The environment has become of increasing concern across the world. As fear for the environment mounts the pressure is on for governments and industry to create a climate for real progress towards a cleaner planet - but how can this be achieved? What price life on eath? and who is going to pay? The author shows how governments can create a climate in which companies can both go green and prosper; how nations can use sound economic arguments rather than impassioned rhetoric against global mismanagement like the destruction of the rain forest; how the needs of industry can and must go hand-in-hand with those of ecology for either to survive and how the green momentum has given industry, in her words that most precious of prospects: a spur to innovate. Frances Cairncross is the Environment Editor for The Guardian