1489313 - Hogan Lovells FIS Horizons 2021 update - Flipbook - Page 29
Financial Institutions Horizons
TR
The Draft EU Exit Regs contain minor
amendments to the TR. The explanatory
memorandum to the Draft EU Exit Regs provide
that elements of the TR which will form part
of retained EU law are those that relate to the
criteria for the future development of green
performance thresholds for specific economic
activities. The Draft EU Exit Regs provide that
the implementation of certain provisions relating
to such criteria will be delayed in the UK by two
years, to allow adequate time to consider whether
they are appropriate for the UK.
On 9 November 2020, Chancellor of the
Exchequer Rishi Sunak MP announced the UK’s
green ambitions for the future and confirmed
that the UK will implement a green taxonomy
which will introduce a common framework for
determining which activities can be defined as
environmentally sustainable. The UK taxonomy
will take the scientific metrics in the TR as its basis
and a UK Green Technical Advisory Group will
be established to review whether these metrics are
appropriate for the UK market. The Chancellor
also announced that the UK will become the
first country in the world to make Task Force
on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)
fully mandatory across the economy by 2025.
In addition, the FCA announced that it will
introduce rules requiring premium listed
companies to make better disclosures about
how climate change affects their business in
accordance with recommendations made by the
TCFD and will also consult on extending the
rules to apply to asset managers, life insurers and
pension providers in the first half of 2021.
Accordingly, the Chancellor’s announcement
is a clear indication that the UK will diverge with
the EU on its implementation of the TR, however
the extent of any divergence is unclear. However,
the work which the UK Green Technical Advisory
Group has been tasked with suggests that any
deviation is unlikely to result in a reduction
of disclosure requirements for the UK. As such,
given the UK’s green ambitions announced by
the Chancellor, it is possible that the UK may
introduce disclosure requirements that go beyond
those of the TR.
29
Authors:
Andrew Carey
Senior Counsel & Co-Head of Impact
Financing & Investing, London
T +44 20 7296 5949
andrew.carey@hoganlovells.com
Sukhvir Basran
Senior Legal Director & Co-Head of
Impact Financing & Investing,
London
T +44 20 7296 2506
sukhvir.basran@hoganlovells.com
Dominic Hill
Consultant, London
T +44 20 7296 2297
dominic.hill@hoganlovells.com
Yvonne Clapham
Senior Knowledge Lawyer, London
T +44 20 7296 2101
yvonne.clapham@hoganlovells.com
Rita Hunter
Senior Associate, London
T +44 20 7296 2931
rita.hunter@hoganlovells.com
Paida Manhambara
Associate, London
T +44 20 7296 2181
paida.manhambara@hoganlovells.com
