Sustainability update July 2025

Major scientific study links airborne pollutants to increased risk of dementia

Long-term exposure to certain outdoor air pollutants can increase the risk of developing dementia, according to the most comprehensive study of its kind. Scientists at the Medical Research Council’s epidemiology unit at the University of Cambridge (MRC) concluded there was an “urgent need” for regional, national, and international policy interventions to place stricter limits on industrial and transport-generated pollutants.

In 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 57 million people worldwide were affected by dementia with over 60% of sufferers living in low- and middle-income countries. The number of cases is expected to increase to at least 150 million by 2050. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia and may contribute to 60–70% of cases – almost a million people in the UK suffer from it. 

The MRC analysed 51 studies and drew on data from more than 29 million participants exposed to air pollutants for at least a year. While air pollution has previously been identified as a risk factor for dementia, the study was the first to make a positive and statistically significant association between three specific pollutants and elevated dementia risk. It found that PM2.5, a particulate associated with vehicle emissions, could increase dementia risk by 17%. Nitrogen oxide from burning fossil fuels, industrial emissions and gas appliances increased the risk by 3%, while soot from wood burning and vehicle exhausts raised the relative risk by 13%. Particulates can reach the brain directly or travel to it through the bloodstream. Once in the brain, they cause inflammation and oxidative stress which damages cells, proteins and DNA.

Unicef estimates that air pollution has moved ahead of tobacco and poor diet as a mortality risk factor, accounting for 1 in 8 deaths globally. Millions of people live with debilitating chronic diseases, increasing pressures on healthcare systems, economies, and societies. Prior to the publication of the MRC’s study, an investor coalition representing over $795 billion in assets under management, including Greenbank, issued a public statement urging high-emitting companies to take stronger action on air pollution. Led by responsible investment NGO ShareAction, the coalition warned that industrial air pollution is substantially underestimated in corporate financial risk assessments and sustainability strategies. Limited emissions disclosures and the poor management of health risks exposes workers and communities to pollution risks and creates reputational, regulatory, and legal risks for companies and shareholders. Among other recommendations, signatories to ShareAction’s statement encouraged more investors to join the World Economic Forum’s Alliance for Clean Air initiative. Launched at Cop26, the initiative aims to encourage private sector efforts to improve air quality across value chains.

Government axes plan for UK Green Taxonomy after consultation response

After HM Treasury published its UK Green Taxonomy Consultation Response in mid-July, chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed that the government had shelved plans to develop a domestic green taxonomy, deciding it “would not be the most effective tool to deliver the green transition and should not be part of [the UK’s] sustainable finance framework”. Since the consultation’s launch in November 2024, respondents from 150 financial, energy and mixed industry organisations advanced the opinion that other policies would achieve more to accelerate investment into the transition to net zero and limit greenwashing – 55% of respondents expressed mixed or negative views of the UK Taxonomy, instead highlighting the potential benefits of the UK Sustainable Reporting Standard (UK SRS), sector-specific decarbonisation roadmaps, grant schemes, economic incentives, and taxation changes.

Industry concerns focused primarily on the real-world application of a UK Taxonomy, influenced largely by the challenges experienced in implementing the EU Taxonomy and the recent fallout from the EU Commission’s Omnibus proposal which aimed to streamline regional regulatory processes and reduce the reporting burden for European businesses. Multinational respondents argued that a UK Taxonomy could be restrictive for those holding portfolios across multiple jurisdictions, exacerbating the challenges and costs of arbitrage between differing taxonomies. Comparing ‘green’ activities across differing principles-based and technical screening systems could also result in differing activity classifications and increase the risk of greenwashing.

Respondents operating in sectors central to the net zero transition, such as energy, nuclear and waste, were concerned about how their activities might be classified under a UK Taxonomy and how those classifications could impact their ability to raise capital. Participants from the financial services sector viewed a UK Taxonomy more as a useful additional data source for informing investment decisions, observing that it wouldn’t be a policy lever changing risk profiles or improving the scalability or viability of green projects.

Most respondents nevertheless agreed that continued engagement between governments and regulators would help to find convergence between differing regional taxonomies and be a more effective way to achieve greater international alignment across international sustainable finance frameworks. The government has already proposed changes to the UK SRS for large companies and the financial services sector, adopting new international sustainability disclosure standards implemented by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). A recent survey of 50 UK asset managers by the Investment Association found that 80% believed that a developing sustainability labelling initiative launched by the Financial Conduct Authority’s Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR) successfully enhanced investor protection against greenwashing, a key objective of any taxonomy. The government-commissioned Transition Finance Market Review has developed practical recommendations for scaling transition finance with credibility and integrity to support a domestic and global net zero future.

Government’s 10-year national health plan sets new healthy food standards for retailers

The government’s “Fit for the future” 10-year national health plan includes a new healthy food standard for large retailers and supermarkets to support the plan’s “sickness to prevention” objective by reformulating products and recipes, changing shop layouts, and including healthy food options in discount and loyalty schemes. The plan will restrict junk food advertising aimed at youngsters, reform the soft drinks industry to drive product reformulation, and ban the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to children under 16. It will also introduce the world’s first mandatory healthy food sales reporting requirement for all major food sector retailers. This is a measure that Greenbank has been engaging with the UK Government to introduce since 2021 and is what led to it establishing the Investor Coalition on Food Policy, now a £6 trillion-strong group of investors calling for a healthy, sustainable and affordable food system. You can read more about our work in this area here. Greenbank is now calling on the Government for timely implementation of the policy, for it to be adequately enforced and for it to apply to all segments of the food sector, including manufacturers, retailers and food service companies. 

Supermarket leaders including Tesco and Sainsbury’s welcomed the introduction of mandatory reporting and the flexibility the plan gives them to support the government’s long-term ambitions. Henry Dimbleby, author of the National Food Strategy and the government’s Independent Food Review also endorsed mandatory sales reporting as a crucial first step towards improving the country’s relationship with food, observing that “what gets measured gets done”.

Obesity is a major cause of diabetes, heart disease and cancers, and the UK has the third-highest rate of adult obesity in Europe. Rates have doubled since the 1990s, especially among children, costing the NHS £11.4 billion a year – three times the annual budget for ambulance services. Public health experts have estimated that cutting daily calorie intakes by just 50 calories would lift 2 million adults and 340,000 children out of obesity. They further project that domestic obesity rates would be halved if everyone classified as overweight cut their daily calorie intake by 216 calories. While some have questioned the relative effects of calorie cutting, most agree that the reductions recommended by the plan would be beneficial to the nation’s long-term dietary health.