The National Trust's banking arrangements
The proposers call upon the National Trust to conclude all banking, financial arrangements and ties with Barclays Bank plc (with the exception of existing credit agreements) by 28 February 2024. This should take effect unless the bank adopts a published policy statement and undertaking that before the 1 January 2030 it will cease dealing with, lending to, or investing in any commercial client in the Energy or Power sectors which derives more than 10% of turnover from fossil fuels or the exploration thereof. The National Trust will not hereafter agree any new banking or other arrangement with any financial institution which has not subscribed to a similar published policy statement and undertaking.
This should take effect unless the bank adopts a published policy statement and undertaking that before the 1 January 2030 it will cease dealing with, lending to, or investing in any commercial client in the Energy or Power sectors which derives more than 10% of turnover from fossil fuels or the exploration thereof. The National Trust will not hereafter agree any new banking or other arrangement with any financial institution which has not subscribed to a similar published policy statement and undertaking.
This resolution builds on the principled stand that our National Trust took in 2019 to withdraw investments from fossil fuel companies. If approved at AGM, and accepted by the Board of Trustees, the Trust will stay with Barclays Bank provided they adopt a targeted ethical investment policy within the next financial year.
The reference to ‘10% fossil fuels’ mirrors the condition the Trust fixed for investment policy from 2019 onwards. The reference to ‘Energy or Power’ reflects the importance of these sectors in Barclays portfolio and their role in the climate emergency.
Our National Trust is Europe’s largest conservation charity and is universally respected. It exists because we the members care about the environment and the lessons history bestows. The Trust has a diligence for getting things right and is one of those few UK institutions that still represents our sense of moral integrity.
This contrasts sharply with Barclays Bank which is Europe’s largest financier of fossil fuel investments. The 2022 report Banking on Climate Chaos by the Rainforest Action Network and others shows that, in the six years following the Paris climate summit of 2015, Barclays bankrolled greenhouse gas emissions by investing £137 billion in fossil fuels.
To put it politely, the Trust’s relationship with Barclays Bank is deeply embarrassing.
Greenhouse gases are driving extreme weather events, heat stressed ecology, rising oceans and failure of agriculture.
In 2021 the UN Secretary-General declared a ‘Code Red for humanity’ and in April 2022 the International Panel on Climate Change declared that greenhouse gas emissions would have to peak ‘before 2025 at the latest and be reduced by 43% by 2030’ to limit global warming to around 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
It is shameful that the Trust banks with a business for which ‘diligence’ absolutely requires maximum shareholder profit. Barclays invests in fossil fuels despite the mayhem caused to creation’s fragile ecology, and which is a stark reality in sub-Saharan Africa and for indigenous communities across the globe.
The Trust has rightly been vocal over the climate emergency and has pursued a policy of engagement, agitation and complaint with industry, banks and investors, and supported companies in climate transition. It joined the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change in 2020 and, impatient with government indifference, joined the Climate Coalition in 2021. The Trust website says: ‘We’re ... putting pressure on the Government to adopt policies that will help us all look after the places you love to visit.’
Despite the clamour for transition, investment in new fossil fuel extraction continues apace. We call on the Trust to use its good name and financial leverage to challenge Barclays over its investment targets for 2025 and 2030. Climate impact on Trust property prompted a survey of members in February 2022 about a proposed request for new funds for mitigation projects. It is unconscionable that mitigation funds may be banked with a business complicit in the degradation of Trust lands and properties.
A vote for the resolution is a vote for the Trust’s strategy: ‘For everyone, for ever’.
While Trustees understand the proposers’ real sense of urgency, we do not agree that ceasing involvement with Barclays is the right thing to do. The Trustees believe that, at this time, the charity’s resources are better concentrated on the many projects we are working on to achieve Net Zero by 2030 and that it is critically important that we continue to engage with Barclays and the wider banking sector to do more and faster, following the continued success of investor engagement.
We believe that, as a minimum, the International Energy Authority (IEA)’s pathway to Net Zero by 2050 and its 1.5C cap on global warming is the target that the banking sector should adopt. The IEA sets out an integrated and challenging plan to remove fossil fuels from all industrial sectors, recognising that concerted international effort and very significant resources will be needed to achieve this pathway. The IEA believes its plan should be technically feasible and, by aligning with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, should have continued global social acceptability.
In recent years, sustained shareholder and customer pressure, including from the Trust, has led to a significant tightening of fossil fuel financing policies by UK clearing banks, including Barclays, towards the IEA pathway targets we support. Walking away at this point would deny the Trust any further role in this engagement process and leave the fight to others. Our goal is full alignment with the IEA pathway.
We are immensely grateful for the income we receive from supporters. Every month, we process millions of direct debits, standing orders and other receipts and payments. We also collect cash and card transactions from thousands of visitors and supporters from hundreds of often remote locations.
Moving the banking of an organisation with the size and range of operations of the Trust presents considerable cost, risk and distraction from the delivery of our charitable objectives.
We recommend members vote against the resolution.
See next page for context >>
There is no question that climate change is the defining issue of our generation. At the Trust we are clear it is the single biggest threat to our mission to protect the nation’s heritage, its land and its coastline.
In 2019, the Board of Trustees took the decision to disinvest from all fossil fuels. In 2020, the Trust announced an ambitious target to achieve Net Zero by 2030 and has since then sustained a building engagement programme on climate change with the companies in which the charity invests.
Critical to our investor engagement has been the Trust’s membership of the IIGCC. The IIGCC comprises 370+ members with €50tn of invested assets; it commands significant shareholder power. We believe that the Trust should be allowed to continue to engage with Barclays and that withdrawing custom from them at this time would remove our voice.
Voting information