However I do not claim to have all the answers. No one does. Hence the value of consultations and committees.
None of this is going to be easy, but being ultra-open, collaborative and realistic is a good place to start.
So, what next?
I suspect the FCA may have a tough time with labels. Language used by data providers and fund managers help their businesses, but are often about as useful as ‘the answer is 42’ to others. We need to find a way through this.
Keeping an eye on real-world outcomes will also be crucial. We know clients are interested (my view is that many always were), so to earn their trust we must meet, or preferably exceed, their reasonable expectations.
That means investee company behaviours must change and emissions must fall. And for that to happen there must be no chinks in the chain. In fact, financial advisers are gently mentioned four times in the discussion paper, but I will leave that for another time.
Julia Dreblow is director of SRI Services and founder of Fund EcoMarket. Dreblow also serves on the new FCA Disclosures and Labels Advisory Group
