UK-based long-term savings and retirement business Phoenix Group has outlined four core net zero recommendations for the next UK government following the anticipated general election later this year. Phoenix’s policy paper called for the expansion of HM Treasury’s mandate to incorporate net zero and lead on work developing a national transition plan that encompasses sector-specific strategies, roadmaps with clear milestones and policy levers across pricing, regulation and support. Phoenix suggested this could help unlock regional investment in climate solutions – another of its four recommended policy interventions. Phoenix recently urged the UK to mobilise its US$3.2 trillion pension system to fund the energy transition at the local government level. Other recommendations were to evolve climate considerations within fiduciary duty – including a proposal for the UK Department for Work and Pensions to set up a fiduciary duty industry taskforce – and accelerate regulatory and legislative pensions reform. “The scaling-up of investment in climate solutions calls for close collaboration across local and national government, regulators and investors,” said Bruno Gardner, Head of Climate Change and Nature at Phoenix Group. “Our policy paper proposes how a new parliament could tackle this practically and proactively, in a way that will help also support good outcomes for pension savers and achieve wider national policy objectives of economic growth and regional investment.”
