Regulatory Briefing: UK‘s U-turn on green taxonomy

Green finance groups have reacted angrily to news that the UK government may weaken its sustainable taxonomy by including natural gas. The Daily Telegraph reported a government source saying that the UK is considering including natural gas to help trigger investment in North Sea oil.

Politics, stay out of it. James Alexander, chief executive of the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association, said in a statement: “We are extremely concerned by reports that the UK government now plans to incorporate natural gas within the UK’s green taxonomy. As we highlighted last week in our report, ‘Delivering a net-zero financial centre‘, the inclusion of natural gas would fundamentally change the taxonomy’s purpose as a science-based tool to define for investors what is ‘green today’, and directly conflict with the UK’s ambitious decarbonisation targets.