Barclays amended its energy policy in February, following negotiations with ShareAction and Barclays shareholders, pledging to no longer directly finance new oil and gas projects and to restrict its financing of 'pureplay' companies that focus exclusively on fossil fuel extraction and exploration. However, pureplay companies working on short-term extraction projects are exempted from this commitment, and fracking activities are typically short-term.

Our new analysis has found that these loopholes in Barclays’ recently updated energy policy will allow it to continue providing a significant amount of finance for fracking, despite the net zero commitment it set in 2020.