Private equity fund hub Guernsey today launched its first voluntary green private equity principles. As a new sustainable financial system is being built, their aim is to bring climate risks and resilience into the heart of private equity decision making based on better climate disclosure and risk management.

Marshalled by the G20 and created by the private sector, the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), a comprehensive, practical and flexible framework for corporate disclosure of climate-related risks and opportunities, informs the overall approach. Highlights include:

• Boards ensure climate change risks are given proper consideration at every stage of an investment’s lifecycle, from the raising of funds and due diligence, through to the investment, holding period and later exit process.
• Green financial instruments – including green bonds, asset backed securities, investment funds and insurance – be aligned to the investment process, with climate change risks and the goal of climate change mitigation in mind.
• Boards will aim to foster a culture of reporting findings and outcomes to the relevant stakeholders regarding the success of climate mitigation achievement, against agreed international standards.
• Staff, stakeholders and investee companies are educated on climate change risks, the importance of climate change mitigation through sustainable investments, and the carbon footprint of our investments.

Dr Andy Sloan, Chair of Guernsey Green Finance, the industry body which has developed the principles, said: “Time after time our own research has thrown up concerns that sufficiently simple guidance for the private equity industry was lacking.

“We have developed these pragmatic and proportionate principles in response to that demand. Their aim is to help create simple reporting and transparency to enable private equity firms to become ‘green and sustainable’ and to guide the industry towards playing its part to transition the global economy to becoming carbon-neutral. We hope these principles will help route capital to the cause of climate change mitigation.”

Private equity funds domiciled or administered in Guernsey have a net asset value of more than £120 billion.