Exclusive: We need a business mindset shift and new tools to get us there, says City insider City exclusive ESG commitments for 2030 are high on the boardroom agenda, but are we asking the right questions? The big money question is, even if we meet our sustainability targets, does that secure the social conditions and environmental resources that we will need for businesses to operate in the future? Across the City, a viewpoint on [...]
New audit watchdog chair pledges tougher rules for company executives Audit The new chair of the UK’s audit watchdog has vowed to make company directors accountable for corporate accounting scandals, in his first public speech as head of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC). FRC chair Sir Jan du Plessis said the government’s decision to water down plans for a British version of the USA’s “Sarbanes-Oxley [...]
TEN campaigners arrested after daubing Treasury with red paint in fossil fuel protest Energy protest The front of HM Treasury’s building was daubed with red paint as 10 Just Stop Oil campaigners were arrested accused of crimes including criminal damage and causing a public nuisance. Environmental protestors were pictured on the grass in front of the building on Monday with red paint on the pavement, before police arrived to detain [...]
Insurers need more data to properly model climate risk, Bank of England insurance chief says June 8, 2022 The UK’s insurance sector lacks “comprehensive and high quality data” it needs to properly evaluate climate risk, the head of the Bank of England’s (BoE’s) insurance division has said. Speaking at the Association of British Insurers’ (ABI’s) climate summit 2022, Stefan Claus, the head of the BoE’s general insurance division, said insurers are struggling to [...]
Exclusive: ‘Covid killed more people than all other catastrophes in the past half century,’ says climate sceptic Bjorn Lomborg May 31, 2022 Bjorn Lomborg is President of the Copenhagen Consensus and Visiting Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. Below he shares his views on the latest UN climate report in a UK exclusive for City A.M. A new United Nations report has revealed the disturbing news that the number of global disasters has quintupled since 1970 and will increase by [...]
Companies should brace themselves for an avalanche of climate lawsuits, lawyers say May 26, 2022 London listed companies should brace themselves for an avalanche of climate related lawsuits, as shareholders and NGOs increasingly resort to litigation over climate related financial risks, lawyers have said. Investors are increasingly suing companies for breaching their fiduciary duties, over their failures to limit their exposure to climate risks, Fiona Huntriss, a partner at London [...]
The Bank’s climate warnings are too overblown to help May 25, 2022 What was it HSBC’s now-suspended banker Stuart Kirk said about alarmist climate warnings? “Unsubstantiated, shrill, partisan, self-serving, apocalyptic warnings are ALWAYS WRONG” was the title of the slide which has seen him taking some unexpected time in the garden, as he dared to offer the heretical view that reports of the world’s imminent demise may [...]
Insurers suffer impacts of climate change as costs of natural catastrophes triple May 18, 2022 Insurers are now suffering 3.6 times more losses from natural catastrophes than they were three decades ago, according to new research, which suggests insurance companies are being hit by the impacts of climate change. Natural catastrophe events are costing insurers around the world 250 per cent more than they were 30 years ago, due to [...]
Exclusive: Forget expensive climate plans, low-cost solution to net zero is methane abatement, says Qnergy CEO May 17, 2022 It’s six months on from COP26 and the world is a very different place, but as the war in Ukraine continues and the cost of living crisis bites closer to home, the promises made in Glasgow still stand. Net zero is the big goal, but CEO of energy firm Qnergy, Ory Zik, told City A.M. today he [...]
Stephen Poloz on the volatility disrupting the global economy May 9, 2022 This article first appeared in ICAS’ CA magazine. The era of global volatility is demanding rigour and quick thinking from finance professionals. Stephen Poloz, former Governor of the Bank of Canada, charts a course through the noise. The title of Stephen Poloz’s book, The Next Age of Uncertainty, is a wink to a formative text in his [...]