A group of business leaders and politicians has called for the green investment bank (GIB) to be given the power to borrow money in order to realise its full potential.
In a report released to coincide with the second anniversary of the launch of the bank, business organisation, the Aldersgate group, has gathered opinions from a number of politicians and financial experts on the GIB's successes so far as well as recommendations for the next phase of its development.
Contributors include: members of the Conservative, Liberal Democrat, Labour and Green parties; Bank of America Merryl Lynch; Climate Change Capital; E3G; and the committee on climate change. Politicians from all four parties said they supported allowing the GIB to borrow money on the open market.
The report recommends that whichever party forms the government after next year's election it should expand the GIB's remit to allow the bank to issue green bonds and green ISAs (individual savings accounts). This would bring new investors into the market, says the report.
It also suggests that the GIB could extend the quality of ratings and reporting to assure that investments really are "green", since almost two thirds of the UK's green economy falls outside its remit.
In the two years since its launch, the GIB has helped to channel more than £5 billion into the UK's green economy across more than 30 infrastructure projects.
