By Peter Hannam
The government's $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corporation has tapped a prominent climate change lawyer and a former investment banker to fill its final board positions.
Martijn Wilder, a partner with Baker & McKenzie and an adjunct professor of climate change law at the Australian National University, will join the CEFC board on five-year terms from February, the government announced on Wednesday.
Mr Wilder is currently chairman of Low Carbon Australia, a government fund that will be folded into the CEFC. Low Carbon's fund has committed or offered about $85 million, which with private co-financing, has channelled more than $200 million into energy efficiency and clean energy projects.
The merger with the CEFC "enables that momentum to be maintained", said Low Carbon chief executive Meg McDonald, adding that her own post-merger role with the CEFC is yet to be finalised.
Occupying the final CEFC board slot will be Paul Binsted, who was previously at Citigroup Australia and served as managing director and joint chief executive of Lazard's Australian operations.
The moves follow last month's appointment of former Macquarie Group investment banker Oliver Yates as the fund's first chief executive.
Other board members include Michael Carapiet and Anna Skarbek, both former Macquarie bankers, Ian Moore and Andrew Stock.
The CEFC has $2 billion to lend per year, beginning next July, with as much as half likely to go on projects to increase energy efficiency.
The fund was established along with the carbon tax, both of which the Coalition has vowed to scrap if it takes office next year.