Lord Stern to Join Green Investment Bank Advisory Group

Lord Nicholas Stern, a leading environmentalist and creator of the ‘Stern Review’ on climate change economics, is one of nine new appointments to the Green Investment Bank Advisory Group tasked with ensuring that the bank can start lending to infrastructure projects from April 2012. Adrian Montague, former chairman of British Energy, had already been confirmed the chairman in May.

The group will hold its first meeting on 6^th September, with Stern being the most high profile member of the group. Stern has previously held positions at the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and is currently chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change. The Stern Review received a mixed reception, with some describing it as deeply flawed, with criticism given to the discount rate used in the review as well as some of the projections.

Other members of the group come from a wide range of backgrounds, from Banking, to NGO’s, to the civil service, to companies like Shell. The nine members are:

• Simon Brooks - UK vice president of the European Investment Bank
• John Burnham - former managing director and global head of infrastructure at Citigroup
• David Gregson - chairman of Phoenix Equity Partners and a trustee of WWF-UK
• Melville Haggard - managing director of Quartermain Advisers and a former advisor on Defra's Waste Infrastructure Delivery Programme
• Dima Rifai - managing partner at sustainability specialists Paradigm Change Capital
• Penny Shepherd - chief executive of the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association
• James Smith - former chairman of Shell UK and Carbon Trust board member
• Lord Nicholas Stern - Professor of Economics and Government at the London School of Economics
• Bob Wigley - chairman of Yell Group

It is hoped that this diverse group of individuals will be able to effectively manage the development bank.