GPC Trustees held a roundtable with Scottish Stakeholders on 19th June in Edinburgh. The purpose of the roundtable was to explore informally, with a select group of experts, how well investment is flowing in Scotland to relevant green industries. The discussion covered the policy frameworks, or specific policies, that are facilitating investment flow and what are the barriers or opportunities.

Participants included senior representatives from government, relevant government sponsored or funded bodies, the Climate Change Committee, academia and business. The GPC hopes the insights will help inform and inspire further action on the important issues raised. A note of the meeting can be found here

GPC are pleased to announce that Professor Paul Ekins OBE has joined GPC as a Trustee. He succeeds Dr Peter Young who was one of the founder Trustees and who has stood down after 6 years in the role. Paul is Professor of Resources and Environment Policy at University College London. He brings considerable experience and knowledge of the environment and climate change, and is an authority across the energy-environment-economy interaction.

As well as his role at UCL, Paul has been a member of the UK Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution and was co-chair of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)’s flagship sixth Global Environment Outlook (GEO-6), published in 2019. He is currently a member of UNEP’s International Resource Panel and of the UK Government’s Critical Minerals Expert Advisory Group.

GPC chair, Trevor Hutchings said "I am delighted to welcome Professor Ekins to the Board of Trustees of GPC. We all greatly look forward to working with him and benefitting from his vast experience. I would like to record GPC's thanks to Dr Peter Young for his huge contribution to GPC over the past 6 years."

More information about Professor Ekins and the other Trustees can be found here.

In partnership with Gate C, the GPC has today published the report ‘For a Circular Energy Transition: Action Plan for Industry, Policymakers and Investors’. The report advocates the urgent need for the renewable energy sector to transition to a circular economy model. This is to address the growing environmental impacts and supply chain constraints from the proliferation of renewable technologies.

The report can be downloaded here, a summary infographic here and press release here

GPC are pleased to announce that on 18th August 2022 Joan MacNaughton has joined GPC as a Trustee and Director. She succeeds James Curran who has stood down after serving his full 5 year appointment period. Joan brings to GPC her wealth of experience in climate change, net zero and the low carbon transition from across the spectrum of her past and current roles in corporates, government, academia and international organisations. Her reputation and understanding will be a significant enhancement to GPC Trustees' knowledge and influence in fulfilling our role. Joan's appointment is for an initial 3 year term, the other GPC Trustees having renewed for a similar period, except Peter Young who will be replaced by a second new appointment scheduled for 31st March 2023. More information about Joan and the other Trustees can be found here

GPC chair, Trevor Hutchings said "I am delighted to welcome Joan as a trustee of GPC. We all greatly look forward to working with Joan, and benefitting from her insight gained from her high profile involvement in many activities relevant to GPC's role and GIG's declared mission. Also, I would like to record GPC's thanks to James for his unstinting work over the past 5 years."

On 1 April 2022 Macquarie Group changed the business group that the Green Investment Group (GIG) operates from. GIG has moved from Macquarie Capital to operate as part of Macquarie Asset Management (MAM). GIG will retain its brand and continue its mission to accelerate the green transition, and the role of GPC and the Green Purposes are unchanged.

More information about the move, announced by Macquarie on 29th October 2021, can be found here and a letter from the Global Head of GIG confirming the ongoing arrangements in place between GIG and GPC can be found here

On 24th February in partnership with Scottish Environment LINK, GPC hosted an invitation only round table to discuss creating markets that restore Scotland's nature. An exciting and open discussion was used to exchange knowledge and information. A summary statement of the event was issued on 7th March, including next steps, and is available here

In the latest of the Green Investment Group's (GIG's) Green Talks series, GIG's Adrian Barnes talks to Peter Young, Trustee of the Green Purposes Company (GPC) about current trends in Green Finance and the challenges and opportunities for green and sustainable finance. You can listen to the talk here or via Linked In

GPC's report: “A Market Review of Nature-Based Solutions: An Emerging Institutional Asset Class” is listed as a key resource in the Green Finance Institute's Hive web platform for mobilising private finance for nature. Hive’s mission is to increase private investment in nature restoration, nature-based solutions and nature-positive outcomes in and for the UK. Hive was launched today and the key resources can be found here

Following a recent event hosted by the Green Purposes Company of leading investors and other market actors ahead of COP26, this article was published advocating financial institutions see nature based solutions as the next financial asset class..

In partnership with Finance Earth, GPC has produced the report: “A Market Review of Nature-Based Solutions (NbS): An Emerging Institutional Asset Class”, published today. The evidence-based report shows investing in NbS is an emerging asset class. It encourages institutional investors to engage with the NbS market now, identifies the need for development of market governance, and prompts policy makers to act to unlock the potential of NbS market solutions. The full report can be downloaded here and a summary on one page is here.

On 9th April 2021 GPC wrote a letter to the Chancellor emphasising the need for clear accountability and independent scrutiny of the proposed National Infrastructure Bank - such as by a qualified panel reporting publicly - to ensure that its mission is delivered. The GPC's letter drew attention to the model developed by GPC in its execution of its role as special shareholder in the privatised Green Investment Bank.
 

On the 2nd February 2021 GPC were part of a group of UK organisations representing business, investors, trade unions, academia, and civil society led by E3G who wrote to the Chancellor of the Exchequer concerning the planned National Infrastructure Bank (NIB). The joint letter was accompanied by a design briefing paper which describes key design objectives and priorities that the NIB needs to address to meet its mandate successfully. GPC believes that the experience of the Green Investment Bank, before and after privatisation, has provided learnings that should be heeded in designing the new NIB.

On 10th December 2020 the Green Purposes Company (GPC) wrote to the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to outline its assessment of the Green Investment Group's (GIG's) activities since the sale of the Green Investment Bank in August 2017. The GPC letter can be read here, and is designed to inform the PAC in view of recommendation 5 of its report: The Sale of the Green Investment Bank - Session 2017-2019 (HC468).

The chair of the GIG has also published this letter summarising progress against the commitments made by Macquarie at the time of acquisition. BEIS's 23rd December 2020 letter to the PAC is provided here and was published on 12th January 2021.

The Green Purposes Company (GPC) has published a report prepared on its behalf by Eunomia Research and Consulting Limited to provide objective information on the breadth of green investments being made globally today. It can be read here. The report is a high level review of green investments worldwide, defined as green by reference to the five green purposes. There is a particular focus on investments made by institutions with similar commercial requirements to the Green Investment Bank and a spreadsheet of investments made and published by the Green Bank Network is included as an appendix.

In July and August a number of articles were published based on the report, a generic version can be read here and an example published one free to view here.

The Green Purposes Company (GPC) first Annual Letter was published in late December with the Annual Report and Financial Statements of the Green Investment Bank Limited. The Annual Letter was written on 23rd October 2018 and covers the period 17 August 2017 to 31st March 2018; it can be read here. The letter received commentary in the press, including the Sunday Times on 6th January and an interview was given on Radio 4's Today programme on Monday 7th January.

The Green Purposes Company (GPC) submitted written evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) as part of their inquiry into Green Finance. The EAC published GPC's written evidence in early January and invited GPC to give oral evidence on Tuesday 23rd January 2018. Two Trustees attended the session on behalf of GPC. The EAC followed this with a session with the Green Investment Group.

GPC written evidence published by EAC

View PDF of written evidence here

GPC Oral evidence published by EAC

View PDF of oral evidence here

The Green Purposes Company (GPC) has been established to hold a ‘special share’ that safeguards the green mission of the Green Investment Bank (GIB), and its subsidiaries, now that the GIB is no longer in Government ownership. GPC press release regarding sale of GIB completed in August 2017

 View PDF Press Release