I congratulate my hon. Friend Alexander Stafford on securing the debate, not least because, amazingly, it is the House’s first dedicated debate on this subject, which is remarkable—it will certainly not be the last. I know that he cares a great deal about this subject, not only as the chair of the APPG on ESG, but from his career. He speaks with great authority and knowledge of the subject, and I am grateful to him for the opportunity to set out the Government’s position on the important issues that he raised.

My hon. Friend will be aware of our steadfast commitment, enshrined in law, to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050. We already lead the world on tackling climate change: we have decarbonised faster than any other major economy since 1990, reducing our emissions by nearly half while growing our economy by some two thirds. Renewables have gone from less than 7% of our electricity supply in 2010 to 48% in the first quarter of this year, which is fantastic progress. However, as the Prime Minister has said recently, we will not stop there. The Chancellor has set out his view that the UK’s green industries are key to creating growth across this United Kingdom and our whole economy, and the Prime Minister’s announcements have outlined how the Government are working to unblock key barriers to investment and decarbonisation.

Growing the sustainable finance sector to support the transition to net zero is a major priority for this Government, and in March we published our green finance strategy. The strategy sets out the policies, regulatory changes and frameworks that we will be focusing on and taking forward in the next two to three years, helping businesses to have more certainty. It includes, for example, our commitment to deliver a useful and usable UK green taxonomy—an important evidence-based classification tool that will clearly define what is meant by “green” so that the market knows where to channel investment. As Jim Shannon rightly highlighted, that supply of relevant and reliable information will help guide us all in financing activities that actually support our net zero and environmental objectives, while making clearer where damaging greenwashing is taking place.

Businesses that claim to be delivering green outcomes while doing no such thing not only continue to damage our environment, but damage our collective efforts to reduce the impact on the natural world by undermining the efforts of their competitors and the confidence of the public. This is clearly something that we need to tackle. The Competition and Markets Authority has led a crackdown on greenwashing advertising; the green taxonomy will go much further, making it easier to test and verify claims across the board. I can tell my hon. Friend the Member for Rother Valley that our next step towards delivering that taxonomy—something that he has directly asked for—is direct consultation, as he would expect. That consultation will take place this autumn, ensuring that we gain market views. It is right that we do so, as that will help build trust in the process and build on lessons learned in other parts of the world.