Big banks' big footprint: UK financial institutions responsible for double UK's annual carbon emissions, report warns

clock • 4 min read

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...

To continue reading this article...

Join BusinessGreen

In just a few clicks you can start your free BusinessGreen Lite membership for 12 months, providing you access to:

  • Three complimentary articles per month covering the latest real-time news, analysis, and opinion from Europe’s leading source of information on the Green economy and business
  • Receive important and breaking news stories via our daily news alert
  • Our weekly newsletter with the best of the week’s green business news and analysis

Join now

 

Already a BusinessGreen member?

Login

More on Investment

Study: Annual private nature investment grew five-fold over the past decade
Investment

Study: Annual private nature investment grew five-fold over the past decade

Institutional capital has established a 'stronger presence' in nature markets that were deemed 'fairly niche' only a decade ago, new study finds

Stuart Stone
Stuart Stone
clock 22 June 2026 • 4 min read
Pensions sector sustainability groups commit to closer collaboration
Investment

Pensions sector sustainability groups commit to closer collaboration

TSWG and ICSWG say co-operation could lead to more 'practical' and 'impactful' action

Martin Richmond
Martin Richmond
clock 22 June 2026 • 2 min read
The clean vs dirty divide in climate finance
Investment

The clean vs dirty divide in climate finance

Selectively engaging with only the 'nice' parts of the emerging net zero economy can undermine integral solutions to climate resilience and ecosystem health, write investor and consultant Sinethemba Mafanya and Bonnie Chiu from The Social Investment Consultancy...

Sinethemba Mafanya and Bonnie Chiu
clock 19 June 2026 • 4 min read