
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has opened a public consultation on the Scottish National Investment Bank (SNIB), pledging that the Scot-Govt.will ‘seize the economic opportunities of tackling climate change’.
These have been welcomed by prominent economists Lord Adair Turner and Professor Mariana Mazzucato to help transform Scotland’s economy through large-scale investment in a low-carbon economy.
Mazzucato, Professor of the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London and a member of Scotland’s Council of Economic Advisors, commented:
“I welcome strongly the decision to establish the Scottish National Investment Bank. It shows that the Scottish Government is looking seriously at ways to increase flows of investment and to direct them to support key public policies like reducing greenhouse gas emissions, increasing productivity and building an inclusive economy.
“There is a lot of experience from other countries of what works and what doesn’t and if we draw from that, the bank can make a real difference to Scotland’s economy.”
Lord Turner – chairman of the Energy Transitions Commission and the Institute for New Economic Thinking and former chairman of both the UK Committee on Climate Change – added:
“All economies need to make an energy transition, to accelerate change towards low-carbon systems, and our Energy Transition Commission has looked at how to make that happen. It will need a joined-up public policy framework, and I am pleased to see that emerging in Scotland, and a big shift in patterns of investment.”
23 Oct 2017