Emma Howard Boyd, addressing the annual forum of the UK’s Center for Green Finance and Investment, will warn businesses that they are embedding responsibility and storing risk for their investors by giving the false impression that they are tackling the climate crisis. The danger, he says, is that people “won’t realize this deception until it’s too late.” Howard Boyd tackles concerns about greenwashing after the climate change commission said last week in its annual progress report that the government is failing to implement the policies needed to meet the UK’s net zero targets. Lord Debben, chairman of the committee and a former Conservative environment secretary, said the government had set strong targets to cut emissions but the policy to meet them was lacking. “The government wanted the ends, but not the means,” he said. Howard Boyd, who is leaving the Environment Agency in September, is interim chairman of the Green Finance Institute. It will say that nearly £650bn of public and private infrastructure investment planned up to 2030 is at significant risk unless increasingly serious climate impacts are taken into account in planning and delivery. “As with the government’s ambition of net zero by 2050, achieving climate resilience and nature recovery requires robust, consistent and reliable data,” she will say in her speech. “If we fail to identify and address greenwashing, we allow ourselves the false confidence that we are already addressing the causes and addressing the symptoms of the climate crisis.” Howard Boyd is set to praise the work of activist NGOs including ShareAction, Make My Money Matter and ClientEarth for their work challenging greenwashing. Earlier this year, the Bank of England’s first climate stress test showed that UK banks and insurers could end up taking almost £340bn of climate-related losses by 2050 unless action is taken to limit of rising temperatures and sea levels. Howard Boyd says climate adaptation is underinvested. Action was needed and calls for public and private sector collaboration. “Globally, just 5% of climate finance is dedicated to resilience, and virtually none of it comes from the private sector,” he will say. Howard Boyd wants to see more government involvement in promoting investment in climate adaptation, starting with a Treasury-commissioned review to assess the economics of climate resilience. “This will help us understand how preparedness for climate shocks supports sustainable economic growth, establishes an overriding ambition for adaptation investment and a plan to achieve it,” he will say.
