Petition calls for UCL Students’ Union to ‘urgently’ switch bank

A motion to move the Students’ Union's money from Barclays Bank to Nationwide due to its impact on the climate was proposed in a Union Executive meeting earlier this month.

Photo by Chris LeBoutillier on Unsplash

UCL’s Students’ Union’s finances have been up for discussion recently amid calls for it to change bank providers. More than 100 UCL students have signed an open letter to the Union calling for the ‘emergency measure’, referencing Barclays Bank’s ties to fossil fuel companies as the reason they believe the change needs to be made. 

Signees of the open letter to UCL’s Students’ Union, entitled “SU Gotta Switch!”, have asked that the Union move from Barclays Bank to a “more ethical banking provider” by the end of 2021. They suggest that this should be Nationwide. 

The proposal was discussed at the Union Executive meeting on 11 October. Though signees of the open letter asked for their motion to be unamended, the Student Union has added amendments to the original proposal. The policy is classed as ‘Ongoing’ on the SU website, pending the next Union Executive meeting on 15 November.

The Union policy proposal states that “Barclays Bank is the largest funder of fossil fuel infrastructure in Europe”. The finance company provided fossil fuel companies more than £19.4bn in 2020, and over £100 billion since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015. Climate organisations such as Greenpeace and People & Planet have called for boycotts of the bank because of this. 

The Union’s use of Barclays Bank could be seen to contradict its vision to be ‘the most sustainable Students’ Union in the UK’. It set out a Sustainability Strategy in 2020, to be achieved by 2024. One of its medium-term goals as an organisation is to “Ensure Union funds are placed in the most ethically responsible banks”. The Union has laid out an action plan to achieve this, saying that it aims to “review [its] current banking arrangements and ensure [its] investments are suitably placed.”

The Students’ Union is working “in partnership with UCL” on sustainability. UCL achieved a 27% reduction in carbon emissions between 2009 and 2019, showing a dedication to limiting the impact of the university on the climate. UCL’s dedication is also increasingly coming into question, however, due to its career fair hosting multiple climate-harming companies, including Barclays , BP, CGG, Pulsar and Wintermute.