The UK financial sector's amount of carbon emissions exceeded the net annual output of most countries in 2019 as a result of worldwide investments, green groups claimed on Tuesday.
A study by Greenpeace and the UK arm of the World Wildlife Fund comes ahead of the COP26 UN climate summit to be held in Glasgow in November.
"As the host of this year's pivotal global climate summit, the [British] government can no longer turn a blind eye," said Greenpeace UK's Executive Director John Sauven in comments published alongside the report.
"Rather than relying on self-regulation we need legislation that forces all banks and asset managers to align all financing activities with the goals" of the 2015 Paris accord to keep the global temperature increase to under 2 C and ideally closer to 1.5 C by 2050. "That would be genuine climate leadership," Sauven added.
The report noted that banks and asset managers in the UK were together responsible for financing 805 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2019.
This would have made the City of London - commonly referred to as the UK financial sector - as the ninth biggest emitter of carbon dioxide if it were a country, higher than Europe's biggest economy Germany in 10th place, the report added.
Responding, the City of London Corporation said that while it "is showing leadership in the fight against climate change," it recognizes "that there is no room for complacency."
A study by Greenpeace and the UK arm of the World Wildlife Fund comes ahead of the COP26 UN climate summit to be held in Glasgow in November.
"As the host of this year's pivotal global climate summit, the [British] government can no longer turn a blind eye," said Greenpeace UK's Executive Director John Sauven in comments published alongside the report.
"Rather than relying on self-regulation we need legislation that forces all banks and asset managers to align all financing activities with the goals" of the 2015 Paris accord to keep the global temperature increase to under 2 C and ideally closer to 1.5 C by 2050. "That would be genuine climate leadership," Sauven added.
The report noted that banks and asset managers in the UK were together responsible for financing 805 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2019.
This would have made the City of London - commonly referred to as the UK financial sector - as the ninth biggest emitter of carbon dioxide if it were a country, higher than Europe's biggest economy Germany in 10th place, the report added.
Responding, the City of London Corporation said that while it "is showing leadership in the fight against climate change," it recognizes "that there is no room for complacency."
RELATED ARTICLES
