The cost of decarbonising the whole sector has been pitched at between $1.4 trillion and $1.9 trillion.

But if the whole sector chooses this path, the entire economy - and therefore the banks themselves - will end up in a much worse shape.

The uncertainty has cast a pall over a whole sector, from research academics to the bosses of international pharmaceutical companies.

It upgraded the whole sector yesterday, urging investors to take advantage of a 20 per cent fall in building stocks in the past three months.

Certainly the smaller sorts of gifts matter: donations, membership and charitable trading still produce around half of the income of the whole sector.