Kate Forbes says Scotland can become global green finance leader

Kate Forbes has said Scotland can become a “global contender” in the race to capture the economic opportunities from growth in green and sustainable financial services.

In an exclusive interview with The Herald today, the deputy first minister said Scotland was “one of the world’s oldest financial centres”, as she underlined the potential for this sector to benefit from “enormous investment that will flow into net-zero projects and assets” at home and abroad.

Ms Forbes was responding to a taskforce report, which will be published today and recommends actions including working with the City of London Corporation to “locate sustainable finance activity to Scotland” and looking at new ways to attract more financial institutions to “build their sustainable and green businesses in Scotland”.

The report, which will be launched by Ms Forbes at the Ethical Finance Global 2024 summit in Edinburgh today, also recommends collaboration across sectors and academia to support the upskilling of Scotland’s workforce in sustainable finance.

Ms Forbes says: “The recently published green industrial strategy has a clear overarching aim: to help Scotland realise the economic benefits of the global transition to net zero. There are few areas of greater competitive advantage and potential than green and sustainable financial services.

“The financial services sector is key to delivering the benefits of the just transition and we will use this route map to work together and ensure that Scotland – one of the world’s oldest financial centres – is able to maximise the opportunities ahead of us.”

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