The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has declared 'open for business' an innovative fund totalling at least £70 million which will finance low carbon waste and recycling infrastructure. This will help make London a world leader in finding new ways to exploit the cash value of waste, use it to generate green energy whilst creating jobs and developing valuable exportable skills.

Addressing an influential audience of senior financiers at the London Stock Exchange, the Mayor announced that Foresight Group, a leading sustainable asset manager, will manage the waste and recycling fund on behalf of and as part of the London Green Fund. The Foresight Environmental Fund as it will be known, includes £35 million investment from the London Green Fund which Foresight has doubled with commitments for a further £35 million from local authority pension funds and a range of other investors; Foresight seeks to leverage in an overall total of £200 million from pension funds and other private sector investors. The London Green Fund is a trailblazing initiative – the first UK fund to combine European, public and private finance to invest in environmental infrastructure.

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The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, kicking off Climate Week, said: "A century ago London was cashing in on carbon, but I am determined we now harness the wealth of investment opportunities coming from the shift away from the use of increasingly costly fossil fuels. The prize is not only better environmental stewardship and cash savings, but the injection of billions of pounds into the city's economy and tens of thousands of high quality jobs. In addition, the move towards energy efficient transport, homes and workplaces will deliver a better quality of life."

LWARB (the London Waste and Recycling Board) has been a major contributor to the London Green Fund providing £18 million of the initial £35million used to set up the Foresight Environmental Fund. James Cleverly, Chair of LWARB, said: "LWARB are delighted to have been pivotal in establishing the waste and recycling element of the London Green Fund. This new and exciting fund will give a massive boost to London's low carbon economy."

As part of the London Green Fund, the Foresight Environmental Fund will provide investment for projects that will help utilise the massive value of London’s waste through infrastructure such as power plants to convert waste biomass to clean energy and facilities for recycling waste products such as food and plastics. For example, London produces 2.6m tons of organic waste a year, which could generate revenues of around £170 million a year. The city produces an estimated 280,000 tons of plastics, much of which has ended up in landfill. But many forms of plastic are of high commercial value which could be worth £140 million a year. This represents a solid and sustainable investment opportunity to also help the city become energy efficient and cut carbon output. It is estimated that the fund's investment into waste infrastructure could generate at least 100 low carbon jobs, save 28,000 tons of carbon and divert 245,000 tons of waste from increasingly costly landfill sites.

The London Green Fund forms one of the initiatives the Mayor has introduced to harness the opportunities coming from a low carbon economy – other projects are cutting emissions from homes, workplaces and transport.

(CD/GK)