MAKE THE CONNECTIONS: FINANCE

PRESS RELEASE 16TH OCTOBER 2020

Extinction Rebellion Scotland take action against the finance sector this weekend with actions in Inverness, Dundee and Glasgow. 

• These actions mark week two of #MakeTheConnections, a campaign of direct action highlighting the collusion between Government, Fossil Fuels and Finance in putting people before profit, wilfully ignoring the facts on climate change and failing to take any thing like real action.

• The High Street banks we are all familiar with are using our money to invest in ecological and human rights disasters, fuelling climate breakdown and putting us all in grave danger.
• 35 banks shovelled $2.7 trillion in fossil fuels on the climate fire since 2016 – bank financing is on the rise (Banking on Climate Change Report 2020)

Over weekend, Scotland-wide
Stick It To The Banks

Warning stickers are appearing on cash machines around the country over the weekend, warning customers that the High Street banks they use and know are engaged in financing fossil fuels.

Friday 16th October 

Midday – Inverness – Barclays, Clean Up Your Act
Barclays Bank, Inverness High Street

XR Forres, XR Highlands and Islands, Elgin and Moraytake their message to the High Street bank Barclays, demanding they clear up their act. Look out for a large bath, a greedy bank manager and loadsa dirty money.

Barclay’s is churning out the PR spin about its supposedly green investments, while trying to ignore the fact that it pumped almost 12 times as much money – £91 billion – into fossil fuel financing between 2016-19. That’s 36% more than any other bank in Europe. Barclays, this year, even blocked attempts by its own shareholders to cut fossil fuel investments.

If you’re worried about your money harming the planet, you can head to https://switchit.money//switch to find out – and take your chance to change banks.

Saturday 17th October 

3pm – XR Glasgow – HSBC Is A Climate Criminal

Extinction Rebellion Glasgow will be orchestrating a “climate crime scene” outside HSBC on Buchanan Street on Saturday afternoon. Members of the groups will “die” in front of the branch, to demonstrate the ways in which HSBC is contributing to the Climate and Ecological Emergency. A “crime scene investigator” will examine the scene and share information on the bank’s crimes.

HSBC is the dirtiest bank in the world, investing $86.52 billion a year in the fossil fuel industry. Some of the projects include:

Since 2011 they have lent money to the Cerrejón Coal mine in La Guajira, Colombia – an area already suffering from drought and poverty. This is one of the biggest open pit coal mines in the world, and has led to local communities, including the indigenous Wayúu people, being forcibly relocated.

They have provided $45 million in bank guarantees throughout 2015 and 2016 to Adaro Energy, one of Indonesia’s biggest coal producers, and made billions available in loans.

Skye Brettell, a student aged 23 commented  “I cannot simply stand by anymore, pretending like this isn’t my problem. It is my problem, it’s everybody’s problem, because it’s our future we are destroying. We cannot afford to settle for HSBC and other companies and industries going carbon neutral by 2050 or some other distance way off in this future. We all need to act now or else it is too late”. 

Sunday 18th October 

3pm – XR Dundee protest Barclays sponsored V&A exhibition

XR Dundee will stage a theatrical, visual action outside the V&A in Dundee to protest one of Europe’s dirtiest banks Barclays sponsoring the Mary Quant exhibition being held there. Expect 60s fashion and a lot of oil.

Anne Campbell, a retired midwife and a member of Extinction Rebellion in Dundee, said “Barclays is the biggest funder of fossil fuels in Europe. The V&A should not be accepting money from an organisation which is complicit in fuelling climate change. Barclays is using sponsorship of art and culture as a way of diverting attention away from the fact that they are profiting from an industry that is destroying our climate, making life unliveable for millions of people across the world, and threatening our whole planet with destruction. Bank financing for fossil fuels has increased since the United Nations Paris Agreement in 2016. This has to stop.”

About Extinction Rebellion Scotland

Extinction Rebellion Scotland is a non-violent direct-action movement formed to take urgent action in the face of climate emergency and ecological catastrophe, as part of the global justice movement.

Our demands, issued as a Declaration of Rebellion to the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government on 24th November 2018, are as follows;

1. That the Scottish Government tell the truth about the climate and wider ecological emergency, acknowledge and reverse any policies that help drive the climate crisis, and commit to enabling a rapid and just transition to a sustainable and fair society.
2. That the Scottish Government enact legally binding policy measures to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2025, including by replacing a system based on accelerating consumption with one based on ensuring the wellbeing of all.
3. The creation of a legally binding Scottish Climate Citizens’ Assembly to oversee the changes, as part of creating a democracy fit for purpose and a society that cares for all.

www.xrscotland.org
www.facebook.com/xrscotland
www.facebook.com/xrglasgow
www.twitter.com/scotlandxr
www.instagram.com/xrscotland