Thanks for this diary. I missed the event since I was working the weekend and I've managed to miss all discussion/headlines about it too, which made it feel as though it hadn't had much impact.  Talk about looking in the wrong direction.

I'm interested in the point about governments needing to invest in R&D for green technology.  If Government developed technology is then patented and successful, surely that is a potential (public) moneyspinner, rather than all leeching off into industry? There's always those rumours that industry already has the technology and they won't release it until the world becomes desperate enough to pay anything for it.  I don't know how true that is.

But then again, knowing the UKs record with R&D funding I doubt that the capacity is currently there to fund cutting edge stuff in this way.