Dear Friends,
Despite attacks on net zero in the UK and American attempts to prioritise fossil fuel production over green energy, the vice-like grip of fossil fuels continues to loosen around the world.
According to a new analysis for Carbon Brief, China’s CO2 emissions fell by 1% in the final quarter of 2025, likely securing a decline of 0.3% for the full year as a whole. This extends a ‘flat or falling’ trend in China’s CO2 emissions which began in March 2024 and has now lasted for nearly two years despite rising energy demand. Meanwhile, in Portugal, more than 80% of its electricity generation came from renewable sources in January 2026, while in Uruguay, the country has virtually eliminated fossil fuels from its mix of electricity generation sources.
Yet as David Wallace-Wells of The New York Times writes, ‘New green energy has mostly supplemented rather than displaced fossil fuels. Globally, emissions are still climbing, if slowly, and temperatures are not only rising but rising at an accelerating rate, raising the…possibility that the…climate…may be more sensitive to emissions than almost anyone had bargained for.’
While there is sadly less political consensus about the need to rapidly reduce emissions than there was only several ago, the economic and security case for moving away from expensive fossil fuels has never been stronger – and it is happening, only not fast enough, with banks continuing to finance global heating and the pace of investment in climate solutions slowing.
We’re continuing to work with faith investors to scale up investment in climate solutions – not only through our global Green Investment Declaration, but also through our work with Catholic investors who have now established a Catholic Investors’ Forum. And we believe there are thousands of Christians in the UK willing to take their money out of fossil fuel-funding banks and, as part of our Big Bank Switch, move it to a bank that refuses to finance the climate crisis.
