Last week I had the pleasure of visiting Germany to speak to some people from green technology firm GE.

I'll be honest they did pay for my flight and hotel - but I still think I'm pretty neutral - hopefully.

Anyway, the firm runs the amazing ecoimagination programme - which is a fancy way of naming its R&D department.

While I was there specifically to cover the announcement of a $200 million venture capital fund and see the reveal of a new super-fast electrically charging station there was much more to the trip.

I wasn't allowed to take picture - for commercial reasons - but I also got a tour of the ecoimagination work shops and it left me thinking we're really getting left behind.

I've been to many more British sites where we're doing fine work in creating environmental technology and we can arguably claim to lead in a few fields.

But, the scale and the industry of the Germans was staggering they were working across so many fields from next generation photovoltaics to gasification plants you could conceivably use in an average urban garden - once you jumped through the planning permission hoops.

I know GE, their site is on the outskirts of Munich, are one of the biggest firms in the world so i was seeing exemplary stuff but still.

All that aside it does scare me that we're not investing in the same way in green technologies as other countries.

And, as I can't speak German - perhaps I should start taking lessons - I hope the Government realises this soon rather than later.

Thanks for reading, Luke.