The Green Alliance Podcast

In this episode of the Green Alliance Podcast, Ruth is joined by Bethan Sayed from Climate Cymru and Annie Smith from RSPB Cymru to take stock of what Wales's new Plaid Cymru-led government and expanded Senedd means for nature and climate. From the Sustainable Farming Scheme to the long-awaited Office of Environmental Governance Wales, the conversation covers the big policy tests ahead and what it...

Wales has passed landmark legislation to strengthen environmental governance and restore biodiversity. Deputy First Minister Huw Irranca-Davies joins Green Alliance Senior Fellow Ruth Chambers to discuss what the new laws mean and what must happen next to deliver for nature.

What if saving money, creating jobs and tackling climate change all went hand in hand? In this episode, we leave the policy talk behind and meet the people making the circular economy happen, from repair café volunteers and reuse hubs to engineers refurbishing tools and fashion workers giving textiles a second life. Their stories reveal five simple reasons people love the circular economy. This is...

What does effective environmental scrutiny look like in parliament? In this episode, Toby Perkins MP, Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, joins Ruth Chambers to discuss cross party working, real time influence on legislation and how committees can drive change, even when government resists.

Environmental rights are under growing pressure in the UK. With new limits on peaceful protest and worrying developments from the recent Aarhus Convention, questions are mounting around transparency, accountability and whether the public can meaningfully participate in environmental decision making. Ruth Chambers speaks with Chris Packham, Carol Day and Katie de Kauwe. They discuss the impact of r...

AI is evolving at unprecedented speed and regulation is struggling to keep up. What does this mean for the future of democracy, UK climate goals and wider environmental ambitions? In this episode of the Green Alliance Podcast, Shaun Spiers, executive director at Green Alliance, speaks with Professor Gina Neff, executive director of the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy and professor of...

The UK’s long-awaited Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan has finally landed, but what does it mean for climate action and green investment?   In this episode of the Green Alliance Podcast, Holly Brazier Tope, director of politics at Green Alliance, is joined by Sam Alvis, associate director for energy and environment at IPPR, to share their first reactions to the plan. They explore the politic...

Wales stands at a crossroads in both its politics and its environmental ambitions. With the new environmental governance bill moving through the Senedd and an unpredictable election just half a year away, questions of leadership, independence and political will are taking centre stage. In this episode of the Green Alliance Podcast, senior fellow Ruth Chambers speaks with Joe Wilkins, policy and ad...

With Parliament back from recess, the Labour government enters its second year facing climate and net zero as both a defining priority and a contested political battleground. Public attention is divided by global insecurity, the cost of living crisis and political polarisation, making the way we talk about climate more important – and more difficult – than ever. In this episode of the Green Allian...

In this episode, Liam Hardy and Heather Plumpton, heads of research at Green Alliance, unpack some of the key issues in the debate around carbon capture and storage (CCS), the technology many see as essential for meeting climate targets and others call an expensive lifeline for fossil fuels. From cement plants to gas power stations, they discuss where CCS might genuinely cut emissions, where it ri...

In this episode, Alice Stafford, communications officer at Green Alliance, speaks to Molly Easton and Layla Mapemba from Youngwilders, a youth-led non profit working to make nature recovery more inclusive. From local rewilding initiatives to influencing national policy, they explore how young people are creatively restoring nature in their communities and why rewilding should be accessible to ever...

The UK government banned disposable vapes in June 2025, a major win for health, environment and campaigners across the country. But has the problem really gone away? In this episode, Green Alliance's senior fellow and head of resources Libby Peake speaks to the experts and activists behind the campaign to ban these devices. She’s joined by Scott Butler of Material Focus, climate campaigner Laura Y...

It’s been a year since Labour’s landslide victory in the 2024 UK general election and we’re diving into what that’s meant for climate and nature. From bold moves on clean power and nature friendly farming to economic roadblocks and rising political division on net zero, this episode brings together voices from Green Alliance, Friends of the Earth and the National Trust to unpack Labour’s first 12...

This episode explores the government’s new IT reuse for good charter and the broader Digital Inclusion Action Plan , which aim to get unused devices into the hands of those who need them most. The discussion highlights the scale of the UK’s e-waste problem, the persistent digital divide and the critical role of device redistribution in addressing both challenges. Presented by Emily Carr, policy ad...

In this episode, Libby Peake, senior fellow and head of resource policy, speaks to Patrick Grant, clothing designer and BBC's Sewing Bee judge, discussing Grant's book "Less." They delve into the shift taken over the last century from quality manufacturing that benefited communities to a fast fashion model that generates enormous waste and minimal value.  In this conversation, Patrick Grant advoca...

Five years after Brexit, we take a moment to reflect on its impact on environmental protection. This episode of the Green Alliance podcast explores the fate of environmental laws inherited from the EU and the new systems put in place to watch over them. Ruth Chambers, Green Alliance senior fellow, is joined by Professor Maria Lee, an expert in environmental law, and Dame Glenys Stacey, Chair of th...

In this episode, you'll hear highlights from our recent "in conversation" event with Guy Shrubsole where he and our head of natural environment, Lydia Collas, discussed his latest book “ The Lie of the Land: Who Really Cares for the Countryside? ”. The book examines some of the most dramatic failures of land stewardship in Britain’s recent history. But also tells the story of the people trying to...

In this week's episode of the Green Alliance podcast, we dive into the UK’s evolving transport policy discussion with Green Alliance's head of climate, Nick Davies. The conversation covers recent developments on the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate and the launch of the Integrated National Transport Strategy. Nick chats with experts including Michael Solomon Williams from Campaign for Better Tr...

In this episode, Libby Peake, senior fellow and head of resources policy, sits down with Emily Carr, policy adviser, alongside members of Green Alliance’s Circular Economy Task Force, including our chair, Dr Colin Church, CEO of IOM3, Iain Gulland, CEO of Zero Waste Scotland, Harriet Lamb, CEO of WRAP, and Dr Adam Read, Director of External Affairs at SUEZ, to discuss the circular economy and what...

In this episode, Ruth Chambers, senior fellow, sits down with crossbench Peer Lord Krebs and Richard Benwell, chief executive of Wildlife & Countryside Link, to discuss the third anniversary of the Environment Act. In this conversation, our guests reflect on the colossal team effort required to get the Act onto the statute book, the standout moments from parliamentary debates and the collaboration...

In this episode, Rosie Allen, policy adviser at Green Alliance, sits down with Liam Hardy, our senior policy analyst, and Jenniffer Pedraza, a research associate at Stockholm Environment Institute Research, to discuss the need to raise ambition on methane ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan (COP29). The conversation offers both domestic and international persp...

The Green Alliance podcast is back with its fortnightly episodes for a six-episode series. In this episode, Green Alliance's head of politics, Holly Brazier Tope, reflects on the first 100 days of the new Labour government, marking a pivotal shift after over a decade of Conservative leadership. Holly first sits down with Chris Venables, director of politics at Green Alliance, to discuss how things...

In this episode, you’ll hear highlights from our recent “in conversation” event with Tom Heap where he and our executive director Shaun Spiers discussed his latest book “Land Smart: how to give people and nature the space to thrive”. This book examines why we need land and how to give both humanity and nature the space to thrive, and includes conversations with farmers, scientists, conservationist...

The actions taken over the next five years by the incoming Government will be make or break for the UK’s climate and nature targets – the stakes could not be higher. This podcast episode features highlights from the final event in our Election countdown series ' Election debrief – what now for the environment? ' where we we analysed the results of the election and what they mean for the environmen...

Nature underpins our economy, but this is not currently reflected in economic decision making. The Dasgupta Review , commissioned by the UK Treasury and published in 2021, sets out the strong case for changing our economic system to reflect that it does not exist outside of nature, but within it. It shows that, to prevent ongoing environmental destruction in the name of economic progress, we must...