This is a guest post by Green Alliance member Dr Bruce Tofield of the Build with Care Project based at UEA. He gives his perspective on the green economy discussion at Green Alliance’s annual debate, which took place last week at the German Embassy.

“Make a bottleneck and, guided by regulation, the market economy will find a solution”

This was the stimulating advice by Professor Dr Klaus Töpfer, former German environment minister in his introductory comments at Green Alliance’s annual debate on 1 March, at which Edward Davey MP, UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, also spoke.

In just a few minutes Professor Töpfer outlined how long term thinking has enabled Germany to become Europe’s leader in waste management and in renewable energy infrastructure.  He then mentioned how another bottleneck – the need for energy storage capacity to complement renewable electricity – can be being tackled via renewable methane. Read more