Bankers for Net Zero (B4NZ) are delighted to have contributed to this excellent new Climate Finance Policy Playbook from King’s College Business School and The University of Edinburgh Business School. Our CEO, Heather Buchanan, used her contribution to explore the challenges SMEs face in sustainability reporting and to recommend the UK government develop standard reporting frameworks and automated tools like Project Perseus to streamline data collection and improve access to green investment.
Key recommendations include:
- Establishing an Office of Sustainability Planning to develop richer and more realistic climate risk scenarios that might materialise over a 5 to10 year horizon
- Higher rates of capital gains tax for high-carbon emitters and polluters
- Mandating environmental considerations within the AI regulatory framework announced in the King’s Speech
- Encouraging green emerging market listings in London through streamlined listing processes and improved tax treatment
- Issuing the first developed market sustainability-linked sovereign bond and the first dedicated adaptation sovereign bond, and the expansion of the Green Gilt programme
- Providing capital and guarantees through UK Export Finance to help British innovators find markets for decarbonising and climate-adaptation technologies
- Aligning UK insolvency laws with net zero objectives to catalyse innovation in carbon-efficient projects.
- Simplified planning and approval processes for green energy infrastructure and green gigafactories
- Increasing the carbon price to support the transition to a low carbon economy, and investing the revenues strategically in the power grid and to ensure energy price stability
