Greenpeace volunteers in Manchester turned up outside Barclays in the City Centre on Saturday to raise public awareness of the Bank’s financial support for new Tar Sands pipelines in Canada.
While the pipeline proposals support an increase in Tar Sand extraction, opposition from Indigenous and local communities, as well as threats to drinking water in the region and the current climate of economic vulnerability, exposes funding agencies to unprecidented financial and reputational risk in this venture.
In support of the Climate Change agreements made in Paris 2015, Greenpeace is asking Barclays – and others involved, to make stronger commitments when it comes to the financing of tar sands pipelines.
Martin Porter, a volunteer with Manchester Greenpeace at the event in Market Street, said:
“It’s important that people know what their banks are up to with their money. To make sure the bank will not provide financial support for dirty tar sands pipelines projects or Energy Transfer Partners, and get them to agree to create a policy which commits to never funding these toxic oil pipelines in the future.”
Members of the general public were asked to support the Greenpeace cause by signing a fake cardboard credit card which was then inserted into a mock ATM. These signed cards were then passed to Barclays as an indication of the level of dissatisfaction felt across Manchester of their dealings in support of toxic oil projects.
Martin continued:
“Barclays is the only UK bank still choosing to fund these dirty, dangerous projects.
Indigenous communities in North America are in the path of all three of these pipelines, but they’re fighting back. We stand with the Indigenous communities, the people who are protecting water, wildlife, and our shared climate. We hold Barclays bank to account.”
Manchester Greenpeace were joined by Greenpeace groups across the UK in sending this message to Barclays over the weekend.

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