Edinburgh, London Win Green Investment Bank Bid

Friday, March 09, 2012

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Edinburgh, London Win Green Investment Bank Bid

UK - Business Secretary Vince Cable has announced that the headquarters of the world's first Green Investment Bank will be located in Edinburgh, with the bank's main transaction team based in London.

Edinburgh and London beat the likes of Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham to win the bidding for the Green Investment Bank (GIB).

The GIB will be the world?s first investment bank solely dedicated to greening the economy and will spend ?3 billion between now and 2015.

Energy generation from waste will be among the first sectors that will benefit from the GIB and this could result in major investment in anaerobic digestion and advanced conversion processes for making bioenergy and biofuels.

Business Secretary Vince Cable said: "Edinburgh has a thriving green sector and respected expertise in areas such as asset management. London, as the world?s leading financial centre, will ensure that the GIB?s transaction team can hit the ground running."

"This decision will allow the UK GIB to operate effectively and achieve its mission of mobilising the additional investment needed to accelerate the UK?s transition to a green economy."

Greg Barker, Minister of State for Energy and Climate Change, also revealed on twitter that UK Green Investments - the interim team established until the bank begins operating in 2013 - will have more funding to drive investment in the UK's green infrastrucutre.

He said: "Green Investments UK will be investing up to ?775 million into UK green sector this year, [which will be a] huge boost for green growth."

The decision to host the bank headquarters in Edinburgh, came after 18 months of campaigning by Scottish businesses and politicians.

Edinburgh scored highly on financial services, green economy, other professional services and transaction ecosystem in the ranking system used to choose the location of the bank (see table below).

Scotland has certainly embraced green energy and the Scottish Government aim to produce 100 per cent of Scotland's electricity from renewable sources, such as marine energy and offshore wind, by 2020. And this is what the GIB will be looking to take advantage of.

The next step for the GIB is the recruitment of the Chair and Senior Independent Director so that it will be in a position to be fully operational this Autumn, subject to state aid approval for the GIB. The GIB is expected to employ 50-70 full time equivalent staff across the two sites.

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TheBioenergySite News Desk

Source: http://www.thebioenergysite.com/news/10621/edinburgh-london-win-green-investment-bank-bid

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