DEBATE: Should the government set guidelines on meat consumption to combat climate change? October 16, 2018 Should the government set guidelines on meat consumption to combat climate change? Ben Glover, a researcher at Demos, says YES. Last week, the UN’s IPCC warned that to avoid disastrous levels of climate change we must make “unprecedented changes in all aspects of society” – including cutting meat consumption. That’s because livestock counts for about [...]
Sustainable investing is about making bigger profits, say the majority of investors October 9, 2018 | City Talk The majority of investors believe the main reason to invest sustainably is to make bigger profits, a major global study has found. The findings suggest investors increasingly believe that backing sustainable investments, those companies that are most focused on managing environmental, social and governance issues, will deliver better results rather than just be a choice [...]
US duo awarded Nobel Economics Prize for work combining theories on climate change and technology October 8, 2018 Two US economists have won with this year’s prestigious Nobel Economics Prize for work in integrating climate change and technological innovation. William Nordhaus has been recognised for his work on the damaging financial implications of environmental factors such as climate change, while Paul Romer has examined how economists can achieve a healthy rate of economic [...]
Natural disasters halve Lloyd’s of London profits September 21, 2018 Pre-tax profits at Lloyd's of London have halved in the first half of 2018 as the insurance firm struggled under the weight of a series of natural disasters. The figures Profits dropped by 50 per cent to £0.6bn, compared with £1.2bn in the same period the previous year. For the first six months of the [...]
Global league table of ‘caring’ investors: Americans more focused on sustainability than Europeans September 20, 2018 | City Talk The US is the only developed country to make the top 10 of a sustainable investment league table that gauges consumer habits and investing actions. Countries in the developing world dominated the top ten while European countries occupied the middle and lower half of the league table. The results of the Schroders Global Investor Study [...]
The green economy race is heating up – and Britain has the edge September 14, 2018 More than two centuries after our role at the leading edge of the Industrial Revolution, the UK needs a new economic and social transformation. One that sees global carbon emissions reduce dramatically. One that is essential for protecting our planet’s health and improving quality of life for future generations. The government strongly believes that the [...]
Gordon Brown: World ‘sleepwalking’ to another financial crisis September 13, 2018 The world is “sleepwalking” into another financial crisis, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown said today, but said it lacks the international will to quickly recover. Read more: A decade on, hubris is the lesson to learn from the Lehman tragedy Brown issued the warning in the week marking the 10th anniversary of the collapse of [...]
Fossil Fuel divestment: The feel-good climate change policy that would undermine public pension funds September 2, 2015 Most would agree that climate change could pose a threat to the economy. However, measures to combat it will ultimately prove counter-productive if they conflict with the interests of the taxpayer. Forcing government to pursue losses from taxpayer-funded investments in the name of environmentalism, for example, would be an obvious misuse of public [...]
It’s the right climate to scrap the Department of Energy and Climate Change August 26, 2015 The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is small compared to other government departments, with a gross annual expenditure of just £5.7bn. However, as the government grapples with how to continue to drive down its deficit, abolishing this arm of the state should be a key priority: it would both provide vital savings [...]
COP21 talks: Why action on climate change has become an economic imperative August 20, 2015 In just 100 days, world leaders will gather in Paris for the COP21 climate change talks. The urgent need for action to reduce CO2 emissions and stop global warming was recently described by both Barack Obama and Pope Francis as a “moral imperative” and summed up by President Obama who said: “We are the first [...]