Extinction Rebellion protestors target Barclays banks
Branches in Glasgow, Birmingham, London and Newcastle have seen protests
Activists from the group Extinction Rebellion are protesting outside many branches of Barclay's Bank this morning, including smashing the windows of a branch in Glasgow, demanding the banking company cut its ties with fossil fuel firms.
Protests are also taking place at Barclays branches in Newcastle, where protestors say they've 'invaded the bank', and in Birmingham where protestors have spray-painted messages onto the bank's windows.
The activist group say they have also taken action at 45 Barclays branches in London
The group says they broke the glass at the Clyde Place Quay branch in Glasgow ahead of a demonstration outside the company's outlet later on Monday.
Images released by XR show the window panes broken with three protesters holding up banners declaring "this is an intervention" and calling on the company to "stop funding Rosebank".
Scottish oil field protest
Rosebank is an oil and gas field around 100 miles off the coast of the Shetland Island which First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was urged to help bring to a halt after she was approached by a climate protester at Cop27 in Sharm El-Sheikh last week.
The Glasgow protesters said the field had more than 500 million barrels of oil, and claim Barclays have provided Norwegian state-owned firm Equinor with $2.46 billion of backing since 2015.
Protests across the UK
The Glasgow protest was one of a series across the UK.
In Birmingham activists sprayed a message onto the glass doors of a Barclays branch before staging a sit-down protest on the pavement.
In Newcastle XR activists said they "invaded" a branch on Northumberland Street.
Fossil fuel funding
One Extinction Rebellion protester said they were taking the action because "Barclays are finding the destruction of our planet, and they are funding the destruction of our children's future".
"I cannot stand by and do nothing while Barclays fund the collapse of society," she said.
Alex Cochrane, of Extinction Rebellion Scotland, said that the bank were the "biggest funders of fossil fuel in Europe".
"Their greed is exploiting and creating a future of famine, displaced people and global suffering," he said.
"We all know we need to wean ourselves off fossil fuels. We all know the climate crisis is already hitting us yet Barclays still refuses to do the right thing for us.
"For all our sakes, they must stop using our money to fund fossil fuels."
The group claimed the action in Scotland's biggest city followed in the footsteps of suffragettes and the Ploughshares movement, "using nonviolent direct action and causing damage to property to prevent and draw attention to greater damage".
Barclays response
A Barclays spokesperson said: “We are determined to play our part in addressing the urgent and complex challenge of climate change.
"In March 2020 we were one of the first banks to set an ambition to become net zero by 2050, across all of our direct and indirect emissions, and we committed to align all of our financing activities with the goals and timelines of the Paris Agreement.
"We have a three-part strategy to turn that ambition into action: achieving net zero operations, reducing our financed emissions, and financing the transition.
"In practice, this means we have set 2030 targets to reduce our financed emissions in four of the highest emitting sectors in our financing portfolio, with additional 2025 targets for the two highest-emitting sectors – energy and power."
Remember when XR protest stopped traffic in London?
XR at Marble Arch
Extinction Rebellion blocked Marble Arch junction with a limousine.