Despite COP28 climate change summit's failings, hard-head capitalists might just save the planet – Scotsman comment

Credit Agricole, one of France’s biggest banks, plans to stop financing new fossil fuel extraction projects and triple investment in renewable energy schemes

Following a disappointing end to the COP28 climate summit, The Scotsman speculated that, despite the lack of concrete action, politicians' talk that this was the “beginning of the end” for fossil fuels might focus the minds of investors already worried that assets could become stranded at the wrong end of an oil well.

Now France’s second-largest listed bank, Credit Agricole, whose clients include the giant oil firm TotalEnergies, has announced it will stop financing new fossil fuel extraction projects, publish its exposure to the sector, and triple its annual financing of renewable energy projects to three billion euros (about £2.58 billion) by 2030. This should serve as another wake-up call to all those involved in Scotland’s oil and gas industry and, particularly, politicians complacent about the industrial revolution that is already underway.

However, as well as being a warning, it is also a sign of real, tangible hope that, despite world leaders’ lacklustre response to this crisis, we are starting to get to grips with the scale of the task ahead. Nobody tell the Scottish Greens, but hard-headed capitalists might just save the planet.