According to a Reuters survey, 33 of Britain’s 47 largest pension funds said they would not divest from oil and gas firms; some said doing so would result in losses in financial returns. Some funds said they preferred to focus on companies’ carbon footprints. (Reuters)

Talking point: The survey comes just a week after BlackRock, the world’s largest investor, announced it would divest from companies that generate more than 25 per cent of their revenues from thermal coal by the middle of 2020. The fund manager lost an estimated US$90 billion over the last decade by ignoring the financial risk of investing in fossil-fuel companies, according to one report. Mark Carney, the outgoing Bank of England governor who is attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this week, has also warned that fossil-fuel investments will be “worthless.”