The UK’s Green Investment Bank had a short and inglorious history; founded in 2012 it was privatised in 2017. The private company is now called the Green Investment Group – a wholly owned financial arm of the Australian development company Macquarie. The company also owns the formerly US owned incineration company Wheelabrator. The group is playing a role in energy from waste schemes. In Scotland the Green Investment GroupIG has taken an equity risk of 50% capital in the Earl’s Gate EfW CHP project at Grangemouth. Wheelabrator incineration is at the heart of the project. Earl’s Gate boasts the capacity to ‘treat’ more than 20% of Scotland’s municipal waste. Local authorities are being drawn into long-term and dubious ‘green’ capital projects with virtually no public debate.
The evolution of the Green Investment Bank is a salutary lesson in what happens when policy initiatives are based on market ideology.
Image by Derek Harper CC BY SA 2.0 https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5887688
Employment, Energy and Environment 