Isra-Mart srl: UK’s Energy Technologies Institute, Technology Strategy Board, Carbon Trust face government axe

Isra-Mart srl news:
UK quangos including the Carbon Trust and the Energy Technologies Institute should be scrapped to fund a new green investment bank, according to government adviser Bob Wigley, chair of the Green Investment Bank Commission.

According to Public Property UK, Wigley’s commission, which was set up by chancellor George Osborne in 2009, has published a set of recommendations called Unlocking Investment to Deliver Britain’s Low Carbon Future. The report identifies three quangos and five government funds that could be rolled into a green investment bank worth more than GBP2bn ($3bn) to fund low-carbon infrastructure.

It wants to raise GBP100m a year from abolishing the Carbon Trust, GBP55m from the Energy Technologies Institute, and GBP30m from the Technology Strategy Board.

The Treasury and Office of Government Commerce are looking at offering long-term public sector contracts to wind farms and green waste companies, which would help raise money for these projects.

It also suggests selling government assets and issuing green bonds in order to help raise private money for the bank and meet climate change targets. Some estimates of investment required reach GBP550bn between now and 2020.

Energy and climate change minister Greg Barker, who co-commissioned the report, said: “Bob Wigley and his team have produced an important piece of work and I’d like to thank them for their efforts. Detailed proposals on the creation of a UK Green Investment Bank will be brought forward following the Spending Review [to be published in October].”

Wigley said: “I very much hope the Government will seek to implement our principal recommendations following further appropriate analysis and I will do whatever I can to support the implementation of what I now believe to be a crucial initiative.”