https://link.thetimes.co.uk/view/643dae8e52f5b18ea2028d73ozpxn.af0/3e1397f6
The fightback begins: the case for green growth
Ben Spencer – Science Editor, The Sunday Times
If a week is a long time in politics, four years is an eternity on the rollercoaster that is climate policy. It was April 2021 when Mark Carney – then between his two career-defining jobs of governor of the Bank of England and prime minister of Canada – announced the formation of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance. The initial group of 43 banks, he said, had agreed to work together to build a “global zero-emissions economy”.
“The world is moving in this direction,” he said. “This is where the world is headed.”
Ah, hubris. A little over a week ago the Net-Zero Banking Alliance was disbanded after an exodus of members. At its peak more than 140 banks were involved in the organisation, but after Donald Trump won the US presidency and told the world to “drill, baby, drill”, they began to pull out. JP Morgan left, as did Goldman Sachs, the Bank of America, Barclays and HSBC. Green spending, at one point essential for any corporation that wanted to be taken seriously, has now become something of a taboo.
Or has it? The World Bank and International Monetary Fund are holding their annual meetings in Washington DC this week. Much of the discussions there will concern how to keep climate finance going in a hostile political environment. They’ve been keeping quiet about it, but green funding has continued to flow under the radar. In fact, climate finance from the multilateral development banks – the World Bank, European Investment Bank, Asian Development Bank, etc – hit a record $137 billion last year, up 10 per cent on the year before. As Ambroise Fayolle, vice-president of the European Investment Bank, put it, these organisations are “staying the course on climate action”.
A fightback is now beginning to make the economic case for green action once more. Finance ministers from 100 countries will release a report in Washington tomorrow highlighting the opportunities of sustainable development. This battle will be taken up at Cop30 in Brazil next month, where climate finance will be a major theme.
Lord Stern of Brentford, who 20 years ago highlighted the economic prize of decarbonisation in his landmark Stern Review, will next month publish a new book laying out once more how tackling climate change could boost growth and living standards.
In his book, entitled The Growth Story of the 21st Century, Stern writes: “The new growth and development story is not just about avoiding the catastrophic consequences of climate change and biodiversity loss but about seizing the opportunity to create a better, more equitable, and sustainable world for all… With the right policies and public and community action, this new path can deliver a much more attractive structure for growth and development, with rising living standards across all dimensions.”
Kudos to President Trump for rejecting World Bank climate crap:
"Nineteen of the World Bank's 25 executive directors issued a joint statement this week affirming their support for the bank's continued work on climate change, defying the U.S., the bank's largest shareholder, and… pic.twitter.com/MfwrDKvuu1
— Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) October 13, 2025
