"Our building can actually breathe. We need to understand what we get from the environment and what we need to give back. We need to try to find the balance. Some buildings consume a lot of energy and resources. We hope to use them better," Leo Hwang, executive director, Parkview Green eco-development, Beijing, 4 August.

"We are committed to being the greenest government ever, and an essential part of that is to ensure that all homes in the future will be built without emitting any carbon,” Grant Shapps, housing minister, 8 August

"I've taken the early step of overturning the ban on local authorities selling renewable electricity to the grid.This is a vital step to making community renewable projects commercially viable, to bring in long-term income to benefit local areas, and to secure local acceptance for low carbon energy projects," Chris Huhne, energy secretary, 9 August

“With interest rates providing little return on financial investments, the domestic and community scale feed-in tariffs provide some of the best secure investment returns available in the market,” Greg Barker, DECC energy efficiency and climate change minister, 15 August