Trucost Blog

Barclays Responsible Banking Review, AKA sustainability report launch. Good on Barclays for highlighting its failure to meet carbon emissions, energy and water targets, rather than trying to hide this. CEO John Varley says Barclays made its global operations carbon neutral the easy way - by offsetting - while emissions rose. The bank plans to focus more on actually reducing its carbon footprint through energy efficiency etc. This seems to be part of a wider trend, probably as businesses factor in the opportunity cost of offsetting vs. cutting operational or supply chain emissions.

PWC's Leo Johnson (who rocks as a speaker!) took a quick poll to find out whether the audience thought the world would go low-carbon or stick with a high-carbon path. He tapped into a wave of post-Copenhagen pessimism as most people thought business would carry on largely as usual until climate change impacts hit economic growth. The upshot: Bankers and investors could take up the mantle and create a low-carbon economy regardless.