Barclays is being urged to stop offering loans to fossil fuel companies as part of the first ever shareholder climate resolution aimed at a UK bank.

A group of 11 pension and investment funds managing more than £130bn worth of assets have filed a resolution calling for Barclays to set clear targets to phase out services to energy companies that fail to align with Paris climate goals.

That includes lending to specific fossil fuel projects or for companies themselves, which include electricity and gas providers which fall foul of climate targets...

The resolution, spearheaded by the campaign group ShareAction and signed by more than 100 additional individual shareholders, will be voted on at Barclays annual general meeting in May 2020...

A recent study commissioned by groups including the Rainforest Action Network singled Barclays out as the largest financier of fossil fuels in Europe and the sixth largest in the world...

Barclays has also been criticised by groups including ShareAction and Greenpeace over its climate policy, which they say does not go far enough to address the crisis...

Barclays said: “We are working to help tackle climate change, and we meet with Share Action and other shareholders regularly to update them on our progress.”