The Duke of Edinburgh visited the headquarters of the Institute of Physics (IOP) in London yesterday to hear about the role that physicists are playing in supporting the “green economy”.

The event included members of the IOP and representatives of some of the UK’s leading physics-based businesses and organizations, who showcased their role in making energy generation and industry more sustainable.

Tom Grinyer, group chief executive of the IOP, said afterwards it had been “fantastic to speak to his Royal Highness about the role physics and physicists are having in the green transition and the work the IOP has been doing on this issue”.

That work includes the recent Physics Powering the Green Economy report, which describes how physics-based technology can help the move to a low-carbon economy. More than 500 IOP members contributed to the report, supported by 26 expert advisers, many of whom were at yesterday’s event.

As well as an address from the duke himself, there were short speeches from IOP president Keith Burnett; nuclear physicist Martin Freer from the University of Birmingham, who co-wrote the introduction to the report; and high-energy physicist Tara Shears from the University of Liverpool, who is the IOP’s current vice-president for science and innovation.

• You can find out more about the Physics Powering the Green Economy report in this Physics World news story or through this personal view by James McKenzie, a former IOP vice-president for business and industry. Martin Freer also talked about the report on the Physics World Weekly podcast.