Extinction Rebellion activists dressed as Santa, elves, a polar bear, and a bank manager took to the streets in Cardigan on the Thursday before Christmas to award potatoes and letters to two banks.

The letters exhorted the banks to change their investment policies to prioritise the needs of the climate, biodiversity and children.

The campaigners say that in recent months both Lloyds and HSBC have announced that they would no longer fund new gas and oil developments.

However Extinction Rebellion say this will still allow them to fund other projects for the companies still developing new gas and oil projects, and savers’ money may still end up supporting these companies.

Acknowledging this first step, Cardigan XR awarded large rosettes to HSBC and Lloyds in addition to potatoes "that their fossil fuel funding activities had earned them."

Western Telegraph: Letters from XR exhorted the banks to change their investment policies to prioritise the needs of the climate, biodiversity and children everywhere.Letters from XR exhorted the banks to change their investment policies to prioritise the needs of the climate, biodiversity and children everywhere. (Image: Cardigan XR)

“Hopefully this will put additional pressure on other banks to follow suit,” said Jim Bowen, who was Santa for the day.

The activists awarded large or extra-large potatoes based on the Rainforest Action Network Report, Banking on Climate Chaos.

The report claims that Barclays remains the largest fossil fuels funding bank in Europe, having funded a further $19 billion into fossil fuels in 2021, closely followed by HSBC at $17 billion.

The recently published Share Action Report, In Debt to the Planet, shows that the biodiversity policies of Europe's 25 largest banks, including Barclays, HSBC and Lloyds are far behind where they need to be.

READ MORE:

"The science is crystal clear,” said elf, Sian Vaughan, from Fishguard.

“If we want a liveable future for our children, we have to phase out coal, oil and gas as fast as we can. We already have the solutions to do this.

“Of course, we'll still need some fossil fuels during the transition, but the International Energy Agency says we have enough already in production to see us through that period.

"We don't need new drilling and extraction; funding these projects means funding climate breakdown."

Western Telegraph: XR campaigners with Santa's list of naughty and nice banks,XR campaigners with Santa's list of naughty and nice banks, (Image: XR Cardigan)

"Banks are really not all the same. In Carmarthen, Santa brought chocolates for the 'clean' banks.

"I'm really hoping that by next year, our Cardigan banks will get themselves off the naughty list,” said elf, Jane Mansfield, from Pentrecagal.

Jim Bowen added: "We can each play our part. Don't be fooled by the slick presentation of the high street banks. We can use sites like bank.green to fact check and compare them and to move to a bank that doesn't use our money to fund destruction."