Mark Campanale, founder and executive chair of Carbon Tracker said: 

“While we welcome in principle the UK government’s statement – and we praise its ambition – in practice we need to see much more of the detail on how this will be achieved. As with all types of net-zero pledges, it is fundamentally about implementation and a credible pathway containing hard intermediate measures for meeting that goal.

“None of the financial assets announced are currently aligned with net-zero and no group of companies can say they are meeting the Paris target by continuing to invest in fossil fuels, so that needs to change considerably before London can be lauded as the world’s first net-zero financial centre and a model for the world.

“The desire to mobilise capital for the global clean energy revolution is to be commended, but in reality few if any pension funds and investment managers have explicit mandates to invest in the global south for instance. We absolutely need “blended capital” vehicles that combine first loss, catalytic capital with equit y finance and thereby leverage the power of private finance.

“This is particularly important for Africa and Asia’s transition to renewables where hundreds of millions are still without access to energy at all. If government  was serious about making the UK a centre of sustainable finance, it would empower pension funds to make the leap of allocating real risk funds to those continents.”