Harj Narulla has been instructed by Iglesia Colombiana Metodista (The Methodist Church in Colombia), The Methodist Church in Great Britain, The Methodist Church in Ireland, Epworth Investment Management Ltd, and el Centro Popular para América Latina de Co
Harj Narulla has been instructed by Iglesia Colombiana Metodista (The Methodist Church in Colombia), The Methodist Church in Great Britain, The Methodist Church in Ireland, Epworth Investment Management Ltd, and el Centro Popular para América Latina de Comunicación (CEPALC) in a transnational OECD complaint against HSBC Holdings plc for providing financial services to Glencore plc, one of the world’s largest coal exporters.
The complaint argues that HSBC has breached its human rights, environmental and due diligence duties under the OECD Guidelines by providing ongoing financial services to Glencore and other fossil fuel companies. Glencore is one of the highest emitting companies globally, with 473.1 MtCO₂e of emissions in 2025, which is larger than the UK’s entire annual emissions.
The complaint focuses on Glencore’s ownership and operation of the Cerrejón mine in Colombia, one of the world’s largest open-pit coal mines. The mine has had a decades-long record of climate and environmental pollution and documented human rights impacts. The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment has previously condemned Cerrejón’s environmental pollution and human rights violations and has called for the mine to suspend operations.
The mine has particularly acute impacts on the indigenous Wayúu community, some of whose leaders are included as complainants in the case. The Wayúu rely on the Ranchería River, which has been heavily polluted since the 1980s with harmful metals, including mercury and lead. This has led to over 336,000 documented cases of health impacts, in addition to impacts on agriculture, biodiversity, and food security in the region. In 2019, Colombia’s Constitutional Court found in Sentencia T-614/19 that the mine had breached the right to health and the right to safe and healthy environment of the Wayúu people due to harmful air, water and soil pollution.
The complaint is notable as being jointly filed by Methodist Churches in Colombia, Ireland and Great Britain. The Churches in Ireland and Great Britain are, alongside Epworth, customers of HSBC, and have long advocated for HSBC to cease its financing of fossil fuel companies and projects.
