Artefact is a truly amazing place - a little like the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales, but smaller, with far fewer tourists, they concentrate on training people in areas such as photovoltaics. They also have strong connections with the Global South; there were people there being selected as volunteers over the weekend; they also showcase examples of techniques developed in the South, such as a building from Africa which is constructed so that it requires no air conditioning.
One of the men on a photovoltaics training course had studied political science, doing his dissertation on the German renewable energy law on feed-in tariffs.
While I was at Artefact I attended the General Meeting of INFORSE-Europe (INFORSE is short for the International Network for Sustainable Energy). Paul Allen from the Centre for Alternative Technology, project director for the Zero Carbon Britain report which was the inspiration for the Zero Caravan, was present, and the meeting decided to recommend 2030 rather than 2050 as a date to aim for zero carbon by.