Britain is being accused of being the “dirty man of Europe” after new research showed that, of Europe’s top 300 companies, more than half of those most engaged in carbon-polluting sectors were based in the Britain.
A review of the top 300 companies by ethical investment consultant Eiris found that the greatest proportion of those with “very high impact” in relation to global warming came from Britain, more than double the number from any other country.
Of those companies in the top 300 dedicated to solving or mitigating the problems of climate change, only 3 percent were located in Britain.
Eiris’ findings come at a time when BP, one of Britain’s best-known companies, has attracted bad publicity worldwide over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
A spokesman for Eiris said that its review was “worrying from a consumer point of view, but also from an investment perspective.”
“It is particularly alarming for pension funds and other long-term investors as climate change rises up the political agenda,” he said.
The greater exposure of UK coporations to risk from climate change largely stems from the number of big oil and mining companies that dominate the FTSE-100 index in London.
Greenpeace said that the Eiris research was a “shameful” indictment of Britain, which had failed to build up a low-carbon business sector despite much political rhetoric.
“It seems Britain is still the dirty man of Europe. These figures will shame the succession of ministers who promised Britain would be at the forefront of developing clean tech,” said Ben Stewart, a spokesman for the environmental campaign group.
“As things stand, our economy is poorly placed to benefit from this century’s inevitable shift to low-carbon industry, while Germany looks well-positioned to gain from first-mover advantage,” he said.
Eiris estimates that 41 percent of the top 300 companies in Europe have a significant impact on global warming.
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
Former Lima mayor Rafael Lopez Aliaga, a Peruvian presidential hopeful, gathered hundreds of supporters in Lima on Tuesday and gave authorities 24 hours to annul the first round of the country’s election over allegations of fraud. Lopez Aliaga is locked in a tight three-way race with two other candidates for second place in Sunday’s vote. The election runner-up wins a ticket to June’s presidential run-off against front-runner Keiko Fujimori. “I am giving them 24 hours to declare this electoral fraud null and void,” said Lopez Aliaga, surrounded by a crowd of several hundred supporters. “If it is not declared null and void tomorrow,
PAPAL RETORT: Pope Leo told reporters that he has ‘no fear, neither of the Trump administration nor speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel’ US President Donald Trump has feuded with Pope Leo XIV over the Iran conflict — setting off an unholy row that could have serious political implications for the Republican leader back in the US. Trump has drawn barbs even from some allies over the attacks on the US-born pontiff, who has criticized the Trump administration over its immigration crackdown, the intervention in Venezuela and the Iran war. The president risks alienating the religious right in November’s crucial US midterm elections. So far the unprecedented clash between the leader of the most powerful military on Earth and the head of the world’s 1.4 billion
A 16-year-old boy has been charged with murder and aggravated sexual abuse in Florida in the death of his 18-year-old stepsister on a Carnival Cruise ship, the US Department of Justice said on Monday. Timothy Hudson was initially charged in February and subsequently indicted on March 10, but the breadth of the case was not known until a seal was lifted on Friday last week, weeks after US District Judge Beth Bloom in Miami said that he would be prosecuted as an adult at the request of the government. Anna Kepner had been traveling on the Carnival Horizon ship in November last
RSS