Carney climate team ‘dragging feet’ on green investments

MARK CARNEY’S climate change alliance has come under fire for “dragging its feet” on green investment in the latest blow to the initiative.

The Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), which was set up by the former governor of the Bank of England, has been accused in a report of providing less financing for renewable energy than lenders that are not members of the climate group.

It comes despite Mr Carney’s group saying that funding for low-carbon energy needs to be quadruple that of fossil fuels by the end of this decade to meet net-zero targets. The report found that 7pc of bank financing for energy companies went to renewable sources between 2016 and 2022.

Maaike Beenes, campaign lead at Banktrack, a charity that charts bank finance activities, said: “Given that GFANZ co-chair[man] Mark Carney has publicly recognised the need to rapidly increase the ratio of green financing to at least four times that of fossil fuel financing, it is alarming that GFANZ members have in fact financed less green energy than those outside the alliance.

“To stop the climate crisis from further unfolding, banks must stop dragging their feet and start shifting their financing away from fossil fuels towards green energy.”

Among UK lenders, only 2pc of Barclays’ financing for energy companies went to renewable sources, while Natwest provided the most at 15pc, according to the report.

A spokesman for GFANZ said: “This report does not provide a comprehensive view of clean energy investment. For example, the report excludes 70pc of power generation companies, the bulk of which accounts for most of the world’s wind and solar power.

“Analysis by the International Energy Agency suggests that between 2021 and 2022, 48pc of energy investment went to low-carbon energy supply. That would be impossible if GFANZ members weren’t financing the transition.”