Legal & Regulatory News

Treasury Committee publishes report on net zero recommendations

The House of Commons Treasury Committee (the Committee) has published a report entitled 'Net Zero and the Future of Green Finance' (the Report) as part of its decarbonisation and green finance inquiry, which first launched in June 2019 and was refreshed in July 2020.

In the Report, the Committee makes a series of recommendations as to how the UK Government can achieve net-zero by 2050, including:

• financial products should be clearly labelled to allow consumers to assess their relative climate impacts and to make choices accordingly;
• HM Treasury and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) should consult on making such green labels mandatory;
• HM Treasury must ensure that the FCA has the appropriate remit, powers, and priorities to prevent the greenwashing of financial products available to consumers;
• the FCA should set out how it will tackle remaining regulatory barriers that discourage innovate green financial products from coming to market;
• the Government should set out its cost assessments of achieving net-zero by 2050, its methodology, and highlight where the uncertainties lie; and
• HM Treasury’s Net Zero Review final report should include clear sectoral pathways towards decarbonisation and should address the key policy decisions as to the future of high carbon industries.

Click here to access the Report.