London and Leeds to become global centres for green finance
£10 million UK Government investment to drive global green finance and investment will create research hubs based in Leeds and London, Energy Minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan announced on Monday.
Banks, lenders and insurers will be encouraged to invest in clean innovations and green technologies from renewable power to sustainable agriculture
© Andreas Gücklhorn/Unsplash‘The UK Centre for Greening Finance and Investment in London and Leeds will encourage financial services to turn the tide of their investments and focus on sectors and companies that have a smaller environmental footprint,’ says Trevelyan.
‘Doing so will support industries and businesses to develop clean green innovations, creating thousands of jobs across the country – ensuring we build back greener.’
The new UK Centre for Greening Finance and Investment will begin in April 2021, with physical hubs in Leeds and London opening months later. The initiative is led by a partnership with a number of UK institutions including University of Oxford, the University of Leeds and Imperial College London.
The research hubs in the two cities will provide data and analytics to financial institutions and services such as banks, lenders, investors and insurers around the world to better support their investment and business decisions by considering the impact on the environment and climate change.
The new centre will equip banks with the latest environmental and scientific intelligence to help companies of all sizes, including start-ups, anticipate, adapt and gear up for the risks posed by climate change.
The research will also help create new products and services that tackle climate change, such as cutting-edge technologies that measure severe storms and flood risks for property investors and tools that can improve data on industrial pollution linked to investment portfolios.
