Barclays analysts hit by bias claim in report on controversial pipeline

Damaging effects: A climate protester demonstrates against Swiss National Bank’s investments in the EACOP, in Bern. Environmentalists claim the pipeline will endanger wildlife, displace local communities and increase carbon emissions. — Bloomberg

LONDON: A group of non-profits is pushing Barclays Plc to retract an analyst research note they claim amounts to a “whitewash” of the environmental and social impact of an African oil pipeline being developed by companies including TotalEnergies SE.

More than 40 environmental and social justice groups wrote last month to the bank’s chief executive officer, C.S. Venkatakrishnan, asking him to rescind a note on the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project that they said was “highly unprofessional, biased and damaging to Barclays’ reputation.”