EXTINCTION Rebellion activists plastered Barclays Bank in Truro with stickers depicting a hammer to break glass in case of climate emergency

This action, which took place last Thursday (Jan 26) was in support of seven female activists who cracked the glass of Barclays London offices in an attempt to discourage the bank from continuing to invest in the fossil fuel industry.

All seven women are due for sentencing in Southwark Crown Court on January 27th and face up to 18 months in prison.

The group claims that, having tried ceaselessly to open a dialogue with the bank, the campaigners resorted to the well-known tactics of the Suffragettes a hundred years ago, who resorted to smashing windows in their campaign for female suffrage – a move now revered and their results celebrated.

According to Extinction Rebellion, Barclays has been targeted because of its perceived continuing of investment in fossil fuels, despite catastrophic warnings from scientists the world over.

In 2021 the International Energy Agency concluded there could be no new oil, gas or coal development if the world was going to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

What the activists are demanding from Barclays Bank is, in their words, simple: ceasing its fossil fuel investments and investing instead in renewable green energy.

One of the Cornish activists explained that they are: “appalled that we have to go to such extreme lengths to try and communicate with organisations whose actions will have such damning consequences for our children and grandchildren.

"We need to move away from fossil fuels now.

"If Barclays invested these staggering sums into the green economy we would stand a chance of stalling climate change and future generations could have a brighter, safer, cleaner future to look forward to.

"These women have done a heroic act and history will judge them to have been in the right and Barclays firmly in the wrong."

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.

"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.

"We have a target to facilitate $1trn of Sustainable and Transition financing by 2030 and we are investing £500m of our own capital into climate-tech start-ups – both of which will support new green technologies and infrastructure projects that will build up low-carbon capacity and capability."