Climate activists say finance is a justice issue and moving accounts can have a significant impact.
Rosie Venner has been talking a lot about banks. She thinks it matters—to God.
“We are called to be good stewards, to love our neighbors, to seek peace, to act justly. Surely this should shape how we relate to money and where we bank,” she said.
Venner is a British Christian climate change activist working on the Money Makes Change campaign with the JustMoney Movement, a group that aims to be “the go-to organisation for Christians and churches” applying the teachings of their faith and the biblical calls to justice to the way they handle their money. Which brings her to British banks, and the choices they make when investing the money deposited by Christians who are concerned about the negative environmental effects of burning fossil fuels.
Barclays, for example, which is considered by some experts to be a key corporation controlling global financial stability, was the biggest funder of the fossil fuel sector in Europe from 2016 to 2021, some years investing more than 23 billion pounds (about $30 billion US) and investing in oil extraction in the Arctic Circle and the Amazon rainforest.
Altogether, according to the most recent data, banks pumped more than 733 billion pounds (about $942 billion US) into the fossil fuel industry per year.
Venner would like Christians to pull their money out of banks like that, because the Lord has shown us what is good and requires us to act justly (Micah 6:8).
JustMoney is partnering with a number of Christian climate organizations—Just Love, Operation Noah and Switch It Green—to encourage Christians to make financial changes during Lent. They’re calling it The Big Bank Switch. It’s an invitation for believers during the traditional period of …
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