The action was designed to increase public awareness of Barclays complicity in escalating climate change. Barclays is the UK and Europe's largest financier of fossil fuels. Since 2021, when the International Energy Agency concluded there could be no new oil, gas or coal development if the world was to reach net zero by 2050, Barclays has invested over $19 billion in fossil fuels. [4] Since the Paris Climate Agreement in 2016, their total investment in fossil fuels is over $166 billion. [5]