, people all around the world are urging those who hold the purse strings to pull their investments out of fossil fuels [1].
And it’s working. Just last year a local group of Friends of the Earth supporters made history by convincing Waltham Forest Council to become first council to commit to pull its pension fund out of fossil fuel investments [2].
Together we can win big again. So please share the petition far and wide. Let’s keep up the pressure and make sure Barclays doesn’t go back on it plans.
Thank you so much for getting us this far. And a big thank you to our friends at SumOfUs for collecting many thousands of names for the petition.
In hope,
Anna & the fracking team
NOTES:
[1] To join a Global Divestment Event near you this May, visit https://
[2] Friends of the Earth: Local campaign group helps make divestment history
The movers and shakers of Barclays Bank are getting together on 10th May for their annual general meeting (AGM). We’ll be there to deliver a massive petition in front of their shareholders – asking them to stop funding fracking in Ryedale, North Yorkshire.
Would you like your name to be on it?
We’ll also be joining people from across the globe outside the AGM. Residents from Ryedale are making the trip – along with members of Standing Rock Solidarity. Because as well as financing fracking in the UK, Barclays is bankrolling the hugely controversial Dakota Access Pipeline in the US [1], which has faced unprecedented protest at Standing Rock and other sites.
We’ll bring Barclays face to face with these two communities at their AGM. And we’d love your name to be alongside them.
We know that if we’re serious about tackling climate change, we need to leave 80% of the world’s fossil fuel reserves in the ground. By pushing fracking on local communities that don’t want it, Barclays is doing nothing short of financing climate chaos.
The pressure is already mounting on Barclays. Last year, hundreds of you held actions at Barclays branches around the country – at the bank’s next gathering in just a few weeks’ time, it needs to feel the pressure again.
Together we can make sure it’s shareholders hear the message even louder.
Thanks for all your support,
Anna & the fracking team
NOTES
[1] This would carry crude oil more than one thousand miles across the country, and is being fought by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe with support from communities around the world.
