Are London’s bankers the pioneers of green financing?

(EurActiv, 3 Jul 2019) Last week, the UK became the first major industrialised country to pass a law to reduce its carbon emissions to zero by 2050. Now London is publishing a strategy to redirect global financial investments into climate-friendly projects. The idea of bankers investing in the environment should sound less paradoxical in the future. EURACTIV Germany reports.

The OECD estimates that the transition to a climate-neutral economy based around new technologies, sustainable services and carbon-neutral infrastructure will cost around $6.9 trillion by 2030.

Currently, not even half of this sum is being invested in green projects.

London, however, has found a niche in the market and seems eager to make this mainstream. The City seems convinced that green finance could attract a lot of new investments.

This sentiment was echoed by Finance Minister Philip Hammond and Business and Energy Minister Greg Clark in their foreword to the Green Finance Strategy presented at the Green Climate Summit in London on Tuesday (2 July).

The strategy has two main objectives.

On the one hand, it seeks to ensure that private financial flows are linked to sustainable and resilient growth.

It is also about the competitiveness of the British financial sector, which is currently a pioneer when it comes to green financing.

External link

EurActiv, 3 Jul 2019: Are London’s bankers the pioneers of green financing?