The Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, has warned companies to prepare for climate change or face bankruptcy.
“Companies that don’t adapt, including companies in the financial system, will go bankrupt without question,” Carney told Channel 4 News in the UK this week.
Mr Carney, famous for his pre-referendum alarmism over the consequences of a Brexit vote, said the British government had asked the central bank to evaluate how well prepared the economy was for global warming.
“The Government has said to us one of your responsibilities when you look at the stability of the financial system is to look at the risk from climate change,” Carney said.
“Because of the climate change risk, because of the speed of adjustment, we are going to stress test the UK financial system to see how ready it is for climate change,” he added.
The Bank of England’s job is “to make sure the financial system can be there and provide the funds for whatever path the country chooses to take,” he said.
Described by Politico as an “eco-warrior”, Mr Carney, a Canadian, produced a 2015 report together with former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg advising all listed companies to disclose any risk they face from climate change in their annual financial filings.
The report was drafted by the Financial Stability Board’s (FSB) Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TFCD), set up by Carney.
For her part, Carney’s British wife Diana Fox is a “strident environmental activist,” according to the Telegraph, and expressed sympathy for the anti-banking Occupy movement, while insisting that global financial institutions are “rotten or inadequate.”
“The country is moving to net zero carbon by 2050,” Mr Carney said this week. “That is a legislative objective and that is going to require some pretty major changes.”