Cornmarket in Oxford is a busy shopping street but it is also a popular choice for marches and protests, including a demonstration last year organised by climate strike protesters who were lobbying Barclays Bank.
In July last year, more than 20 activists from the Oxford Youth Strike lay on Cornmarket Street, to protest against the banking giant's investment in fossil fuels.
Protesters met at Bonn Square and marched to Barclays armed with megaphones and banners.
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One 17 year-old protester, Emile Czernuszka, said at the time: “I detest any mention from Barclays about their investment in green solutions, when they are still a global leader in facilitating the destruction of our planet.”
The aim of the ‘die-in’ was to increase what the campaigners said was the ‘already overwhelming pressure’ from the Investor Forum – a group of Britain’s largest investors – for Barclays to stop investing in oil.
Another campaigner, EJ Fawcett, added: "We have changed our activism due to the danger posed by Covid-19, but we cannot allow the burning of fossil fuels to go unchallenged.
"We are running out of time, we need organisations like Barclays to divest from the fossil fuel industry.
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"Climate breakdown will not only affect the young, it will affect all humanity."
It was not the first time that the company had faced climate campaigners in Oxfordshire.
Greenpeace members shut down three Barclays Bank branches in Oxford as part of a national protest against fossil fuel funding in March 2020.
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Barclays on London Road, Headington, was one of almost 100 hit across the country, and had its doors glued and nailed shut by Greenpeace campaigners.
Barclays says it 'can make a real contribution to tackling climate change and help accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy.'
It adds: "It’s our ambition to be a net zero bank by 2050. We’re already net zero emissions from our own operations; our focus now is on reducing the client emissions that we finance. That starts with aligning our financing with the Paris Agreement, across not just lending but our capital markets activity as well."
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