Reform would strip BoE of "distractions" of climate-change work: comment

Commenting on a speech by Reform UK's Robert Jenrick in which he said the party would strip the Bank of England of the "distractions" of its climate-change work, Christian Jaccarini, Senior Analyst at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) said: “Climate change is already having significant impacts on the British economy and cost of living with foods liked beef and coffee impacted by climate extremes responsible for around 40% of UK food price inflation [1]. The Bank of England has an important role to play in managing the inflationary pressures and financial risks created by climate change [2], and removing these functions would risk their ability to limit climate impacts on the cost of living and prevent future financial crises. 

"Reaching net zero emissions is the only way to stop climate change and bring balance back to the climate. This shift towards clean technologies is a major global economic trend and the UK’s own net zero economy is growing much faster than the economy as a whole [3]."

ENDS

Notes to editors: 

1. ECIU: https://eciu.net/media/press-releases/2025/why-food-prices-are-still-rising-butter-beef-and-milk-to-blame 

2. The Bank’s current climate‑related functions include:

• Monitoring climate risk when setting interest rates. Climate shocks influence inflation and growth trade‑offs. For example, identifying food‑price inflation as climate‑driven may indicate that raising interest rates would have limited effect on the underlying cause, unlike cases of demand‑driven inflation.
• Assessing climate‑related risks to financial stability, enabling earlier action to prevent physical or transition shocks from triggering banking or insurance crises.
• Conducting climate stress tests for major banks and insurers, requiring firms to quantify exposures and strengthen contingency planning.
• Supervising banks and insurers on climate‑risk management, helping ensure climate risks are priced and managed more like other financial risks.
• Running system‑wide scenario analyses to test resilience to physical and transition risks.
• Issuing industry guidance, promoting consistent climate‑risk assessment methods across the financial sector.
• Greening parts of its asset holdings by tilting corporate bond purchases toward firms with stronger climate performance.
• Integrating climate risk into collateral frameworks, incentivising banks to consider property‑level climate risks in lending.
• Publishing climate‑related disclosures, including for its own portfolios and operations, along with a transition plan.
• Supporting HM Treasury with long‑term climate‑impact analysis.

3. ECIU: https://eciu.net/analysis/reports/2025/net-zero-economy-across-the-uk 
 
For more information or for interview requests:

George Smeeton, Head of Communications, ECIU, Tel: 07894 571 153, email: george.smeeton@eciu.net