The RMT strike is a demonstration of what to expect in a Corbyn-McDonnell regime

It’s unusual for a Governor of the Bank of England to announce his next job before Downing Street has named his successor. In Mark Carney’s case, the new role turns out to be an unpaid, part-time one as the UN’s special envoy for climate action and finance, so no protocol has been breached — though the announcement will serve as a reminder to Chancellor Sajid Javid or whoever succeeds him to let the long–suffering Canadian escape his Threadneedle Street prison as swiftly as dignity allows after election day. What’s significant is the confirmation this news offers that ‘climate risk’ has moved into the mainstream of financial and corporate life. That shift was hailed last week at a seminar in the City’s Guildhall to launch Principles for Purposeful Business, a study published by the British Academy as part of its continuing work on ‘the future of the corporation’.

The eight principles enumerated under the provocative slogan ‘purpose before profit’ sought to address wider issues such as inequalities and ‘accountability to a range of stakeholders’, but speakers kept drawing the discussion back to climate change. That this is a man-made crisis which only concerted human action can avert was taken as read: what constitutes virtuous corporate behaviour in response to that creed was open to argument — but not clearly answered. A water utility that has written sustainability into its memorandum and articles was held up as an example. But water is a benign and universally essential commodity, I pointed out from the floor: what if I’m chief executive of an oil company or an airline? I can’t just close down, not least because for the time being the world still needs what I provide. A half-answer from the platform spoke of the inevitability of ‘stranded assets’ (oil fields, coal mines, perhaps even jet aircraft, that will have to be abandoned long before they are economically exhausted) in toxic sectors; but I would have liked to hear from Shell about its renewable technology investments or easyJet about its carbon-offset forests and solar farms.