Barclays Bank skyscraper building from Times Square, New York. Credit: Alan Budman/Shutterstock.com
Barclays Plc plans to invest £500 million ($619 million) in climate-focused startups by 2027, as the lender targets $1 trillion of green financing by the end of the decade.
The bank said in a statement that the increase in its Sustainable Impact Capital investment mandate, expected to hit £175 million by 2025, reflects the funding needed to continue existing efforts and support new investments. The push will focus on carbon capture and hydrogen technologies.
Barclays has invested £84 million in environmental startups in the past two and a half years. The lender said it is prioritizing supporting clients as they transition to a low carbon economy. But its willingness to date to finance some of the world’s biggest polluters has made it the target of criticism by climate activists.
Like many London institutions, the bank has faced protests outside its offices and two shareholder resolutions pushing it to do more to phase out fossil fuels. From the start of 2019 through last November, Barclays arranged roughly $50 billion of financing via loans and bond sales for fossil-fuel companies, more than any UK-based bank other than HSBC Holdings Plc, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
HSBC also updated its energy policy on Wednesday, including a commitment to no longer provide “new lending or capital markets finance for the specific purpose of projects pertaining to new oil and gas fields and related infrastructure when the primary use is in conjunction with new fields.”
Tom Metcalf reports for Bloomberg News.
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