Shepherd and Wigley in as green bank makes first board appointments

Appointments to the newly-formed advisory board of the UK government’s Green Investment Bank (GIB) have been made.

Chaired by Adrian Montague to advise ministers on the development and strategic direction of the GIB, the nine-member board includes: Uksif chief executive Penny Shepherd; Simon Brooks, the UK vice president of the European Investment Bank; John Burnham, former managing director of Citigroup; Bob Wigley, who chaired the Green Investment Bank Commission, which reported in July 2010; and James Smith, former chairman of Shell UK. The group’s first meeting took place earlier this month.

The project’s future still remains in doubt, however. Over the summer the government committed £3bn ($4.7bn, €3.4bn) to the Bank, well short of the £4-6bn that a group of big businesses, NGOs and cross-party MPs had called for after the general election.

Perhaps even more significantly, the provision of ‘full borrowing powers’ to the Bank will be made in 2015 ‘subject to public sector net debt falling as a percentage of GDP’, a prospect by no means certain.

New board member Shepherd remains optimistic, however, saying: “The Green Investment Bank is an outstanding example of government leadership in building a resilient low carbon economy for the UK.”