Next Commission president 'must champion innovation'

Gert-Jan Koopman, director of the European Commission's directorate-general for economic and financial affairs, said he was "a little concerned" by the idea that Brussels should coordinate innovation in member states and industry. 

He said the Commission should stick to what it is good at, but added that the upcoming revamp of the Lisbon Agenda should include a fresh look at the so-called knowledge triangle of research, education and innovation. Koopman said the economic crisis also means the EU needs to rethink its approach to employment, ageing and the environment. 

"We are using a lot of increasingly scarce public money, so it's important that we link this money to sustainability," he argued. 

He said that designing the right set of financial incentives will be crucial to encouraging sustainable products and services across borders. These incentives, he added, should be aligned across the EU in order to avoid fragmentation. 

Doreen Fedrigo, EU policy unit coordinator at the European Environmental Bureau, said the conversation on innovation should be broadened to include social innovation and creativity. She said it was important to consider the relationship between technology and human behaviour. 

"If we don't change our behaviour, we risk losing the potential gain from technology. Part of the social innovation we need is involving citizens in policy development," she said. 

Fedrigo stressed that making small, incremental changes to the existing systems of production and consumption will be insufficient. She said the debate should focus on "sufficiency" rather than efficiency, and that citizens will have to begin to use their faire share of the available resources. 

"We need to recognise that we can't continue down the path we are on. We need to make the transition to a post-consumerist society, and this will include practical things like making it easier to take public transport – it's cheaper to fly than take the train, so citizens are getting mixed messages," she said. 

Alessandro Vitelli, director of IDEAcarbon, a consultancy on carbon finance, said markets would play a key role in directing sustainable innovation. 

"Markets are the leading mechanism for driving us out of this crisis. Markets are ugly – people lose money and make money – but they are an efficient way to make the transition to a low-carbon economy," he said. 

Vitelli said there is a tendency to ignore the fact that removing the carbon from products will be difficult and expensive, but he repeated that markets will find the most competitive way of doing this. 

"The global carbon market is going to be the largest market ever. Now that the environment has a price it will filter into production costs and allow consumers make informed choices," he said. He added that politicians need to regulate the market in order to create a level playing field for low-carbon and "no carbon" alternative energy. 

Luigi Meli, director-general of CECED, which represents domestic appliance producers, said innovation will help lead Europe out of the climate crisis. 

"Innovation has to be applied to policymaking. It's not enough to talk about innovation policy. Innovation has to be a part of policymaking and implementation," he said.