Climate protestors are calling on Ceredigion County Council to “cease banking with Barclays as a matter of urgency”.

A protest was held in Aberystwyth, on Saturday, 4 December, urging Ceredigion County Council to stop banking with Barclays, which is the worst bank Europe for funding the companies fuelling climate change according to Greenpeace.

Environmental campaigners came together to “promote awareness of ethical baking as the only sane, and increasingly safer, alternative to our traditional High Street Banks”.

The protesting scrubbers cleaned Barclays, in Aberystwyth, and suited citizens circulated a petition, calling on the council to “get our council taxes out of Barclays”.

Protestor Susanna Kenyon, of the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill Alliance, said: “High Street banks continue to finance fossil fuel companies and projects that are destroying the world’s hope of meeting climate targets.

“Business in coal, gas and oil carries on as usual despite the warning from the International Energy Agency last Spring that extraction must stop immediately, if nature and the developing world is to have any future.

“Ethical banks, such as Triodos, Ecology, and Charity Bank, all have good ethiscores, and only hold investments on behalf of their clients in environmentally sustainable projects.

“Barclays has financed more in fossil fuels projects across the world than any of the UK’s largest banks in the last year, a little ahead of HSBC and Standard Chartered. It is also the bank for HMRC and our county council.”

Aberystwyth Mayor and Ceredigion County Councillor Alun Williams said: “It’s important that all councils adhere to the highest ethical standards in their banking.

“Ceredigion Council did used to bank with the Co-op and it’s unfortunate that when the Co-op Bank crashed I understand Barclays were the only bank to offer a replacement service, so there was little option.

“However, the council is having an impact on ethical banking. I was pleased to see earlier this year that the Dyfed Pension Fund have reduced their fossil fuel investments as a direct result of the motions by Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire Councils.

“So Ceredigion is succeeding in shifting things in the right direction. I will continue to pursue the matter.”

Greenpeace said Barclays is the “worst bank in Europe” for funding fossil fuels, and is “just behind US banks”.

A Barclays spokesperson said: “We are aligning our entire financing portfolio to support the goals of the Paris Agreement - significantly scaling up green financing, directly investing in new green technologies and helping clients in key sectors change their business models to reduce their climate change impact.

“By 2025, we will reduce the emissions intensity of our power portfolio by 30%, and reduce absolute emissions of our energy portfolio by 15%. Increasing at pace, Barclays has already facilitated £46bn of green finance. We are one of the only banks globally investing our own capital – £175m – into innovative, green start-ups.

“By deploying finance in this way, we are accelerating the transition to a low-carbon economy and will become a net zero bank by 2050.”

Ceredigion County Council have been contacted for a comment.