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Last night saw the Parliamentary launch of ClientEarth’s legislative proposals for the legislation establishing the Green Investment Bank. It was the culmination of nearly a year’s work by ClientEarth in collaboration Transform UK. We joined the fight for a strong and effective Green Investment Bank because we immediately recognised the huge potential for the GIB to be game changing.

The concept is simple: the GIB should be a bank working in the public interest to leverage private sector finance specifically to drive the UK’s transition to a green economy. ClientEarth, Transform UK and partners are fighting for the creation of a real bank with borrowing powers, and a bank that has a suitable governance framework to enable it to achieve its environmental mission. This means it must be independent of government, protected from political whim, act transparently and be cemented as an enduring institution. As our report and proposed legislation demonstrates – this cannot be done without legislation. 

 
As the wine flowed, I sensed that many people in attendance last night felt that, like all great ideas, the GIB has an air of ‘why didn’t anyone think of that earlier?’ about it. It certainly represents many of the solutions to the usual objections that decarbonisation is too expensive or risks damaging our economy. It also has clear potential to spur economic recovery. 

One would hope then that the government would do all things necessary to ensure that the GIB, as one of the last remaining green promises of the coalition government, was set up in the right way, to ensure its success. We do not yet know however, if that will be the case. We won the commitment to legislation for the Bank, but the government has yet to give any indication of what that legislation may look like. As the government said that it will also set up the GIB as a company under the Companies Act, I see a clear risk that the Department may come forward with overly light touch legislation that fails to do enough to secure and safeguard the critical objectives and design features. We also continue to fight for a real bank that will have borrowing powers as soon as possible – so that it can leverage the scale of financing necessary to meet the massive challenges ahead. 

Caroline Lucas MP opened the proceedings, followed by Ed Matthew (transform UK), our own Karla Hill, as well as Dimitri Zenghelis of the London School of Economics/Stern Review. Karla spoke on the necessity of getting the legislation right, and Dimitri on the enormous economic potential of the GIB, and explained how we may miss out on some of this potential if it is not enabled as a real Bank with borrowing powers as soon as possible. Our legislative proposal sets a first standard that the government must equal or exceed in the legislation for the GIB. Watch this space for updates on the fight!