9 June 2021, source edie newsroom
The UK Government is set to launch a new advisory group tasked with creating a ‘green taxonomy’ for finance, in a bid to crack down on greenwashing in the investment space.
Pictured: Chancellor Rishi Sunak at the recent G7 Finance Ministers’ Meeting. Image: HM Treasury, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Called the Green Technical Advisory Group (GTAG), the taskforce will comprise of members from NGOs, trade bodies and academia, alongside organisations that will use the finalised taxonomy and organisations with expertise in creating such frameworks. It is set up to be independent from the Treasury and other Government departments.
Organisations represented within the GTAG’s membership include the Green Finance Institute, WWF, the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), the Confederation of British Industries (CBI) and the Aldersgate Group. Under the category of taxonomy and data experts sit representatives from the likes of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), the Climate Bonds Initiative and the Government’s own Environment Agency and Committee on Climate Change.
The Green Finance Institute’s executive director Ingrid Holmes has been appointed as chair of the GTAG. Holmes also heads up policy and advocacy at investment manager Federated Hermes International. Prior to taking up these roles, she was a director at think-tank E3G, contributing to the establishment of the now-closed UK Green Investment Bank.