Government raised £40.8bn in green taxes in 2020, just six per cent of total May 10, 2021 The government raised £40.8bn through ‘green taxes’ last year, just six per cent of the £633bn raised through taxes overall, according to law firm Pinsent Masons. Over the last decade, the money raked in by green taxes has only risen 19 per cent which has clashed with the 53 per cent surge in taxes as [...]
Standard Chartered to face shareholder action over climate change policies May 10, 2021 Shareholders are set to eye Standard Chartered bank’s climate policies, according to environmental organisation Market Forces, revealing it has pumped $31.4bn into fossil fuels since the Paris Agreement. The scrutiny comes as the bank confirmed its participation in a $400m five year loan for global coal giant Adaro Indonesia, as part of a syndicate of [...]
Countdown to COP26 – how 2021 is a “make or break” year in the fight against climate change May 10, 2021 | City Talk This year will be “make or break” in the fight against climate change, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned. The next United Nations climate summit, COP26 – or to give it its full title, the 26th Climate Change Conference of the Parties – is due to take place in Glasgow in November. Postponed from last [...]
G7 nations urged to boost climate funding for poor nations as Merkel says Germany made ‘fair contribution’ May 6, 2021 Germany and Britain are piling pressure on other G7 nations to boost the funding they provide for climate action in developing countries this decade. Ahead of this week’s Petersberg Climate Dialogue, climate and development experts and former U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon had urged Germany to commit to doubling its public climate finance by 2025 to [...]
Global climate change stimulus could fuel a green investment bubble May 6, 2021 Hundreds of years of history shows us that investment bubbles are a regular feature of the financial markets. For as long as humans have been trading investments, there have been periods of time when the prices of assets have become disconnected from their underlying value. Although bubbles typically are identified after they have popped, there [...]
Does an emissions scandal await the real estate sector? May 6, 2021 | City Talk In September 2015, news broke that Volkswagen (VW) had been selling cars in the US that had a so-called “defeat device” installed in diesel engines. It could detect when they were being tested and change performance to improve results. The German carmaker admitted to cheating emissions tests and it soon became clear that this was [...]
Exclusive: Chartered IIA calls on government to extend mandatory climate reporting to smaller businesses May 5, 2021 The Chartered IIA is calling on the government to further its demands on climate reporting, including widening out mandatory climate reporting to include small and medium-sized organisations. In March the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) launched a consultation to require mandatory climate disclosures from large companies. Companies that would be affected by [...]
Barclays to offer climate vote to investors next year May 5, 2021 Barclays will offer investors a vote on its climate policy at next year’s investor meeting after pressure from activists and shareholders to become greener. The bank will devise extra climate targets in consultation with shareholders, its chairman Nigel Higgins told a webcast investor meeting today. Barclays set itself a target in March 2020 to reach [...]
EU urged to bring in tougher climate finance rules May 5, 2021 European Union policymakers today faced a call to break a ‘climate-finance doom loop’ by making banks hold up to three times more capital to cover risks from fossil fuel activities. Finance Watch, which campaigns to improve how finance works for society, has written to EU President Ursula von der Leyen, urging the union to toughen [...]
BlackRock bears down on environmental concerns as investor goes green May 5, 2021 Asset management giant BlackRock have increased their green engagements by more than 50 per cent in the past year, the firm said this morning. BlackRock Investment Stewardship’s (BIS) quarterly update suggests the trend towards more of a green push from major shareholders will continue. The giant’s stewardship team held almost 1,000 “engagements” with firms it [...]