The UK Green Investment Bank’s mission of “greening the economy” is being threatened. Just five years after it was created as a public sector body, GIB is at risk of being sold off to Australian private firm Macquarie.
Set up in 2012 with £3.8bn of government money, GIB was tasked with investing in green initiatives to help the UK live up to its commitment to reduce carbon emissions by 2020. Now, privatisation threatens to derail all the projects GIB has invested in.
Macquarie is notorious for stripping assets from its new acquisitions. Which means GIB’s entire environmental mission is at risk. That’s why MPs across party lines have come together to urge Theresa May to stop the sale. It’s up to us to join them and tell May to save the Green Investment Bank.
Tell Theresa May to save the Green Investment Bank from being sold out to Macquarie!
Green Party co-leader Caroline Lucas raised the question on all our mind in the House of Commons this week: given Macquarie’s “appalling track record of asset-stripping...why has the government given preferred bidder status to this company?”
The UK has moral and legal commitments to giving the fight against climate change everything we’ve got. Which is why it’s so outrageous that GIB would be sold off, threatening the low-energy streetlights, wind farms, and other green investments it’s made.
There’s no question GIB’s environmental mission will be threatened once it’s in the private sector. The fact that so many companies put profits first and our planet last is the reason we need state-sponsored environmental initiatives like GIB in the first place. With MPs across party lines coming together to oppose the sale, our voices could be the decisive factor to push Theresa May towards the right decision.
Urge Theresa May to stop the privatisation of the Green Investment Bank.
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The Guardian. 11 January 2017.