Push and pull is needed to green our economy
This post is by Angela Francis, chief advisor on economics and economic development at WWF and GIPC commissioner. The post was first published on Business Green.
Innovation has been a big part of the government’s efforts to shift the dial on the UK’s woeful productivity performance over the past ten years. It will invest £80 billion in R&D by 2027 to catalyse further private sector investment, with the target is to bring overall R&D levels up to 2.4 per cent of GDP (from 1.7 per cent in 2016). But spending on research is not the end government is seeking. Read more
Green Alliance launched the 
To coincide with the World Economic Forum in Davos, earlier this week the International Trade Secretary Liam Fox 
George Osborne gave Philip Hammond what is known in sport as a 
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In 2014, Dunlop Systems and Components relocated from a leaky old factory in Holbrook to a highly efficient new factory in 2014. At the same time the company fundamentally redesigned the high pressure steam processes used in making its air suspension components, saving the business 67 per cent on energy and 38 per cent on water use. This strategic approach to resource efficiency turned around a failing company to become a thriving domestic and export business providing high quality jobs in Coventry.
Not all of the ten ‘pillars’ of the industrial strategy green paper will make it into the white paper expected by the end of this year. Civil servants working on the final strategy say the innovation, skills, place, business and infrastructure pillars are the ones likely to remain and the content of the affordable energy and clean growth pillar will be embedded across the strategy. If that can be done well it will better than having a standalone chapter, but if it is done badly, it will be a disaster for the UK’s low carbon transition.
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Theresa May recently launched the centrepiece of her domestic agenda: the UK’s industrial strategy. After six months of commentary on the parallels between the phenomena that led to the Brexit vote and US election result, it is useful to reflect on the differences that are starting to emerge. A quick read of the green paper appears to show that May is charting a very different course on industrial strategy from the one now being advocated on the other side of the Atlantic. Significant differences are the approach to resource productivity and the attitude to growing low carbon markets. 
It’s heretical for a think tank to admit this, but our latest big idea is not really that big. It is in fact medium sized and achievable step from where we are now. It’s an idea so obvious, that once you hear it, you’ll be surprised it’s not happening already. But it isn’t, we checked. Rather than coming up with another big idea for nature, Green Alliance, in partnership with the National Trust, has researched 