BBC
The director of Four Weddings and a Funeral is calling on Wimbledon to end its new sponsorship deal with Barclays over the bank’s support for fossil fuel projects.
Richard Curtis and the Make My Money Matter campaign group said Barclays was “profiting from climate chaos”.
Wimbledon said Barclays was committed to creating access to sport for all.
Barclays said it was one of the first banks to set an ambition to become net zero by 2050.
The All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) announced Barclays as an official banking partner of the Championships in November last year.
As the 2023 Championships get under way on Monday, Curtis is among those to sign an open letter to the AELTC.
The letter is from Make My Money Matter, a campaign group co-founded by Curtis that seeks to transform the financial system to put “people and planet on a par with profit”.
Addressed to the chief executive of the AELTC Sally Bolton, it states: “Barclays is Europe’s largest fossil fuel funder, providing over $190 billion to the industry since the Paris Climate Agreement was struck in 2016.
“Put simply, Barclays is financing and profiting from climate chaos, and accepting a sponsorship deal from them is an endorsement of these actions,” the letter said.
The campaign group claims the AELTC’s decision to team up with Barclays is “not only bad for the environment, but also inconsistent with Wimbledon’s cultural legacy and environmental policies”.
“As outlined in your 2023 climate strategy, your intent is to: ‘Sustain… The Championships in a way that ensures we have… positive impact on our environment. We will be honest, transparent and act with integrity in what we can and cannot do.’
“We do not believe sponsorship from Europe’s largest funder…
