The Chancellor’s will today (Nov 3) announce plans for the UK to
become the world’s first net-zero aligned financial centre.
Janine Hirt, Chief Executive Officer, Innovate Finance
said:
“As the voice of UK FinTech, we passionately support the
development of the UK as the first net zero aligned financial
centre. Net Zero transition will be driven by finance
and capital markets and it will be enabled by technology and
data. As a leading global centre for financial services and
for financial technology and innovation, the UK
can and should lead the way in rewiring the entire global
financial system for net zero.”
Dr Ben Caldecott, Director, UK Centre for Greening
Finance and Investment (CGFI) Chief said:
“This is huge. The world’s largest international financial centre
will become the world’s first net zero-aligned financial centre.
This is underpinned by world-leading regulation and the
economy-wide adoption of net zero transition plans. This will
spur demand for green finance and accelerate decarbonisation, not
just in the UK but wherever UK firms do business. This will make
a real difference and means the UK financial services sector will
play an even larger role in providing the capital and financial
services required to deliver net zero globally.”
“The UK Centre for Greening Finance and Investment is excited to
act as the secretariat, together with E3G, for the new Transition
Plan Taskforce to develop a ‘gold standard’ for
transition plans and associated cutting edge metrics. We are
the UK’s national centre established to accelerate the adoption
and use of climate and environmental data and analytics by
financial institutions internationally."
Julie Page, Chief Executive Officer, AON said:
“We welcome and support the Chancellor’s plans for the UK to be
the world’s first net zero aligned financial centre. All
industries have an important role in helping to achieve this goal
and through Aon’s own 2030 net-zero commitment, we will
contribute to this historical commitment and help lead the way
towards a net zero economy.”
Dr Rhian-Mari Thomas OBE, Chief Executive, Green Finance
Institute said:
“Today marks the day that green finance has reached a point of
critical momentum. The amount of capital committed to the
transition to net zero has reached unprecedented levels. The task
before us now is to come together in radical collaboration to
unlock investment opportunities at speed and scale so we can
channel this wall of capital into real economy outcomes that not
only positions the UK as the world’s first net zero financial
centre but also delivers a just and resilient net-zero global
economy”
Kay Swinburne, Vice Chair of Financial Services, KPMG UK
said:
“This announcement will provide the financial services industry
with a valuable set of unified metrics to measure progress
towards decarbonisation and it is brave to put a gold standard in
place for all companies raising funding. We’re pleased to see the
UK lead by example by not only establishing the GFANZ initiative,
but also expanding private sector commitments and supporting a
science based approach to reporting standards.”
, Chief Executive, UK
Sustainable Investment and Finance Association (UKSIF)
said:
“We warmly welcome the Chancellor’s ambition to make the UK the
world’s first net-zero aligned financial services centre. As the
first major economy to legislate to cut emissions to net zero by
2050, this is a natural step in the UK’s climate leadership
journey and recognises the central role of the sustainable
finance sector in addressing the climate crisis.”
“UKSIF and our members look forward to actively engaging in these
next steps, particularly helping to build a shared definition of
a good quality transition plan and more broadly a net-zero
finance sector. Government and regulators should work closely
with the financial services industry to identify the policies and
actions required to progress our sector towards this
world-leading ambition.”
