This House of Lords Library Briefing has been prepared in advance of the debate on 18 January 2018 on the following motion moved by Lord Teverson (Liberal Democrat) “that this House takes note of the case for the UK to remain a global leader for green finance, and for the UK’s financial sector to be resilient to climate change”.
Green Finance and the Resilience of the Financial Sector to Climate Change (311 KB , PDF)
The UK Government has defined green finance as including private sector investments in technologies, infrastructure and start-ups which assist in the creation of jobs, the expansion of businesses and the development of economic growth, whilst reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The G20’s Green Finance Study Group (GFSG) has described green finance as financing investments that provide environmental benefits in the broader context of environmentally sustainable development.
This Briefing outlines what green finance is, recent government policies designed to promote it and finishes with an examination of the potential effects of climate change on the UK’s financial sector, with a particular focus on the work of the Bank of England.
Green Finance and the Resilience of the Financial Sector to Climate Change (311 KB , PDF)
This briefing is the fifth of a series on the post-war history of the UK economy. The series proceeds decade-by-decade from the 1950s onwards, providing an overview of the key macroeconomic developments of each decade. This fifth briefing looks at the 1990s. In this decade the UK economy settled into a period of low inflation and steady growth; however, living standards growth was lower and more regionally concentrated than in previous decades.
The Budget Responsibility Bill would require ministers to request an assessment from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) for every major fiscal announcement and give the OBR the power to decide to publish one if the minister failed to request it. This follows the September 2022 ‘mini-budget’. The statement included plans that would have resulted in a projected £45bn reduction in tax income. It did not have an accompanying OBR assessment.
The new Labour government has committed to the expansion of offshore wind energy. This commitment has been welcomed by the offshore energy industry and by environmental organisations. However, concerns remain about how these plans might be achieved in practice while maintaining and improving the marine environment. This briefing considers some of the potential obstacles to achieving the expansion in offshore wind.
