Projects funded by UK financial institutions are responsible for 1.8 times the carbon emissions of Britain's annual net total, a new report has suggested.
Big banks big footprint: UK financial institutions responsible for double UK s annual carbon emissions, report warns
Jessica Rawnsley
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Green campaigners warn City of London would be ninth biggest emitter of CO2 in world if it was a country in fresh analysis of financial sector s environmental impact
UK banks and investors are responsible for almost double the UK s net annual carbon emissions, a damning new report by WWF and Greenpeace has found.
The analysis argues that based on the carbon footprint of its multi-billion pound investment portfolios, The City of London would be ranked the ninth biggest emitter of CO2 in the world if it was a country - boasting more emissions than Germany. In 2019, UK financial institutions were responsible for financing 805 million tonnes of CO2 emissions, according to the research by the environmental charities.
UK banks and asset managers collectively financed projects emitting 805 million tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2019 - around twice the UK s annual national carbon footprint.
The owner of British Gas has called on the Government to throw £35 million at a plan to rip out gas boilers and replace them with hybrid systems, which use both gas and electricity to heat the UK’s homes.
Centrica said that a “retrofit fund” could transition around 5,000 homes from gas to hybrid heating by 2024, something which would reduce, though not eliminate, carbon emissions from heating these homes.
More than eight in 10 of the UK’s homes are heated with gas boilers which are responsible for about 14% of the country’s carbon emissions.
Climate experts have said that replacing these boilers will be one of the biggest challenges for the country in the path to net zero – a term that means the country does not emit more than it absorbs.
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