Protesters have forced NatWest to halt its shareholder meeting, as the bank’s chairman defended its climate policy in response to investors claiming it has “backtracked” on commitments.

The annual general meeting (AGM) was being held on Tuesday morning but had to be stopped for about half an hour amid disruption during chairman Rick Haythornthwaite’s opening speech.

Protesters were singing and making statements about NatWest’s climate policies.

The boss heard a statement presented by ShareAction, backed by investors managing 1.4 trillion US dollars (£1 trillion) in assets, including the Church of England Pensions Board, Greater Manchester Pension Fund and Rathbones Investment Management.

The statement said investors are “concerned by the bank’s changed outlook on climate change” having “reduced the ambition of its fossil fuel policy and climate targets”.

“The bank dropped its commitment not to finance oil and gas majors lacking a credible transition plan or failing to report their overall emissions,” it said.

It called for Mr Haythornthwaite to meet the group of shareholders to discuss the bank’s climate strategy.

Campaigners including ShareAction are also calling for shareholders to vote against the re-election of the bank’s chair over concerns of climate backtracking, which the Church of England’s pensions body said it plans to do.

Mr Haythornthwaite responded to the statements saying that he “takes climate change very seriously, as does all of this board” and that he was happy to meet the group.

“We’ve had to wrestle with the questions of how do we balance supporting our customers in their transition efforts with managing the risks in what is an increasingly complex policy environment,” he said.

He stressed that the bank’s “overwhelming” balance of lending was on renewables and that oil and gas financing comprises 0.6% of total lending.

NatWest also retained targets to at least halve the climate impact of its financing activity by 2030, against a 2019 baseline.

“I don’t want to take what sounds like a backtracking as a major shift,” Mr Haythornthwaite said, adding that “these targets matter”.

Shell has agreed a 16.4 billion US dollar (£12.1 billion) deal to buy Canadian energy firm ARC Resources in a bid to boost its gas production and reserves.

The British energy giant said the acquisition will strengthen its resource base “for decades to come”.

It will also strengthen the business’s presence in North America, where it already operates gas plants.

The deal will combine ARC’s more than 1.5 million net acres of land with Shell’s approximately 440,000 in the Montney gas resource in Canada.

It will increase Shell’s production growth rate from 1% to 4% through to 2030, compared with 2025, according to the firm.

Shell’s chief executive Wael Sawan said acquiring the “high quality, low-cost” energy business “strengthens our resource base for decades to come”.

He added: “We are accessing uniquely positioned assets and welcoming colleagues that bring deep expertise which, combined with Shell’s strong basin level performance, provides a compelling proposition for shareholders.

“This establishes Canada as a heartland for Shell while furthering our strategy to deliver more value with less emissions.”

Shell has been carrying out a new growth strategy focused on extracting more oil and gas, moving from a focus on green energy and reducing spending on renewables.

It hopes the shift will support production targets and drive greater returns for investors.

The announcement comes a few weeks after Shell said it had cut its gas production outlook for the first quarter of 2026 after being affected by the conflict in the Middle East.

The energy giant trimmed its guidance for integrated gas production after volumes from Qatar were particularly affected during recent attacks.

The deal will see ARC’s shareholders receive 8.20 Canadian dollars (£4.50) and about 0.4 Shell shares for each ARC share.

Including about 2.8 billion US dollars (£2.1 billion) in debt that Shell will take on, the acquisition is valued at about 16.4 billion US dollars (£12.1 billion).

It is expected to complete in the second half of 2026, subject to shareholder, court and regulatory approvals.