Former LSE boss Dame Clara Furse heads campaign to turn the City into green hub
Green drive: Dame Clara Furse will establish a group to turn the City into the world’s biggest hub for trading carbon offsets
A former chief executive of the London Stock Exchange has been put in charge of a task force to boost Britain’s green credentials.
Dame Clara Furse who ran the LSE from 2001 to 2009, will establish a group to turn the City into the world’s biggest hub for trading carbon offsets.
These are schemes that allow companies – and individuals – to offset the emissions they have produced by investing in environmental projects such as tree planting.
Ministers said the group would tap into the UK’s ‘financial expertise and entrepreneurship’.
Pushing the City of London to the forefront of the global market would have the double effect of bolstering the UK’s green credentials and carving out a new role for the financial services industry, which many still worry is at risk of losing its competitive edge post Brexit.
Furse, 63, is the chairman of HSBC UK and sits on the board of Vodafone.
Estimates about the size of the market vary wildly, but figures from Ecosystem Marketplace put voluntary trading at about £215million in 2018 and it is expected to grow exponentially.