Creating a human society which is sustainable must rate as the biggest innovation challenge humanity has ever faced. We often think of this challenge as one of technological innovation, but actually much of the need is for social innovation. Most of the needed technology (e.g. wind turbines, solar panels, heat pumps etc) already exists. We just haven’t implemented it at the required scale and rate.
So how do we set policy both to deliver this required scale and rate of innovation? Our speakers were Michael Grubb, a UCL professor, who has extensive research and policy experience in energy system innovation and Hilary Sutcliffe, CEO of Society Inside who works on responsible innovation helping navigate social controversies such as GMOs.