[4] A non-partisan, House of Commons committee on climate change was established to study and recommend ways of meeting the country's obligations.

[6] The second, entitled "Delivering a 21st Century Infrastructure for Britain" was published by Policy Exchange in September 2009 and was written by Dieter Helm, James Wardlaw and Ben Caldecott.

The Fiscal year 2010 British government budget contained the first mention of a "green investment bank" scheme, earmarked with £2 billion.

[8] After the 2010 general election, the newly formed Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government defined its primary economic objective to be the drastic reduction of Britain's debt and yearly deficits.

[9] Accordingly, the government sought to create a financing scheme for the environmental investment needs of the country that would be funded mainly by the private sector, including the banks.

The government expected to obtain by early 2013 the European Commission's approval for state aid to the Bank, with investment in green projects estimated to begin by April 2012.

Bloomberg claimed that "Most of the 50- 70 jobs will initially be in London..."[18] and some questioned that the decision to locate many jobs in London, despite the announcement headline of Edinburgh being chosen as winner of the location contest, pointed to a "bid to defuse Scottish independence... a blatant move to unite the capitals over Alex Salmond's key policy.

On 24 May 2011, Business Secretary Vince Cable, in addressing the parliament, stated that the bank will become "a key component" of the transition to a "low-carbon economy", which will need "significant investment over the coming decades."

[28] In June 2015 the Business Secretary Sajid Javid put forward proposals to part-privatise the bank, with the stated aim of giving it full access to the capital markets.

[30] On 25 May 2011, Vince Cable informed the House of Commons that BIS would appoint Sir Adrian Montague, CBE, chairman of private equity firm 3i, to lead a team of "independent financial experts" in setting up the UK Green Investment Bank before it started work the following year.