Today we launch a new free guide to help financial consumers understand upcoming rules aimed at stamping out greenwash.
The Good Guide to Avoiding Greenwash explains the raft of measures being introduced this year by the UK’s financial watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
It covers the three main rules, and how consumers can use them to make informed choices about which financial providers and products best align with their needs AND ethical values.
Julia Dreblow, Vice Chair of the FCA’s industry-led Advisers’ Sustainability Group, said: “Most of us are now well aware of the potentially existential risks presented by climate change and the damage we have caused to nature – and care about the interconnected social challenges, too.
“But while many people have worked out that big businesses are all too often part of the problem, far fewer equate these with their own pensions, ISAs and bank accounts – unless, of course, they’re reading a publication such as this!”
While public desire to get behind finance that does good in the world has grown at speed, its ability to drive these important changes is being held back by the simultaneous rise of ‘greenwashing’.
This is where financial providers mislead well-intentioned customers by making inflated claims about the sustainability credentials of their products.
The FCA is now bringing in tough new rules that aim to crack down on greenwashing and give consumers the confidence to put their money to work for positive change.
While the rules themselves are crucial, it’s equally important that people looking to invest (or use any financial product) sustainably understand what they mean and how to use them. That’s why we created this guide.
The guide includes expert articles from sustainable finance specialists:
- Triodos Bank: Sorting the truth from the greenwash
- EQ Investors: Clamping down on greenwashing
- WHEB Asset Management: The exciting potential of the ‘Impact’ label
- Ethex/Energise Africa: Why direct investing = transparent impact
Dreblow, who has written the foreword to the guide, added: “The new rules are setting foundations from which we hope to improve trust in sustainable financial products, and facilitate greater investment into assets that can help solve problems, and build – sometimes literally – a cleaner, safer future.”
Download your free guide here.
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