Opinion: 'Barclays invests in killing your kids' - people chalk messages outside Balham banks

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On Saturday July 3, Extinction Rebellion Wandsworth members chalked messages on the pavements outside Balham banks Barclays and HSBC, both major funders of fossil fuels – and of the climate emergency – to tell them what they think of their investments.

• "Barclays invests in killing your kids"
• "Funding human rights abuse" (HSBC)
• "Climate criminals"
• "5th largest funder of the coal industry in the world" (Barclays)
• "Barclays morally bankrupt"

These were just some of the messages.

The past week has given a foretaste of what global warming looks like already – and a clear warning that we need to stop using fossil fuels now. The city of Jacobabad in Pakistan has deserted streets as residents hunker down as best they can to weather temperatures that can top 52C (126F). Few have any air conditioning, and blackouts mean often there is no mains electricity. The hospital fills with heatstroke cases from those whose livelihoods mean they must venture out. When it gets that hot, people can't even stay on their feet.

On Tuesday, the small mountain town of Lytton, British Columbia, became one of the hottest places in the world, experiencing a temperature of 49.6C (121F). Lytton is at 50 deg N latitude – about the same as London. This part of the world should never get this hot. On Friday, British Columbia's chief coroner said that 719 "sudden and unexpected deaths" had been reported over the past week – triple the number during a similar period in a typical year. This suggests that almost 500 people may have been killed by the extreme weather.

It seems that more and more of the world will soon be too hot for humans.

The 2018 special report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggests a remaining carbon budget (the cumulative amount of carbon emissions) of about 420 gigatonnes (Gt) of CO2 if we want a two-thirds chance of limiting warming to 1.5°C and avoiding even more catastrophic global warming than we are already experiencing. We have already drawn down over 120 Gt of CO2 from this carbon budget, so we now have now less than 300 Gt left. If we burn the proven fossil fuel reserves reported by BP , that will yield 3,600 Gt of CO2 emissions.

This means we can only afford to burn one twelfth of the fossil fuels we have already found to stay within 1.5 degrees of warming. It is time to ban fossil fuels – and fossil fuel funding.

So who are the culprits who are funding this path to destruction?

Barclays has been the number one European funder of fossil fuels in the last five years, according to a recent report by the Rainforest Action Network , having provided $145 billion (£105 billion) to carbon-intensive companies and projects since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2016. HSBC is the second biggest fossil fuel funder out of the British banks, having provided $111 billion (£81 billion) since the Paris Agreement. NatWest and Lloyds appear lower in the ranking, having provided $13.5 billion (£9.8 billion) and $12 billion (£8.7 billion), respectively.

When it comes to funding loss of nature, of the UK banks, HSBC is the worst offender, followed by Barclays, NatWest and Lloyds.

Barclays moves back into first place when it comes to funding plastic packaging pollution, followed by HSBC and NatWest.

"We want to raise awareness that these banks are literally destroying our planet and our future, and to motivate investors to take their money out of these banks and invest it in more ethical banks and financial activities," says Caroline Hartnell, local resident and XR member, who has grandchildren aged 19, 10 and 5.

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