A climate protester accused of being part of a group who caused £100,000 worth of damage to the UK headquarters of Barclays had been a shareholder in the bank, a court heard.
Zoe Cohen, 52, had invested so she could propose a resolution against funding fossil fuels before helping to smash glass windows during a demonstration at the bank.
She was one of seven women said to have attacked the building in Canary Wharf, east London, on April 7 last year.
Ms Cohen — along with Carol Wood, 53, Nicola Stickells, 52, Sophie Cowen, 31, Lucy Porter, 48, Gabriella Ditton, 28, and Rosemary Webster, 64 — is accused of causing criminal damage during the protest.
It is said the women’s actions were associated with climate change campaigners Extinction Rebellion (XR).
All the defendants, apart from Ms Wood and Ms Stickells, are representing themselves.
The group spread out along the front of the Barclays headquarters before using chisels and hammers to break the large glass panels that made up the exterior of the bank, the court heard.
Giving evidence on Monday, Ms Cohen told jurors that over the past 40 years she has tried “many lawful paths” to campaign for environmental change.
For example, she said she became a Barclays shareholder in early 2021 to put forward a resolution asking the bank to phase out funding for fossil fuels.
She earlier claimed that Barclays was one of the largest funders of fossil fuels in Europe.
The board voted against the proposition, the court heard.
“I truly and honestly believed that by April 2021, I had run out of other options to try and achieve change,” Ms Cohen said.
“I felt that breaking that pane of glass carefully in a way that did not hurt anyone was needed to counteract or try to act against much greater evil.”
Jurors heard the defendant believed that “any reasonable person” would have consented to the breaking of the glass if they were fully informed of the “climate crisis”.
Ms Cohen also told the jury that the repair costs – £97,022 – were “insignificant” to Barclays, which had spent £100 million in refurbishments last year.
She added that windows were replaceable and glass recyclable, but “species” and “whole human cultures” were not.
Having worked in the NHS and public health for 18 years, Ms Cohen is now a self-employed “coach”, working with leaders and managers in the private and public sector.
She said she had a love of justice, which she owed to her parents and grandparents, one of whom worked with the French resistance in the Second World War.
“I don’t break things. I was brought up to reuse, repair and recycle.”
Ms Cohen added that she “genuinely believed”, then and now, that what she did at Barclays headquarters was “an act of love”.
The trial continues.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Classification of skills
A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.
A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.
The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.
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