Hundreds of students from leading UK universities have launched a “career boycott” of Barclays over its climate policies, warning that the bank will miss out on top talent unless it stops financing fossil fuel companies.
More than 220 students from Barclays’ top recruitment universities, including Oxford, Cambridge, and University College London, have sent a letter to the high street lender, saying they will not work for Barclays and raising the alarm over its funding for oil and gas firms including Shell, TotalEnergies, Exxon and BP.
“Your ambitious decarbonisation targets are discredited by your absence of action and the roster of fossil fuel companies on your books,” the letter said. “You may say you’re working with them to help them transition, but Shell, Total and BP have all rowed back.”
Large oil firms have started to water down climate commitments, including BP, which originally pledged to lower emissions by 35% by 2030 but is now aiming for a 20% to 30% cut instead. Meanwhile, ExxonMobil quietly withdrew funding for plans to use algae to create low-carbon fuel, while Shell announced it would not increase its investments in renewable energy this year, despite earlier promises to slash its emissions.
The letter calls on Barclays to end all financing and underwriting of oil and gas companies – not only their projects – and to boost funding of firms behind wind and solar energy significantly.
In May, more than 500 students and recent graduates made a similar pledge aimed at insurers that they said supported controversial fossil fuel projects. That letter was directed at the world’s largest insurance market, Lloyd’s of London, and addressed to individual firms including Beazley, Hiscox, Chaucer and Tokio Marine Kiln.
“New recruitment of the younger generation will be another headache for Barclays as long as it continues to finance companies building new oil and gas infrastructure, since it relies heavily on Stem [science, engineering, technology and mathematics] applicants from Oxbridge and other top universities,” said Michelle Hemmingfield, a representative of Students Organising for Sustainability UK, which spearheaded the letter.
The career boycott is the latest headache for Barclays, which was targeted by climate campaigners at its AGM in May and faced pressure over its sponsorship of Wimbledon, as well as over its ties to the National Trust. The lender has also been hit by grassroots campaigns, including by a pensioner who refused to pay her council tax because of a link to the bank.
A Barclays spokesperson said: “Aligned to our ambition to be a net zero bank by 2050, we believe we can make the greatest difference by working with our clients as they transition to a low-carbon business model, reducing their carbon-intensive activity whilst scaling low-carbon technologies, infrastructure and capacity.
“We have set 2030 targets to reduce the emissions we finance in five high-emitting sectors, including the energy sector, where we have achieved a 32% reduction since 2020. In addition, to scale the needed technologies and infrastructure, we have provided £99bn of green finance since 2018, and have a target to facilitate $1tn in sustainable and transition financing between 2023 and 2030.”
