Dive Brief:

• Barclays’ head of sustainability, Laura Barlow, is stepping down from her role, a spokesperson for the bank confirmed to ESG Dive on Tuesday. Barlow will remain with the bank as a senior adviser.
• Barlow’s responsibilities will be taken on by Daniel Hanna, who serves as Barclays’ group head of sustainable and transition finance, the bank spokesperson said. Hanna joined the bank in 2022 as a sustainable finance leader for its investment-banking division.
• Barlow’s exit, first reported Monday by Reuters, comes as banks and financial institutions are facing heightened scrutiny over their sustainability efforts, particularly in the U.S. So far this year, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase exited the Net-Zero Banking Alliance while BlackRock departed the Net-Zero Asset Managers initiative — both United Nations-backed membership groups that support the goal of reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or sooner.

Dive Insight:

Barlow retired from her sustainability leadership role at Barclays toward the end of 2024 to “pursue a portfolio career” and “other opportunities,” according to Reuters. She joined the bank in 2021, her LinkedIn profile indicated.

During Barlow’s tenure, Barclays committed to ceasing direct financing for new fossil fuel projects, including any new upstream oil and gas, thermal coal expansion projects or related infrastructure. The bank unveiled a Transition Finance Framework at the same time, which laid out how it will classify “transition finance” and allocate funding to decarbonize high-emitting sectors. This framework aims to track the bank’s progress against a prior commitment it made to allocate $1 trillion in sustainable and transition financing by 2030. 

However, Barclays has also faced criticism on its climate-related commitments — or lack thereof — under Barlow’s leadership. 

During the bank’s 2024 annual general meeting in May, a group of shareholders called on Barclays to pull back its financing for fracking operations in North America and “close the loopholes” in its energy policy. The shareholders also called for the bank to impose “explicit restrictions” on providing financial support for companies focused on fossil fuel extraction.

Despite the bank’s prior announcement to cease funding of new fossil fuel projects, investors — organized under responsible investment nonprofit ShareAction — contended at the time that the bank “continues to leave the door open to pour millions into polluting fossil fuel finance, and particularly worryingly, fracking.”

Barlow’s exit comes less than two months after rival bank HSBC announced its chief sustainability officer, Celine Herweijer, would step down at the end of last year. HSBC’s move followed a corporate reshuffle that downsized the bank’s executive committee, ultimately eliminating Herweijer’s position.

In the Nov. 24 statement announcing her exit, HSBC said Herweijer was departing her role to “pursue new opportunities.” At the time, the bank also said Julian Wentzel, its head of global banking for the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey, would assume the role of interim chief sustainability officer this month and that it had begun recruiting for a “permanent successor” for the CSO role.