Green Investment Bank reports ‘positive’ first year

The transactions, supporting offshore wind, waste-to-energy, biomass and energy efficiency are expected to cut emissions 2.5 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent a year when up and running.

Every £1 of direct investment by the GIB mobilised £3 of private sector investment, the report said. The overall value of the investments was £2.3 billion.

GIB chief executive Shaun Kingsbury said the institution had made “great strides” and shown it could achieve a “double bottom line of being green and behaving commercially”.

However, he was cautious about the bank’s outlook, saying there are “a number of significant challenges in the year ahead”. It is “vital” that government get the final details of Electricity Market Reform right, he said, against a global backdrop of falling appetite for investment from mainstream sources of finance.

Business secretary Vince Cable praised the bank’s “positive start”, adding: “The bank has a number of strong deals in the pipeline, which will help it to build on the solid foundations that have now been laid.”