The Green Alliance Podcast Green Alliance

In this episode, Steve Coulter, Green Alliance’s head of economy, speaks to experts about why the UK is crying out for a green industrial strategy.

Industrial strategies are driving change around the world, in the US, EU and China, but the UK has yet to follow suit.
Green industrial strategy is more than just switching from carbon to electric power, it must encompass a broader vision integrating economic resilience by meeting environmental objectives across organisational, political and economic frameworks.

We hear the case for the UK to join other leading nations by creating a bold vision for a green economic transformation from Matthew Lockwood, senior lecturer in energy and climate policy at Sussex University, who says the UK needs to be less reactive and start planning longer term, and Silvia Weko, postdoctoral researcher in European energy politics and policy with the University of Erlangen–Nuremberg in Germany.

The benefits and challenges of participatory policy making are discussed with Stephen Frost, Co-Head of Participative Research and Principal Research Fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research. Many climate experts have expressed the need to bring people along in the transition to net zero, ensuring it is one of social justice. The use of participatory research methods and policy making processes is one way to do so.

Stephen discusses IPPR’s Environmental Justice Commission and how the outcomes of its citizen’s juries have shaped IPPR’s policy recommendations.

How can inclusive policy making change policy outcomes? When individuals’ power and privilege often correlate with emission outputs, it is important to consider those involved in environmental policy making. Involving the public in policy making that impacts them often leads to ‘better’ policy and less backlash, yet it isn’t something think tanks consistently do.
In this conversation Hirra explores what inclusive policy making means in practice and how Possible’s policies have consequently evolved.

Including those impacted by policy in the policy making process is not always a given. Green Alliance has been exploring how and why policy makers should be inclusive of the public, marginalised communities and communities that typically have not been sought out for engagement and implementation processes of environmental policy.

The importance of think tanks and NGOs having inclusive policy making processes is discussed with Emma Vogelmann, Policy, Public Affairs and Research Manager at Transport For All.

Provisional figures from 2022 show a rise in transport emissions compared to the year previous. And while the transport system is already the largest emitting sector across the UK economy, this is a major obstacle for policymakers in their bid to reach net zero by 2050.



In the last year, transport entered the political arena in a way not seen before. There were contradictory announcements on the sales of petrol and diesel cars and vans, conspiracy theories, strikes, budget cuts, headline announcements, world first flights and much more.



In this episode, head of climate policy Helena Bennett sits down with members of the Green Alliance transport team to discuss an up and down year for transport policy.

Inflation hit a 41 year high in 2022. This was largely driven by high gas prices due to the war in Ukraine. Although that gas price spike is dropping out of inflation now, inflation is nowhere near pre-war levels and neither are energy bills.

What is the policy response? Interest rates are currently at a 15 year high, the highest they've been since 2008. The Bank of England is raising interest rates to try and get inflation down closer to their target of two per cent. This is putting pressure on consumer spending and creating particular pain in housing costs through higher mortgage rates. So how do we get out of this high inflation, high interest rate world?

To answer this question, our senior policy analyst Heather Plumpton speaks to our senior policy adviser Stuart Dossett and Eric Lonergan, policy economist and writer, about the role renewable energy can play in bringing down inflation.