Jupiter Backs Barclays Shareholder Resolution on Climate Change

(Bloomberg) -- Jupiter Asset Management has thrown its weight behind a shareholder campaign urging Barclays Plc to set out how it will stop financing energy firms that don't align with the Paris Agreement climate goals.

The London-based fund manager joins around a dozen institutions including Amundi SA to back what supporters say is the first climate change resolution at a European bank. The proposal, which was announced in January and co-ordinated by the U.K. nonprofit ShareAction, will face a shareholder vote at Barclays's annual meeting in May.

“As investors, we expect boards and management teams to maintain a long-term mindset and appropriately manage key risks to their business,” said Ashish Ray, head of governance and sustainability at Jupiter, which owns 1.15% of Barclays' shares.

Read More: Protestors Target Barclays Office Over Fossil Fuel Links

Barclays has faced criticism for its continued relationship with fossil fuel companies. The London-based bank is the industry's biggest backer in Europe and the sixth largest globally, according to the environmental group Rainforest Action Network. The lender provided $85.2 billion in finance to energy companies in the three years after the 2015 Paris accord to curb global emissions.

Last year, the bank said it would restrict its coal financing business globally by ending direct financing of greenfield thermal coal mines and new or expanding coal-fired power stations.

“We continue to engage with ShareAction and other shareholders on this issue and will make a further statement at the appropriate time,” Simon Hailes, a Barclays spokesman, said in an emailed statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Saijel Kishan in New York at skishan@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Quinson at tquinson@bloomberg.net, Marion Dakers, Ross Larsen

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