Another day, another story that the Government is having a rethink about one of its key green policies – this time the Carbon Price Floor (see BusinessGreen for details). This latest wobble has lead to another wobble in investor confidence – and if you want people to make a long term investment, confidence is a key factor in those decisions.

One of my clients, Sean Axon Global Sustainability Director of Johnson Matthey plc is fond of saying sustainability is like a vector. As mathematically literate readers will know, a vector consists of direction and magnitude. It is represented by a straight line with an arrow in it – the length of the line being the magnitude and the arrow showing the direction. A vector doesn’t wiggle.

In other words if you want change on a global, national or organisational level, you need to communication both the direction you want to move in and how far that move is going to be – and stick to it. Confidence will follow. Hopefully the Treasury boffins can get their heads around that.