The Green Alliance Podcast

Philippa Borrowman is a policy adviser at Green Alliance working in our Low Carbon Future theme. Andrea Lee is the campaigns and policy manager at ClientEarth and coordinates the national Healthy Air Campaign.

Sam Alvis is the head of the green renewal project at Green Alliance and former senior adviser at the Tony Blair Institute.  Dimitri Zenghelis is a special adviser at the Bennett Institute, University of Cambridge, and co-founder of the Wealth Economy project. He is also a senior fellow at the Grantham Institute on Climate Change at the London School of Economics. Dimitri was head of the Stern Rev...

In this episode, Jim Elliot speaks to Karen Ellis, director of sustainable economy at WWF-UK, about the landmark Dasgupta Review on the economics of biodiversity. They discuss the significant conclusions of the review, what should be done to reverse nature’s decline and why GDP may no longer be an adequate indicator of economic development.

Read our short summary for policymakers and commission's final report  

Follow Mya-Rose on her website www.birdgirluk.com , on Twitter @BirdgirlUK , or on Instagram @birdgirluk . You can also follow Black2Nature on Twitter @officialb2n  and  Instagram  @offcialb2n .

In episode four of our second series of ‘Insights’ podcasts, Shaun Spiers, executive director at Green Alliance is joined by Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats. They discuss Ed's time as secretary of state for energy and climate change during the coalition years, his hopes for COP26 and Lib Dem ambitions for the environment.

For this podcast, we brought together a panel of experts to discuss the consequences of lab grown meat and dairy. Proponents emphasise the environmental and animal welfare potential of these technologies, but there are concerns about ownership and distribution of economic benefits, as well as the serious potential impact on the farming community. The panel includes Dr Alexandra Sexton, Leverhulme...

What does the term green finance mean? How can investments support a green recovery? And what more can government do to encourage investment in the low carbon economy? Caterina and Ben discuss the ins and outs of green finance. 

This conversation took place at our Making it count event on Friday 27 November, in which Ed joined us to discuss the importance of getting COP26 right.  As a "veteran of Copenhagen", the former Labour leader has some fascinating insights into what we have learned from the past decade of climate negotiations.  Discover more about what happened at our Making it count event on our YouTube channel .

The UK government’s commitment to phase out petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030 was called for by Green Alliance and Greenpeace in a joint briefing in September 2020.  In this episode, Gwen and Rebecca discuss the significance of this policy and others to ask - is the PM's green plan going to put the environment at the heart of the economic recovery?

In this US election podcast, Jess Shankleman, reporter for  Bloomberg News chairs a fascinating discussion between Claire Healy, director of climate diplomacy at E3G , Brendan Guy, senior adviser to the NRDC Action Fund and Katie Eder, executive director of Future Coalition on what the election result could mean for climate and nature. Recorded two days after the US election, this episode focuses...

While electronics play an increasingly important role in our lives, short lived products have led to a mounting e-waste problem in the UK. Green Alliance's head of resource policy, Libby Peake interviews the co-founders of the Restart Project, Janet Gunter and Ugo Vallauri to discuss how we can fix our relationship with stuff.  The Restart Project helps people learn how to repair their electronics...

As the coronavirus pandemic and climate crisis grab the headlines, the alarming rate of nature loss in the UK and the impact it is having is slipping under the radar. There are few people in the UK who have done more to put this right than Charlie Burrell.  The former chair of the charity Rewilding Britain and owner of Knepp estate, Charlie tells Belinda Gordon how removing fencing, introducing de...

On the 3rd of September, Green Alliance hosted a webinar about how, as a sector and a wider movement, we can address racism in our work to tackle the climate and nature crisis. During the event, we heard reflections from Mya-Rose Craig (Birdgirl) , founder and president, Black2Nature, Charise Johnson , policy advisor (public), The British Academy and Sufina Ahmad , director, The John Ellerman Foun...

In this episode, you'll hear the highlights from one of our most recent events where we were joined by Professor Partha Dasgupta and Sir Roger Gifford, chair of the Green Finance Institute. They provided an eye-opening discussion on the economics of biodiversity and outlined the ways in which we can rebuild a more resilient economy for the future, in ways that address the ecological crisis. This e...

"Every country faces a choice as they map out their recovery - store up problems by sticking with the status quo, or get back on our feet by building back better and greener" In this podcast, you can listen to Rt Hon George Eustice MP's fist major speech as environment secretary where he set out his vision for a green recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. This episode also includes highlights fr...

This year, with sales of nature books booming during lockdown, the Wainwright Prize for nature writing has never felt more timely. For this episode, we had the privilege of interviewing two of the longlisted authors for this year’s prize, to be announced on 9 September. Jini Reddy, award-winning author and journalist, shares her experience of writing Wanderland , an account of her journey to conne...

"We will only have a healthy economy if we have a healthy environment" In this episode, Emma Howard Boyd,  chair of the Environment Agency and a member of the government's Council for Sustainable Business, is interviewed by Green Alliance's  executive director Shaun Spiers. This interview was recorded ahead of the summit of business leaders and government, being held on Monday 29th June. The summi...

On 4 June 2020, we hosted an online event with Mary Robinson, chair of The Elders, and Lord Stern, chair of the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics.  This episode features the highlights of the discussion around what is needed to ensure a socially just, inclusive and low carbon recovery from the Covid-19 crisis.  The discussion was chaired by Green Alliance’s executive di...

On 3 June 2020, we hosted an event online reflecting on the current state of EU negotiations and discussing what needs be done before the end of the transition period to ensure the UK’s environment remains protected and whether the UK has the right institutions in place to uphold environmental protections. This episode features the highlights of the discussion. Our expert panel were Jill Rutter, s...

We were joined by Environment Minister Rebecca Pow for this special podcast episode for World Environment Day. Currently serving as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at Defra, she has long been a champion of environmental issues.  She discusses her farming roots, studies and career, and her passion for nature.  Hear Rebecca Pow’s insights into actions the government is taking on the environme...

How do we get on a sustainable economic pathway? Dieter Helm is professor of energy policy and official fellow in economics of Oxford University. His book Green and prosperous land ' argues that the UK has so far overlooked the climate impact caused by the products we consume. In the last in the current series of our ‘Insights’ podcasts, Caterina Brandmayr and Dieter Helm discuss the importance of...

This episode features the highlights from our online event, 'Will Covid-19 shift the UK to sustainable transport long term?'. During lockdown there was a huge drop in transport across the UK and the air we breathe has been noticeably cleaner as a result. But will decisions made as the lockdown is eased make transport systems compatible with the government’s net zero target and improve air quality...

Brexit means that the UK can design its own approach to international trade for the first time in over 40 years, but what could this mean for the environment? In this episode, Sarah Williams, head of the Greener UK unit, is joined by Tom West, UK environment lead at ClientEarth, and an expert on the trade talks.  With the UK in the midst of trade negotiations with a number of different countries,...

In this episode, we interview professor in practice at Lancaster University and expert lead for the Climate Assembly UK, Dr Rebecca Willis. She gives her insights into the assembly’s process and what the results could mean for future UK climate action. She discusses her new book Too hot to handle? The democratic challenge of climate change which reports on her revealing interviews with leading pol...