In the global race to dominate green technology, Britain is still tying its shoelaces

The government appears to have barely noticed that there is a global race to dominate the green technologies of the future. In investment attracted, jobs created, income earned and lives bettered, the prizes for the winners will be huge. In prosperity foregone, the penalty for the laggards will be severe.

The UK, a medium-size player that has detached itself from its nearest economic bloc, cannot match the vast incentives and subsidies the behemoths are throwing into this race. So our best hope of having a stake in the industries of the future is to maximise what leverage we possess by being agile, creative and purposeful.

Which is good. The only future economy is a green economy. The coming decades will see one of the greatest industrial transformations in human history. The UK needs to be at the races, not fiddling with its laces while others speed away down the track leaving us for dust.

Andrew Rawnsley is Chief Political Commentator of the Observer