Engineering news
Greenpeace: Green Investment Bank sell-off ‘a disaster’
Environmental group Greenpeace has criticised the recent sale of the Green Investment Bank (GIB) to Australia’s Macquarie Bank for £2.3 billion.
GIB was set up by the UK government five years ago to fund renewable and low-carbon projects. It has so far invested £800 million a year and has supported almost 100 infrastructure endeavours.
“At a time when the government should be shoring up the low-carbon industry for post-Brexit Britain, they have given away one of our key tools for advancing green technologies,” said Doug Parr, policy director at Greenpeace UK.
The deal has also attracted criticism from opposition politicians, who questioned whether it is in the best interests of British taxpayers. They said the terms of the deal appear favourable to Macquarie – nearly three-quarters of the projects backed by the GIB are still in construction and are expected to become up to 25% more valuable when completed in the next year or so.
Renewable energy organisations, however, have welcomed the sell-off. “The Macquarie Group is a respected institution with a strong track record of managing renewable energy projects right across the globe,” Renewable UK’s executive director Emma Pinchbeck told PE. “We’re confident that this sale will mean the Green Investment Bank can grow and build on its past successes as a trailblazing clean-energy investor.”
The government said the sale was secured through a competitive process. Under the deal, GIB will become the primary vehicle for Macquarie’s renewable energy investment in the UK and Europe, with a commitment to target £3 billion of new investment over the next three years.
The arrangement will open further business opportunities in low-carbon investment in the UK and beyond, said David Fass, chief executive for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Macquarie Group.
Climate change and industry minister Nick Hurd said that the GIB has been very successful in attracting private capital to the UK’s green economy, and it now made sense to move it into the private sector. There, “it will be free from the constraints of public-sector ownership, allowing it to build further on its success,” he said.