1. I want to do something meaningful about climate change.

That’s why I founded and am chairman of Solarcentury, a solar company that designs and installs products for the built environment, in 1999. The purpose of the company is to make as big a difference as we can in combating climate change. Solar is not a magic bullet in cutting carbon emissions – there are none. But it is a vital member of the survival family of technologies and tactics.

2. I want to make a contribution to development.

That’s why I founded and am chairman of SolarAid, a charity financed with 5% of Solarcentury’s profits, in 2006. The purpose of the organisation is to speed the dissemination of solar lighting around Africa. In doing this we replace kerosene lanterns, and promote education – and all the social goods that result from that.

3. I want to help blow the whistle on oil dependency.

That’s why I convened the UK Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security (ITPOES), a pan-industry group that studies and warns about a premature drop in global oil supply and the economic threat that poses.

4. I want to help reform our dysfunctional financial instutions.

That’s why I am chairman of Carbon Tracker, a think tank that aims to warn all sectors of the financial chain that fossil-fuel reserves are being accounted on capital markets as assets with zero risk of impairment.

5. I want to help show how clean energy can lead to economic and social renaissance.

That’s why I am a member of the Green New Deal group, a team of green economists and thinkers who advocate, in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the Keynesian financing of a green industrial revolution as a route to new jobs and economic recovery.