UK plans mandatory net-zero transition plans for corporations

S&P Global Platts ($):

The UK is to become a net zero-aligned financial center, making it mandatory for companies to publish net zero transition plans overseen by an independent taskforce, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak said Nov. 3 at the UN Climate Conference in Glasgow.

The statement came as a global coalition of financial institutions, the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, said the sum of global capital committed to achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions had grown to over $130 trillion.

“Investors need to have as much clarity and confidence in the climate impact of their investments as they do in the traditional financial metrics of profit and loss,” Sunak said.

Corporate transition plans are critical to ensuring pledges turned into action, the UK government said in an accompanying note.

A taskforce would bring together industry and academia with regulators and non-government organizations to develop a “gold standard” for UK company transition plans and associated metrics, coordinating with international efforts under the GFANZ and others, and reporting by the end of 2022, it said.

[Henry Edwardes-Evans]

More: COP26: UK to make corporate net zero planning mandatory