A flagship environmental business quango will be lined up for the chop this week to fund coalition plans for a £2 billion green investment bank.
The Carbon Trust, which helps businesses cut energy use, is one of dozens of government-backed organisations likely to be scrapped.
The plans will be detailed in recommendations put forward by a commission led by Bob Wigley, the former chairman of Merrill Lynch in Europe.
Wigley was asked to compile a report on creating a green investment bank that could arrange funding for renewable energy projects.
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It is estimated that Britain needs to spend £500 billion over the next 10 years to meet its commitments to the Kyoto climate change protocol.
The Green Investment Bank Commission is expected to call for the plethora of existing green business organisations to be pooled to form the backbone of the bank.
The Technology Strategy Board and the Marine Renewables Deployment Fund are among other initiatives that are expected to be sucked into the new organisation.
No new taxpayer money would be needed to support the scheme. In total, the existing groups have been allocated some £2 billion of public money.
It is believed Wigley will argue that the money could be put to better use if controlled by one organisation. It is also thought he will recommend financial structures that would allow the cash to be leveraged with private sector investment.
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The report is expected to recommend that some grants for green business be replaced with loans, so that the same pot of taxpayer cash can be recycled several times.
It is also thought that the report will call for green subsidies to be reduced and stretched over a longer period. That would make it easier to persuade pension funds, and other such funds with extended investment horizons, to put their money behind green projects.
The new bank would also be tasked with finding financial structures to support green investment, including the sale of “green bonds” to the financial markets.
It will also examine financing deals similar to the public/private partnership arrangements that have been used to build schools and hospitals.
University research projects would be aided by the green investment bank, with advice on how to bring their best ideas to market.
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Greg Barker, the energy and climate change minister who commissioned the report while in opposition, said: “There are a number of schemes, initiatives, and quangos out there that in themselves do a good job, but the overall landscape is extremely cluttered and confused.”