For several days, Penarth Climate Action group has been protesting outside the local Barclays branch, which is due to permanently shut its doors later this month.

The group's members are using the imminent closure to draw attention to Barclay's role in funding the fossil fuel industry.

They are also encouraging people to switch to greener banks, such as Nationwide, which has a local branch.

"For most people, it's probably never occurred to them that banking is an environmental issue," said Tony Cooke, member of Penarth Climate Action.

"It's not that the branches of the bank use a huge amount of carbon, it's what the bank as a whole invests money into.

"Anyone putting money into Barclays is helping them fund new oil fields, new gas lines, total destruction basically.

"This is about raising awareness that we're in deep trouble. As the saying goes, when you're in a hole, stop digging. Barclays is still digging, massively," he said.

The bank is one of the biggest funders of fossil fuels in the world, and the largest in Europe. Between 2016 and 2020, Barclays invested $144B into the industry.

On Monday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) delivered a report saying that under all the emissions scenarios, the target of limiting the rise in global temperatures to below 2C this century and to pursue efforts to keep it under 1.5C agreed at the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement will be broken this century unless huge cuts in carbon take place.

"The IPCC report shows that we really are in crisis, and we have to cut our fossil fuel consumption as quickly as possible, in whatever ways we can," said Tony, who called for tougher legislation to regulate how UK banks invest.

"It really is down to central government. What Barclays is doing should be illegal," he said.

"The individual choices like how much people drive or fly, or how much meat they eat, and so on, those things are worth doing. But we really need governments and major organizations to change their ways if we're going to stand any chance.

"We really need government to behave as if it believes in what it says it believes in when it comes down to the environment."

On its website, Barclays says: "As a global organisation, we are fully committed to championing environmental innovation and sustainability in support of the transition to a low-carbon economy.

"As part of our climate change approach, we increased our commitment to green finance, with a new target to provide at least £100bn of green finance by 2030.

"In March 2020, we announced that our ambition is to become a net zero bank by 2050. And we've made a firm commitment to align our entire financing portfolio to the goals of the Paris Agreement. That means our own operations, and the financing we do for our clients, in every sector, will support the goal of limiting global warming."

A Barclays spokesperson told Nub News: "We have made a commitment to align our entire financing portfolio to the goals of the Paris Agreement, with specific targets and transparent reporting, on the way to achieving our ambition to be a net zero bank by 2050.

"We believe that Barclays can make a real contribution to tackling climate change and help accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy."

Penarth Climate Action hope their efforts to raise awareness encourage residents to consider leaving Barclays, to send a message to the bank.

"There are other banks around the world that are even worse, but we're concentrating on the ones that make sense to people living here and picking up on the fact that Barclays is about to close the local branch, so people might be thinking about moving anyway," explained Tony.

"We're not arguing one way or the other about whether there should be a local branch, it's about making people aware that Barclays is investing their money into things that harm the planet."

Penarth Climate Action members say they will continue to demonstrate outside the local branch until the branch closes on 27 August.