by Oliver Milman
“This is a bit like saying the quiet part out loud,” said Gernot Wagner, a climate economist at Columbia Business School, about the banks’ forecasts. Wagner said that there is “lots of greenhushing”, the opposite of greenwashing, now occurring among corporations.
“Indeed, the world won’t stay below 1.5C of warming, largely because we’re already there,” Wagner said of the Paris deal’s most ambitious stretch target. Last year was the first individual year, globally, to top 1.5C of heating.
“And yes, that means that climate risks will get worse before they get better,” he said. “That much is clear. In part, that means investment opportunities that wouldn’t have materialized without climate change.”
Quoted in: “US banks predict climate goals will fail – but air conditioning firms will thrive” by Oliver Milman, Guardian (2 April 2025).