EXTINCTION Rebellion activists have targeted Barclays Bank in Cardigan where they stood in silence apart from the steady toll of a drum.

Simultaneously around the country 110 other Barclays branches, including Aberystwyth and Carmarthen, were the scene of similar protests.

The action was to highlight what Extinction XR say are Barclays’ ‘climate-wrecking’ investment policies.

“Barclays is the UK’s and Europe's largest financier of fossil fuels,” said a spokesperson.

“Although the International Energy Agency says there is no need for investment in new fossil fuel supply, Barclays invested nearly £20 billion in fossil fuels last year.

"Since the Paris Climate Agreement their total investment in fossil fuels has been almost £150 billion.”

Protester Jane Mansfield, a 63-year-old retired nurse, from Pentrecagal, said: “I want grandchildren everywhere to enjoy the best possible future.

“We need banks to be investing in the future we need, not continuing to line their pockets at the expense of our children's future.

"Investing in new fossil fuel developments is totally against everything scientists are saying.

“It is just plain reckless. The future will doubtless view this as criminal behaviour.”

The peaceful protesters, portraying themselves as faceless bankers, wore expressionless white masks and carried stark bilingual placards proclaiming what they claimed were the real cost of Barclays' investment policies: 'Profit Before Loss of Everything', 'Killing the Future' and 'Financing Climate Hell'.

“This April the United Nations reported that the world is on a ‘fast track’ to disaster and scientists warned it is ‘now or never’ to limit warming to 1.5 degrees,” added the spokesperson.

“Just this week, at COP27, UN Secretary General, António Guterres warned: “We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator.”

Protester Jane Ramsey, who has lived in the Teifi Valley since 1975 said: “I’m driven to protest because I know the science says that the worst effects of climate change are not inevitable and we can still make a difference.

“This is the critical decade for securing a sustainable future - we need urgent action.”

Extinction XR are calling on the Government to end all fossil fuel expansion.