UK eyes becoming world's first 'net zero' financial hub

GLASGOW, Scotland

On the COP26 climate summit's finance day on Wednesday, Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak set to call for companies to outline plans for the UK to be the world's first net-zero-aligned financial center, urging other countries to follow suit.

"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," the ministry said in a statement on the conference being held in Glasgow, Scotland.

The statement said that the UK would spend £576 million ($785 million) on a package of initiatives to mobilize finance into developing economies.

It said Sunak would also announce the launch of an innovative new financing mechanism -- the Climate Investment Funds' Capital Markets Mechanism (CCMM) -- to boost investment into clean energy in developing countries.

Finance day will see a record number of finance ministers, central bank governors, heads of multilateral financial institutions, and senior industry leaders for a program of public and private events.

Meanwhile, a former governor of the Bank of England made all big western banks sign up to his Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, announcing $130 trillion from 450 financial groups directed at decarbonization.

Mark Carney, the UN special envoy for climate action and finance, said the architecture of the global financial system had been "transformed" to deliver net zero.

"We now have the essential plumbing in place to move climate change from the fringes to the forefront of finance so that every financial decision takes climate change into account," he said.

"Only this mainstream focus can finance the estimated $100 trillion of investment needed over the next three decades for a clean energy future."

Channeling climate funds to developing countries will be one of the success metrics of COP26.

Rich countries had previously committed $100 billion a year by 2020 to help underdeveloped countries tackle the effects of climate change.

But, this goal has not yet been achieved, as a report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) last month showed that in 2019, the latest year for which data is available, only about $80 billion had been enabled.