Key word: directly. Banks may say that they won’t fund fossil fuels but doesn’t mean the money will disappear. Someone else can get the money for them. What Barclays has essentially done is add extra step for oil companies to get their financing. Remember people, banks and corporations are not are our friends. Anytime they claim to take up a social cause - be it climate action, LGBT issues or what have you- it is not for our benefit but for the benefit of their bottom line.
Eh, if it’s adding friction to the process of getting funding then it’s a step in the right direction. Indirect usually means more time consuming, more complicated, more expensive and generally less available overall, which means that fewer companies will actually complete the process.
If they have to go through a middleman it makes this far less attractive. That means money lost paying the middleman and a lot of extra time spent communicating through them. Imposing extra costs is actually a very effective way to influence business decisions.
directly
The word is doing so much heavy lifting in that sentence, it could be a bodybuilder.
For now.
