From Investing.com:

Barclays, the largest lender to the oil and gas industry in Britain, will stop direct financing of new oil and gas fields. It will restrict lending more broadly to energy companies expanding fossil fuel production. From 2025, the bank will curb financing to non-diversified companies with more than 10% expenditure towards long-term production. It also aims to reduce emissions linked to its lending. Non-profit ShareAction welcomed the move after withdrawing a shareholder resolution, but shareholders urge the bank to do more. Worldwide, banks like HSBC and BNP Paribas have started tightening oil and gas lending as they pledge to increase funding to areas such as renewable energy. Barclays aims to increase funding to renewable energy to cap planetary warming. The move by Barclays is not expected to have a significant impact on its business. The bank plans to set climate tests for all clients and limit finance to expansion projects. However, ShareAction and Danish investor Sparinvest have some concerns and urge Barclays to take further steps. In 2020, emissions linked to Barclays’ lending to the energy sector dropped 32% from 2020 to 2022, beating a target reduction of 15%. In 2022, Barclays was the second-biggest funder of fossil fuels in Europe, a report by the Rainforest Action Network showed, although most of it came from corporate lending rather than project finance. Additional restrictions include no financing for exploration and production in the Amazon and no financing to firms that get more than 20% of their production from unconventional sources, like oil sands. All corporate clients in the energy sector will be expected to present transition plans by January 2025. Barclays has committed to reviewing 750 client entities. In January, the bank announced the formation of a new energy transition group to provide strategic advice to clients.



Read more: Barclays to adopt fresh curbs on oil and gas financing By Reuters