The Chancellor is setting out UK’s plans to become the world’s first net-zero aligned financial centre and welcoming “historic” climate commitments from private companies covering $130tr, around 40% of the world’s financial assets, to be aligned with the climate goals in the Paris Agreement as he hosts Finance Day at COP26.

Under the proposals, there will be new requirements for UK financial institutions and listed companies to publish net-zero transition plans that detail how they will adapt and decarbonise as the UK moves towards to a net-zero economy by 2050.

To guard against greenwashing, a science-based ‘gold standard’ for transition plans will be drawn up by a new Transition Plan Taskforce, composed of industry and academic leaders, regulators, and civil society groups.

These commitments come from over 450 firms from all parts of the financial industry, based in 45 countries across six continents, and have been delivered through the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), which was launched by the UK to harness the power of the financial sector in the transition to net zero.

The UK has also worked as chair of the G7, and in partnership with other G20 countries, to ensure all economic and financial decisions take the risks of climate change into account. The UK has convened over 30 advanced and developing countries from across 6 continents and representing over 70 per cent of global GDP to back the creation of a new global climate reporting standards by the IFRS Foundation to give investors the information they need to fund net-zero.

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