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Press release

Mark Carney’s climate warning welcome but his recommendations are ‘woolly window dressing’ says Christian Aid  

Responding to the warning from Bank of England Governor Mark Carney that the financial sector faces an existential threat from climate change, Christian Aid’s Global Climate Advisor, Dr Kat Kramer said:

“Mark Carney clearly ‘gets it’ when it comes to climate change and his stark warnings are a welcome intervention among the short sightedness and political inertia from much of the financial and polite establishment.

“However the recommendations from his Network for Greening the Financial System are just woolly window dressing. Monitoring financial risk is fine but it is not a true framework focussed on climate action. Real action would involve setting a clear policy of ending all lending to fossil fuel projects involving their exploration, extraction, transportation and combustion.

“Global emissions are rising, climate impacts are getting worse and the financial sector continues to pour money into fossil fuel companies so they can find, sell and burn more fossil fuels.

“Vague incrementalism from the financial sector is too little too late. We need rapid and radical action on climate, not financial risk assessments.”

She added: “This is why we’re calling on major banks such as HSBC to publish a time bound plan with measurable targets for phasing out finance of all fossil fuels.”

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