Big hitters named to UK/City of London green finance advisory panel

The UK’s recently-announced Green Finance Institute has named a slew of big hitters as members of its Advisory Group. The body, which has been set up in a collaboration between the City of London and the UK Government, is expected to be fully launched next spring. At a green finance event hosted by the City last week, Economic Secretary to the UK Treasury and City Minister John Glenn said “the Institute will stand as a quality mark – as a sign of the UK’s green finance expertise”. It will be chaired by Sir Roger Gifford, former Lord Mayor of London, Head of SEB bank’s UK arm and Chair of the City’s Green Finance Initiative. Other members include:

• Sarah Breeden, Executive Director for International Banks Supervision at the Prudential Regulation Authority, Bank of England
• Rhian-Mari Thomas, Chair of Barclays’ Green Banking Council and a member of the TCFD
• Dame Helena Morrissey, Head of Personal Investing at Legal & General Investment Management and former Chair of the Investment Association
• Fiona Reynolds, Managing Director of the Principles for Responsible Investment
• Nikhil Rathi, CEO of the London Stock Exchange plc, former Head of the Government’s Financial Stability Unit and Director of Financial Services and former Private Secretary to the UK Prime Minister.
• Tamira Treffers-Herrera, European CEO for Rabobank
• Ben Caldecott, Director of Oxford University’s Sustainable Finance Programme,
  Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment* Edward Northam, Head of Macquarie Capital’s Green Investment Group – formerly the UK state-owned Green Investment Bank, which was privatised last year.
• Lord Nick Stern, Professor of Economics and Government, Chairman of the Grantham Institute on Climate Change at the London School of Economics, and author of the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change
• Daniel Klier, Group Head of Strategy and Global Head of Sustainable Finance at HSBC
• Ian Simm, Founder and CEO of Impax Asset Management
• Rowan Douglas, CEO of Capital Science & Policy Practice at Willis Towers Watson
• Paul Fisher, Fellow at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, former member of the EU’s High Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance (HLEG) and former Executive Director of the Bank of England
• Nick Mabey, owner of climate change think-tank E3G
• And Alderman Alison Gowman, City of London Corporation

The announcement of the Advisory Group comes just weeks after the European Commission named its Technical Working Group on Sustainable Finance, which will help the EU devise standards and definitions around ESG investing. While its predecessor, HLEG, had five UK representatives (out of a total of 20 members), the new group has none – a reflection of the fact that many of the EU’s plans for sustainable finance are scheduled for after the UK leaves the EU.