(Thirsk and Malton)
(Con):...The Government’s work on green
taxonomy—how investments are categorised in
different corporations—is welcome. They have set up the green
technical advisory group to look at that. There will be
climate-related financial disclosures by 2023 for the largest
companies and more information by 2025. Some of the larger
pension funds are already required to provide that information in
their annual reports. There are also mandatory transition plans.
All of those things are good UK domestic innovations, but this
stuff needs to be international, not just national. Our broad
rules are based on what happens in the EU, but the Government
have set out that we are going to move on from there and set up a
more challenging regime that is more pertinent to the UK domestic
situation...
The Economic Secretary to the Treasury ():...I will take the Chamber
through the three areas of action: disclosures, mainstreaming
climate into financial regulation, and transition plans. On
disclosures, as I mentioned previously, it is the Government's
intention to propose legislation, I hope in the next Session, to
implement economy-wide sustainability disclosure requirements.
This will see financial services firms, real economy corporates
and investment funds reporting information on the risks they face
from climate and environment, and those that they create. A key
element of SDR will be reporting against the UK
green taxonomy
which my hon. Friend the Member for Thirsk and Malton has
mentioned. The taxonomy will
set a robust standard for when economic activities can be
considered environmentally sustainable. It is specifically
designed to tackle greenwashing by creating a common
understanding of which activities, and which investments, can
actually be considered green. There is one other aspect on
disclosures. Asset managers, asset owners and investment products
will all be required to substantiate any sustainability claims
they make in a way that is accessible to clients and consumers.
All of this will create much-needed transparency in the market
and ensure that firms cannot claim things without backing them
up...
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