Sunak To Outline Global Green Finance Initiative

Ambitious plan aims to rewire financial systems for net zero

- Andrew Woodcock And Ben Chapman

Ambitious plans to create a huge pool of money to invest in a green future will turn the UK into “the world’s first net zeroaligned financial centre”, with companies managing $130 trillion of assets committing to the goal of holding global warming below 1.5C, Rishi Sunak has said.

But campaigners warned that the chancellor’s landmark plan falls short of what is needed to halt the climate crisis and risks amounting to no more than “greenwash” for a sector which has profited massively from decades of pollution.

Mr Sunak faced demands to give financial watchdogs legal powers to enforce commitments made by more than 450 firms from all parts of the financial industry to align their investments with the Paris Agreement climate goals.

And Greenpeace UK said Mr Sunak was coming to the Cop26 summit in Glasgow with “a marketing slogan” in place of the transformative action that was needed for the finance sector.

The groups’ head of politics Rebecca Newsom said: ”The world’s first net zero-aligned financial centre would be one in which financial institutions and companies are required by law at the outset to bring their lending and investments in line with the global goal to limit warming to 1.5C.

“Instead, these new rules seem to allow plenty of wriggle room for financial institutions to continue with business as usual, rather than ‘rewiring’ the system as the chancellor claims. The chancellor is once again falling short of what the climate emergency requires.”