UK finance ‘faces £340bn in losses’ without action on climate change

Warning follows first Bank of England climate stress tests on seven largest lenders

UK banks and insurers will end up shouldering nearly 340bn worth of climate-related losses by 2050, unless action is taken to curb rising temperatures and sea levels, the Bank of England has warned.

The numbers emerged from the Bank's first climate stress tests on seven of the UK's largest lenders. These involved three climate scenarios over a 30-year period, covering physical and transition risks, including one in which governments fail to take further steps to curb greenhouse gas emissions, resulting in average temperature rises of 3.3C, and a 3.9-metre rise in sea levels.