Green is not just about renewable energy. It's also about creating a new direction for the whole economy. This requires government to step up, not step back, creating the kinds of mission-oriented public organizations that will enable us to tackle climate change - as ambitious as those that got us to the moon. It also requires the financial sector to be less short-term since we know that short-term finance has distorted incentives and directions in areas like biotechnology.

Fixing markets isn't enough. We have to actively shape and create them and tilt the playing field in the direction of the growth we want.

If we look at Germany's infrastructure policy, it has been driven by its mission-oriented focus on green infrastructure. This affects both innovation and infrastructure, old industries and new. The German steel industry, for example, has adapted to the policy by lowering its material content through a 'repurpose, reuse and recycle' strategy.

If we look at the complexity of the challenges facing western societies today, we see that the problems are not really about outsiders, but have their roots much closer to home.

Markets are not static entities that are 'intervened' in (for good or bad) but are outcomes of public and private interactions.

Most venture capital funds are too short-termist and exit-driven to deal with the highly uncertain and lengthy innovation process.

We should be investing where the public returns are greatest - that is in innovation.