The UK is a leading centre for thought leadership and expertise that brings forward practical steps to address the climate challenge.
Our new report, From commitment to action: tracking UK financial services’ progress on the pathway to Net Zero, shows UK financial institutions are frontrunners in both setting climate goals and implementing climate actions, along with the US.
Global financial services institutions are ramping up their effort to address the climate crisis. Many of them have made formal climate commitments and joined key initiatives like the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ). Commitment is a great starting point. The next step is to realise these commitments and build a transparent mechanism that tracks progress on their transition to net zero.
The City of London Corporation jointly produced this report with the Climate Policy Initiative to examine the progress made by around 550 members of GFANZ. It focuses on UK-based GFANZ members.
Three dimensions are examined:
- climate targets setting,
- implementation of climate actions, and
- impacts on the wider economy
They represent increasing levels of materiality and relevance of progress.
UK institutions have made more advanced responses in climate target adoption and actions
The analysis shows that UK GFANZ members have made encouraging overall progress between 2020-2022. The UK – alongside the US – hosted the highest number of GFANZ members with the most advanced responses in setting climate targets and implementing climate actions. This means the UK has more GFANZ members that have adopted defined climate targets and have taken climate-related actions in stakeholder engagement, management practices and disclosures.
The UK – alongside the US – hosted the highest number of GFANZ members with the most advanced responses in setting climate targets and implementing climate actions
100%
All UK GFANZ entities have set climate targets
~100%
Almost all UK GFANZ entities have made plans to implement their climate goals
+57%
direct investments in climate solutions from UK GFANZ entities 2018-2020
UK-based GFANZ members are the only ones among organisations in the top five GFANZ participating countries that both accelerated their shift away from new fossil fuel investment and increased climate-related investment in 2022
Target-setting was driven by uptake of mitigation and divestment goals led by large UK and US GFANZ asset managers. After a significant acceleration in the last two years, all UK GFANZ organisations adopted some climate-related targets in 2022.
In 2022, almost all UK GFANZ members had implementation plans in place. This includes climate-related actions in stakeholder engagement, management practices and disclosures, although more than half were just at planning stage. Within GFANZ, the UK hosted the highest number of institutions with advanced responses in the implementation dimension (18), followed by the US (15).
UK-based GFANZ members are also the only ones among organisations in the top five GFANZ participating countries that both accelerated their shift away from new fossil fuel investment (new financing made available to fossil fuel) and increased climate-related investment in 2022. Although fossil fuel financing remained prevalent.