Glasgow, Scotland: The Islamic Finance Council UK (UKIFC), Her Majesty’s Treasury, Ministry of Finance in the Republic of Indonesia Ministry, Islamic Development Bank, London Stock Exchange Group and the Global Ethical Finance Initiative (GEFI) have come together today as founding partners to launch a High Level Working Group on Green Sukuk (HLWG).
The 3-year initiative will direct investment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the world’s regions in most need.
The announcement follows work of the Global Islamic Finance and UN SDGs Taskforce and a recent report “Innovation in Islamic Finance: Green Sukuk for SDGs” commissioned by UNDP Indonesia in which the UKIFC estimated that an additional US$30+ billion of capital towards the SDGs can be raised by 2025 through green and sustainability sukuk. To unlock this finance the HLWG has been launched to coordinate international efforts. The report showed how green and sustainability sukuk can be a viable financial instrument attracting billions of dollars of capital for green projects that support the delivery of the Paris Agreement.
Islamic finance is not limited to Muslim countries and has the potential to support the delivery of the more ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions that will be agreed at COP26. This will be particularly attractive to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) whose 57 member states represent over 1.82 billion people (24% of the total world population) and include a number of low-income countries that are politically or culturally marginalised.
The HWLG will be a focused, high-profile group of global stakeholders that will be led by the founding partners. The UKIFC together with Global Ethical Finance Initiative will act as Secretariat. The HLWG will focus on the following objectives:
- Ensuring green and sustainability sukuk is highlighted at annual COP summits up to and including 2023 to increase awareness of the instrument and proactively encourage the issuance of such sukuk by all market stakeholders (corporates, multilaterals and sovereigns) as a key Islamic financing key tool
- Assist and enhance existing established global standard setting bodies and regulatory initiatives run by the UN, IsDB and others (e.g. PRI, NGFS, Transform, PRB) to encourage better alignment of the Islamic finance industry with the global green and sustainability financial movement.
- Identify and address specific existing challenges for green and sustainability sukuk on the supply and demand side.
The HLWG launch was made today during the UKIFC’s Islamic Finance COP26 Programme that was held on the banks of Loch Lomond in Scotland. GEFI’s Path to COP26 campaign enabled Islamic finance experts from across the globe to come together to demonstrate the important role Islamic finance can play in supporting climate action in the global south and beyond.
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John Glen, Economic Secretary to the Treasury and City Minister
“The UK has strong credentials in green and Islamic finance, and we’re proud to be a founding country partner of the High Level Working Group on Green Sukuk which launched at COP 26 in Glasgow. Green Sukuk offer countries and companies an important route to secure investment for sustainable projects, so it’s important we work globally to kickstart and grow this market.”
Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Minister of Finance, Republic of Indonesia
As a pioneer in the issuance of international Green Sukuk, is honored to work together with UK Treasury, Islamic Finance Council UK, Islamic Development Bank, London Stock Exchange Group and the Global Ethical Finance Initiative to further develop Green Sukuk market.
The initiative will promote Green Sukuk as an alternative financing instrument, which combines two principles that are much aligned, to a wider audience globally, and enabling issuers not only tapping Sukuk investors but also SRI investors across the world.
The Republic is always a keen promoter of the asset class and committed to further enrich and develop Green Sukuk, as seen by our consistent effort in issuing the instrument annually, and therefore, very excited to participate in this collaboration. We hope to be able to share our experiences and provide valuable precedents to the group, at the same time learning and apply best practices or initiatives for the improvement of Green Sukuk.
With the world recovering from global pandemic, it provides a momentum for nations / multilateral institutions / corporates across the world to work together to grow sustainably for future generations. We owe this planet from our children.
Through better policy management, we could ensure this obligation to keep brighter future. This is not a choice. This is talking about humanity. No time to avoid. This time to hold and make a real collaboration.
Julia Hoggett, Chief Executive, London Stock Exchange plc
"The launch of the High-Level Working Group on Green Sukuk is a significant milestone for the development of Islamic Finance and sustainable finance globally. I am delighted that LSEG is a founding member to help scale green sukuk through our markets and data, allowing companies to access finance in a manner consistent with their faith and values. Green sukuk are strongly linked to assets in the growing green economy, and can help mobilise the capital needed to fund the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals."
Omar Shaikh, Board Member, UKIFC
“The Islamic finance industry has a key role to play in prioritising the climate and the broader SDGs going forward. These issues are naturally aligned to the principles of Islamic finance and promoting green sukuk will be a key route that can drive industry growth.”
The Islamic Finance Council UK (UKIFC) is a specialist, not-for-profit, advisory and developmental body focused on promoting and enhancing the global Islamic and ethical finance industry. It has helped six countries develop enabling regulatory frameworks for Islamic finance, enhancing financial inclusion to over 15 million people, established the award-winning Ethical Finance Round Table series running since 2010, launched the world’s first joint venture between Islamic finance and the Church of Scotland, and delivered development sessions to over 500 Islamic scholars across the globe. In 2020 the UKIFC, alongside the British Government’s Treasury department, established the Islamic Finance and Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) taskforce, which will be anchored in London.
UKIFC – https://www.ukifc.com/
SDG Taskforce - https://www.ukifc.com/sdg/
FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO ARRANGE AN INTERVIEW PLEASE CONTACT:
Chris Tait - chris@ukifc.com / +44(0)7931 103573
© Press Release 2021
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