Extinction Rebellion activists scale Barclays bank in St Albans

The climate activists have climbed onto the roof of Barclays in St Peter's Street and held a banner that read 'funding climate chaos'.

They have also set off purple smoke flares. Police are in attendance.

Extinction Rebellion has targeted this particular branch in St Albans on a number of occasions, describing Barclays as a "dirty bank" because of its "support of fossil fuel projects".

This afternoon, at least seven protesters have gathered outside the bank.

Extinction Rebellion activists in St Albans today (November 26). Credit: Brett Ellis

Three stationed themselves on top of the bank holding a banner and purple flares. Extinction Rebellion St Albans tweeted they clambered up there at 1.45pm.

On the ground, two protesters held a poster that read 'dirty bank'.

Extinction Rebellion St Albans has claimed Barclays financed $27bn in fossil fuels in 2020, and has invested almost $145bn in coal, oil and gas projects across the planet since 2015.

The Review approached Barclays for a comment in response to the protest.

A spokesperson said: "We are aligning our entire financing portfolio to support the goals of the Paris Agreement - significantly scaling up green financing, directly investing in new green technologies and helping clients in key sectors change their business models to reduce their climate change impact.

"By 2025, we will reduce the emissions intensity of our power portfolio by 30 per cent, and reduce absolute emissions of our energy portfolio by 15 per cent. Increasing at pace, Barclays has already facilitated £46bn of green finance.

"We are one of the only banks globally investing our own capital – £175 million – into innovative, green start-ups. By deploying finance in this way, we are accelerating the transition to a low-carbon economy and will become a net zero bank by 2050."