Chancellor Rishi Sunak has outlined plans for the UK’s first Sovereign Green Bond, as part of plans to make the UK attractive to financial services firms after Brexit.

The bond will help the UK meet its 2050 net zero target and other environmental objectives and the Treasury intends to follow up with a series of further issuances to “meet growing investor demand” for these instruments.

The statement from the Treasury said following the UK’s departure from the EU, the government’s approach to financial services “will be guided by what is right for the UK and one of its most productive and innovative sectors.”

Plans include launching the Sovereign Green Bond, becoming the first country in the world to make TCFD-aligned disclosures mandatory, reviewing the UK’s listings regime to attract the most innovative firms, and “leading the global conversation” on new technologies like stablecoins and Central Bank Digital Currencies.

The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) will become fully mandatory by 2025. The joint government and regulator TCFD taskforce has published a roadmap for implementing mandatory disclosures, many of which will start to come into force in 2023. Amongst other sectors, they will apply to UK-authorised asset managers, insurance companies and pension schemes.

The statement from the Treasury also tackled equivalence. The Treasury has published a guidance document setting out he UK’s approach to equivalence with overseas jurisdictions as well as announcing that the UK will be granting a package of equivalence decisions to the EU and EEA members states.

Mr Sunak said: “We are starting a new chapter in the history of financial services and renewing the UK’s position as the world’s pre-eminent financial centre. By taking as many equivalence decisions as we can in the absence of clarity from the EU, we’re doing what’s right for the UK and providing firms with certainty and stability.

“Our plans will ensure the UK moves forward as an open, attractive and well-regulated market, and continues to lead the world in pioneering new technologies and shifting finance towards a net zero future.”