Huddersfield Friends of the Earth today held a protest on Saturday 26th November outside Barclays Huddersfield to highlight the bank’s investment links to the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) project. The DAPL is opposed by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and thousands of Native American supporters from across North America who have set up camps to try to block the project. Opponents of DAPL say that the project threatens sacred native lands and could contaminate their water supply from the Missouri river, the longest river in North America. Huddersfield Friends of the Earth is calling for Barclays to immediately pull out of the DAPL project and end their investments in other fossil fuel projects.
Barclays also own Third Energy, the company holding the licence to frack in Ryedale, North Yorkshire, which was given the go-ahead by North Yorkshire County Council in May 2016. Barclays are the only major High Street bank investing in fracking in the UK.
Chayley Collis of Huddersfield Friends of the Earth said: ” The Frack Free Ryedale and No DAPL groups are not protesters but water protectors, rightly concerned about the threat of water contamination from the projects. We call upon Barclays Bank to drop its investments in the Dakota Pipeline and fracking in North Yorkshire”
Chayley Collis added: “Fracking and new fossil fuel infrastructure projects are also not compatible with tackling climate change. Barclays’ fossil fuel investments are risky for both people and the planet”.
Huddersfield Friends of the Earth 