Financial markets “do not tell the economic truth and they do not tell the ecological truth”, says Nick Robins, head of HSBC’s Climate Change Centre of Excellence.

Robins estimates that just half of investors are taking any notice of carbon risk, the legislative and reputational risk posed by climate change. The same low proportion utilises resources such as the Carbon Disclosure Project, where companies report on their climate change strategy, he says.

The major contradiction in the markets, says Robins, is that “oil and gas companies are treated as if oil and gas are assets when, in reality, they are carbon liabilities”.

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