Green Finance and the Resilience of the Financial Sector to Climate Change
This House of Lords Library Briefing has been prepared in advance of the debate on 18 January 2018 on the following motion moved by Lord Teverson (Liberal Democrat) “that this House takes note of the case for the UK to remain a global leader for green finance, and for the UK’s financial sector to be resilient to climate change”.
The UK Government has defined green finance as including private sector investments in technologies, infrastructure and start-ups which assist in the creation of jobs, the expansion of businesses and the development of economic growth, whilst reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The G20’s Green Finance Study Group (GFSG) has described green finance as financing investments that provide environmental benefits in the broader context of environmentally sustainable development.
This Briefing outlines what green finance is, recent government policies designed to promote it and finishes with an examination of the potential effects of climate change on the UK’s financial sector, with a particular focus on the work of the Bank of England.