Finance sector revealed as one of UK's biggest contributors to climate change

UK banks and investors responsible for nearly double the UK’s annual carbon emissions

Pedro Gonçalves
clock • 3 min read

UK banks and asset managers were responsible for financing 805m tonnes of CO2 in 2019, which would make the City of London the 9th biggest emitter in the world if it were a country, according to a report by Greenpeace UK and WWF.

The research pointed towards finance as one of the UK's biggest contributors to climate change and supports calls for regulation to be introduced across the sector to bring it into line with Paris Agreement targets.  UK banks and asset managers financed carbon emissions that were 1.8 times the annual net emissions of the UK as a whole, the report revealed, placing UK finance at the same level as oil and gas extraction, coal mining, aviation and transport, high carbon sector. Greenpeace UK's executive director John Sauven said: "Finance is the UK's dirty little secret. Banks and invest...

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