Achievements

The Government's resources and waste strategy, published in December 2018, takes many positive steps that match the recommendations in our reports with CIE-MAP, Less in, more out (May 2018) and By popular demand (November 2018), including in the following areas:

• -  The promise to embed a 'polluter pays' approach in many product streams beyond packaging. This aligns with our recommendations in both reports.
• -  The Government's promise to 'develop a model for realising resource efficiency savings’, and work with businesses through "resource efficiency clusters"' aligns with our idea for resource efficiency partnerships in Less in, more out. 
• -  The strategy outlines the need to improve resource efficiency in the construction sector. In the annex to this section it directly acknowledges the Less in, more out: 'CIE-MAP and Green Alliance (2018) recommend that policies should focus on higher substitution towards low carbon materials, increased reuse of construction materials and reduction in material inputs through increased design optimisation.'
• -  The strategy uses By popular demand as evidence to promote reuse, repair and remanufacture. In the introduction it asserts that 'there is emerging evidence that improving resource efficiency is popular with the public. CIE-MAP and Green Alliance (2018) found most people see the need to shift towards a society that uses resources more efficiently. The study also found 60% were supportive of a "drastic shift" towards a resource efficient society even if that changed the way they live. People tended to favour approaches that were carried out by others (e.g. redesigning packaging) or were not too restrictive (e.g. a collaborative economy).'
• -  The promise to develop a quality assurance scheme for remanufacturing is something we suggested could boost consumer confidence in By popular demand.
• -  A commitment to continue moving away from a focus on waste towards a focus on resources, with the explicit aim of helping 'businesses make better decisions, for example by considering relative carbon emissions from reuse rather than disposal of a product' is not only in line with our recommendations but is a welcome recognition that resource efficiency is as much a carbon policy as it is a resource policy.

​Our short report How the UK can lead the electric vehicle revolution caused a stir in March 2018. It argued that the government should bring forward the ban on new conventional vehicles by 10 years, to 2030. There is a strong case for this and we hope to see higher ambition in the upcoming ‘Road to zero’ strategy. 

Extensive coverage around the report included a widely-shared piece from the Guardian.

In his major speech on Britain after Brexit, Jeremy Corbyn cited our estimate that 'trade in low carbon goods and services contributed over £42 billion to the economy in 2015', from our report Britain's trading future: a post-Brexit export strategy led by clean growth (February 2018). 

Our Natural Infrastructure Scheme concept, developed with the National Trust, was cited in the government's 25 year plan for the environment, as an innovative financing mechanism with the potential to play a significant role in restoring the natural environment. 

We co-ordinated the creation of Greener UK, a new coalition of major environmental groups focused on achieving a good outcome for the environment during Brexit in December 2016. In its first six months, Greener UK secured a baseline commitment from the government that it would continue with existing environmental protections after Brexit. Since then we have secured assurances from Michael Gove that environmental principles will continue to apply after Brexit. 

Greener UK's risk tracker closely monitors the environmental implications of Brexit. 
 

The Rt Hon Michael Gove MP has pledged to set up an independent watchdog to hold the powerful to account and give Britain a "green Brexit".

Greener UK, of which Green Alliance is one of the 13 members, has pushed for high standards of post-Brexit environmental governance. Shaun Spiers, chair of Greener UK and executive director of Green Alliance, welcomed the news and stated that “the government shouldn't waste any time starting the conversation about what this body or bodies should look like as it will need to come into effect the day we leave the EU.”

Our Resource Stewardship theme has created two infographics that focus on how to reduce the amount of plastics getting into the ocean. Our infographics highlight the estimated amount of different plastic sources found in the sea, where these plastics are found and the consequences of this for the natural environment, as well as five actions to stop nearly two thirds of plastic waste getting into the sea in the first place.

Green Alliance hosted a summer reception, with introductory speeches from the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Rt Hon Michael Gove MP, and the new executive director of Green Alliance, Shaun Spiers, followed by drinks, canapés and music.

You can watch the Rt Hon Michael Gove MP's speech on YouTube and see the Storify.

Our blog Inside Track was 'Highly Commended' in the ‘Green & Eco’ company category at the UK Blog Awards 2017. It was a finalist in the same category in 2016.

Green Alliance’s blog is a platform for insight and commentary on UK environmental policy and politics. It features the writing of leading commentators, from business, government, NGOs and academia, as well as offering Green Alliance’s own insights.

Our Natural Environment theme, launched in 2015, has since stimulated new debate about how we tackle the long term decline of nature in Britain.

Four reports over the first two years have explored new approaches, for instance in relation to alleviating flood risk and sustainable food production, which work with, and financially benefit, farmers and land managers. Our work on natural markets has been presented to the Committee on Climate Change’s Adaptation Sub Committee.

We now have growing partnership with a range of interested organisations and businesses, including the National Trust, United Utilities, Southern Water and Wessex Water.

Green Alliance leads thinking on effective policy making for a more resource resilient circular economy through the Circular Economy Task Force.

Our advocacy to improve the consistency of waste collection systems across the UK stimulated a review published in September 2016 by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Our work in 2014-15 also encouraged the government to support the EU’s circular economy action plan, a package of policies intended to improve resource productivity across Europe. Some of the recommendations of the Task Force were also picked up by the UK’s Environmental Audit Committee’s Growing a circular economy report, and by the Scottish Government’s Resource Use and the Circular Economy inquiry in 2014.

Read our reports:
A new direction for UK resource strategy after Brexit 
Lean and clean: building manufacturing excellence in the UK
Resource resilient UK
Wasted opportunities
UK resource governance for the 21st century
Recycling reset: how England can stop subsidising waste

Green Alliance was 'Highly Commended' for NGO of the Year at the 2016 Business Green Leaders Awards.

This recognised our work on brokering the climate pledges from party leaders, influencing government policy on unabated coal phase out and successfully arguing for more government support for renewables beyond the 2020s, resulting in increased certainty and new corporate investment.

Green Alliance was awarded 'Best environmental campaign by a non-governmental organisation' at the 2016 Green Ribbon Political Awards for our work in securing the party leaders' climate agreement in February 2015.

Read more about our role in the agreement here.

We raised green ambitions for London mayoral candidates, Zac Goldsmith, Sadiq Khan, Sian Berry and Caroline Pidgeon‌, following challenges made in the Greener London report and at the Greener London Hustings. All four candidates made new green commitments on solar power, the appointment of a green infrastructure commissioner and cleaner transport. 

One of Sadiq Khan’s first major announcements as mayor was a promise to act on the capital’s air pollution.

Greener London was produced by a coalition of the UK’s leading environmental groups, including Green Alliance. It aimed to raise the profile of environmental issues in the London mayoral election by setting out 20 practical actions for how the next mayor could help make the capital a greener, fairer and better place to live and work.

We organised a ‘clean energy declaration’ from 100 organisations across the North of England, calling on then Chancellor George Osborne ahead of the 2016 Budget to back clean energy for their region. The signatories included the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, business groups and civil society organisations, demonstrating widespread public support for renewables to Westminster.

We recieved a response letter from the Chancellor addressing the concerns outlined in the declaration.

Our report UK offshore wind in the 2020s warned that short term policy and funding uncertainties will undermine the UK’s ability to decarbonise during the 2020s. Our slidepack Achieving large volume, least cost, low carbon electricity in the 2020s made the case that offshore wind is more deliverable, has better cost reduction opportunities, and is better suited to UK export opportunities than many low carbon alternatives.

We were invited by the Offshore Wind Programme Board to discuss our conclusions; and, in a survey of senior industry executives carried out for the Committee on Climate Change, our concept of ‘commit and review’ was strongly endorsed. 

​The new government, in line with our recommendations, has since announced it will extend the Levy Control Framework into the 2020s. In particular, it committed to supporting 10GW of offshore wind, so long as industry cost reduction continues, as well as to spending £730 million of annual support on renewable electricity projects over this parliament.

The government announced in November 2015 that it will phase out the use of unabated coal fired power. This was part of the cross-party pledge, convened by Green Alliance, that the Prime Minister signed in February 2015.

In September 2015, in association with CBI, our Beyond Paris event brought together over 400 leaders in environment, politics and business to discuss what a good climate deal in December 2015 could mean for Britain and the world.

The former US Vice President Al Gore received a standing ovation for his speech in which he expressed his disappointment at the loss of low carbon policies in the UK and challenged the government to maintain its climate leadership position.  
 
John Cridland, Director-General of the CBI spoke of the business desire for action and policy certainty and, in her speech, Loretta Minghella, CEO of Christian Aid, stressed the UK’s responsibility to the world’s poorest to act on climate change.

In the discussion which followed, chaired by the BBC's Reeta Chakrabarti, questions from the audience were answered by a panel including Ben Goldsmith, Chair of the Conservative Environment Network; Andrew Bonfield, Global Finance Director, National Grid; Dame Fiona Reynolds DBE, Green Alliance chair; and Michael Jacobs, Senior Adviser, The New Climate Economy.

Watch the full video or highlights of this event on YouTube or you can read our summary on Storify.

In June 2014, the government announced an electricity demand reduction pilot scheme, allowing energy saving schemes to compete alongside generation schemes to ensure capacity at peak times. The pilot followed two years of Green Alliance’s advocacy on negawatts, discussed with the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) ahead of the scheme’s launch.

The Treasury used the findings of our 2015 report Getting more from less to inform its own plans to realise the potential of negawatts in the UK electricity market. The government subsequently approved the second phase of its electricity demand reduction pilot scheme in June 2015.

Read our reports:
Creating a market for electricity savings
The power of negawatts
​Kickstarting the negawatts market
Getting more from less​: realising the potential of negawatts in the UK electricity market

We successfully influenced party manifestos ahead of the general election, through proposals set out in Greener Britain, a report published by Green Alliance and nine other leading environmental organisations.

Senior MPs, including Nick Clegg, Caroline Flint and Amber Rudd, welcomed the report, which set out goals for the next government in four areas: international action, nature, communities and economy.

When the manifestos were published, Labour and Liberal Democrat promises aligned with the Greener Britain proposals in all four areas and the Conservatives reflected them in two: securing a global climate deal and nature’s recovery.

Read Greener Britain

Our report The future savings challenge was highly commended in the 2015 Farsight Awards. It was recognised for its originality, quality, readability, sophistication, depth and financial usefulness.

This report, based on focus groups with 37 young professionals in their early to mid-twenties, looks at the attitudes of young adults to finance and sustainability, and the implications for the savings sector.

Green Alliance brought Prime Minister David Cameron, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and the Leader of the Opposition, Ed Miliband together in a cross-party agreement to tackle climate change in February 2015.

This pledge sought a climate change deal which limits temperature rises to below 2 °C, sets carbon budgets according to the Climate Change Act and accelerates UK’s transition to an energy efficient and low carbon economy. 

The agreement was widely welcomed across the political spectrum and by business leaders, marking a milestone for the UK in the build up to the Paris summit in December 2015.

Read the agreement and press release

In November 2015 the government announced that it would phase out the use of unabated coal fired power, and in November 2016, the UK signed the Paris climate change agreement.

On 20 November 2014 we celebrated our 35th anniversary with over 400 senior figures from politics, civil society and business, with speeches from special guests Ed Miliband MP and Oliver Letwin MP. 

See the Storify

We also launched Green Alliance's 2015-18 strategy and announced our new chair, Dame Fiona Reynolds.

We asked 35 people to tell us what they have valued most about working with us, including politicians, business partners, the third sector and ex directors of Green Alliance.

See what they said

Green Alliance's Climate Leadership Programme was launched in 2009.  We worked with over 50 Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs from the 2010 intake of candidates on developing a deeper understanding of climate change and, especially, what it means for their role and policy at the constituency and national level.

We published three policy briefings under the Constituency Voices project, working with small groups of MPs within their constituencies and helping them to take climate action to the national level.

Read our reports:
Constituency voices: greening city deals
Constituency voices: realising the potential of community energy, 
After the floods: lessons for climate adaptation and resilience for local areas

Green Alliance research into the impact of rising global commodity prices on inflation for UK consumers concluded that only reliable way to protect the UK economy against these resource price shocks in future is to improve radically the efficiency of our resource use and reuse, reducing dependency on foreign imports.

Our report The great resource price shock was endorsed by the UK’s Environmental Audit Committee’s Growing a circular economy report.

See the infographic