An increasing focus on climate change is distracting central banks from their core job of combatting low growth according to two of the leading financial policy-makers of the last 30 years.

In a strongly worded rebuke, former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers accused some central bankers of trying to “curry domestic political favour” by targeting issues such as climate change. “They do not have the capacity to fight climate change. They need to acknowledge the limitations of their influence,” he told the Bloomberg New Economy Forum on 16 November.