Financial markets must play a pivotal role in the transition to a greener and more sustainable economy. As one of the world’s largest capital markets, London Stock Exchange is committed to playing its part.
Sitting at the heart of the global financial system, London Stock Exchange Group is ideally placed
to support the transition to a sustainable, low-carbon economy.
With more than 2,000 companies, 13,000 debt instruments and 450 funds hosted on London markets, LSEG have recognised and encouraged high quality issuers that drive long-term economic prosperity. London Stock Exchange has a long track record of innovation to help issuers improve the long-term sustainability of their business, region or country and enhance their ability to raise capital for growth and employment creation.
However, the global imperative to mitigate and adapt to climate change, other pressing environmental issues such as plastic waste and short time horizons for meaningful action, mean that the need for innovation to support effective allocation of capital at the scale needed to address these challenges has never been greater.
Financial markets and LSEG must play a pivotal role in the transition to a greener, more sustainable economy, and pivotal role in the transition to a greener, building engagement with UK Government initiatives such as the Green Finance Taskforce, which led to the creation of the Green Finance Institute and the EU’s High-Level Expert Group and Technical Expert Group, which developed the recommendations for the EU’s Green Finance Taxonomy.
As one of the world’s most diversified financial market infrastructure groups, LSEG is uniquely able to leverage a broad and deep set of expertise and products in support of issuers of all types. For example, FTSE Russell has helped promote sustainable investment for more than 20 years, developing indexes, data and analytics tools to help investors and issuers identify best practice in corporate responsibility. That innovation has led to a deep and sophisticated Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) data set for public companies, which have now applied to enable issuers to communicate effectively to investors how they are managing ESG risk and opportunity.
London Stock Exchange became the first major stock exchange to launch a dedicated green bond segment.
In 2015, London Stock Exchange became the first major stock exchange to launch a dedicated green bond segment, establishing strict admission criteria aligned with independent standards and verification. London Stock Exchange is now home to a diversified range of green, social and sustainability bonds that have raised over £27 billion for supranational institutions, governments, and corporates. LSEG is taking that further by establishing a sustainable bond market and working with partners to pilot frameworks for issuers to finance the transition from high- to low- carbon business models.
The focus on innovation in green finance sits across all the markets: LSEG Green Economy Mark for equities raises the visibility of listed companies and funds that drive positive environmental contributions from their commercial activity and the group are also actively engaging with investors, regulators and policymakers to create an environment where large-scale investment can enable the clean technologies of the future.
More information visit www.londonstockexchange.com
