UK Doubles-Down on Sustainable Finance


On 14 November 2024, Rachel Reeves set out in her first Mansion House Speech that “sustainable finance” was to be one of the UK’s five priorities in the government’s Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy (the “Strategy”). 

On the same day, representing HM Treasury at COP29, Growth Minister Lord Spencer Livermore laid out the UK’s commitment to making the UK the sustainable finance capital of the world on the ‘Finance, Investment, and Trade Day’ in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Call for Evidence on the government’s Strategy, including on this sustainable finance commitment, has been published with a short deadline of 12 December 2024, with the final Strategy to be published in Spring 2025. HM Treasury has also sent remit letters to the Financial Policy Committee and others (including the FCA) confirming that sustainable finance as an area of the UK government’s policy in financial services is one that the Financial Policy Committee, the FCA and other relevant committees should support.

We set out below a summary of the two key announcements for asset managers within the Strategy and note the other developments:

UK Green Taxonomy – its value case under consultation

ESG Ratings Regulation – legislation and consultation set in motion

Other sustainable finance areas in the Strategy

The other areas of the sustainable finance commitments in the Strategy are:

With sustainable finance firmly prioritised, asset managers and all other financial market participants will need to keep watch as the various workstreams progress for any impact. They will also need to monitor whether the UK developments are either found to be interoperable or divergent with EU and US legislation and expectations.


© 2025 Proskauer Rose LLP.
National Law Review, Volume XIV, Number 323