Climate change is the greatest challenge of our time. Mobilising green finance to achieve carbon reductions and elimination is vital. The main mission of the UK-based financial and related professional services industry today is to help its customers and clients transition to a greener global economy. Our industry has a vital role to play in enabling the transition to net zero and help ensure that the UK becomes the world’s first net zero-aligned financial centre, as envisioned by the UK government.
Our report ‘Green finance: a quantitative assessment of market trends‘ highlights the UK’s green finance strengths and areas where the UK should build new capabilities:
- The UK is a green bond hub: UK green bond issuance grew from $1.1bn in 2012 to $37.4bn in 2021 and the UK issued Europe’s largest green bond to date in 2021.
- The UK should grow its pipeline of green IPOs: the value of green IPOs in the UK over the decade to 2021 was $538m. The US, China and Germany accounted for around 75% of total global green IPOs over 2012-21. The UK ranks 11th as the most active country in the green IPO market and accounts for 1% of the cumulative global total.
- The UK should boost its green private equity and green venture capital capabilities: over the past decade, 23 UK companies received green private equity investment; 28 UK private equity investors backed green businesses. The US and China have taken global leads in this area.
Our ‘Enabling the transition to net zero’, a report produced with PwC, sets out detailed policy recommendations for how government can help UK businesses to manage the green transition. The steps below build on these findings to demonstrate how government, industry, and regulators should partner to make the UK a leading, globally competitive green and sustainable finance hub.