Hundreds of financial groups are working to mobilise funds to help countries achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, former Bank of England governor Mark Carney told a UN climate conference on Wednesday.

The Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero brings together some 450 banks, insurers and pension funds with $130 trillion in assets.

Carney said the alliance would help the world reach net-zero emissions by 2050 “at the latest” and to deliver “their fair share of 50 per cent of emissions reductions this decade.

Like countries under the Paris Agreement, investors will have to report their climate finance progress every five years, said Carney, who will preside jointly over the process alongside former New York mayor and billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg.

All eyes were on finance at the COP26 summit on Wednesday, with climate vulnerable nations asking for financial support to help green their energy grids and respond to increasingly extreme drought and flooding.

Carney said the alliance would finally provide the capital flows needed after years of broken promises from rich emitters. “The architecture of the global financial system has been transformed to deliver net zero,” he said. “We now have the essential plumbing in place to move climate change from the fringes to the forefront of finance so that every financial decision takes climate change into account.”

Campaign groups reacted to the alliance with scepticism, pointing out that funds involved were still investing heavily in oil and gas

Campaign groups reacted to the alliance with scepticism, pointing out that funds involved were still investing heavily in oil and gas. “More than $130 trillion and not a single rule to prevent even one dollar from being invested in the expansion of the fossil fuel sector,” said Lucie Pinson, director of the Reclaim Finance initiative.