Money

The British Gas owner Centrica has revealed plans to hand more money back to shareholders, as stronger profits from high electricity and gas prices help offset poor performance of its retail arm.In an unscheduled trading update on Thursday, the company said it expected profits to be at the top end of analyst forecasts, which are predicting earnings of about 15.1p to 26p a share for 2022.It follows “strong operational performance’” from its electricity generation and gas production business, as well as its marketing and trading arm, which have helped make...

Rishi Sunak has pledged the UK’s continued support for conserving threatened forests around the world, through a funding programme covering a third of the world’s forests, at the Cop27 UN climate summit in Egypt.Brazil is expected to join the initiative, under the incoming president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and new funding from the public and private sector will take the spending for forest conservation above $20bn over the next five years. The moves form part of efforts to tackle emissions from land use, the second biggest driver of global...