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Jonathan Bartley (80-89), Party Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales It has been a privilege to lead the Green Party over the last five years, over which time the climate and ecological emergency has penetrated the mainstream of public life. Part of the role of the Green Party has been to shift this Overton window, as part of a wider movement of NGOs, grass roots campaigners and those lobbying and mounting legal challenges. It is incredible to think that only three years ago the Today Programme on Radio 4 still felt that when they did occasionally cover the biggest existential threat we face, they had to get a climate denier on too in the name of “balance”. Contrast that with the coverage in October of COP26 in Glasgow, where almost every item on the programme dealt with the issue. Climate sceptics were conspicuous by their absence. The Green Party's role in this has been pivotal. Public opinion may change, but policy change often requires electoral threat. So our strategy has been to win votes. Every vote for the Green Party is a vote that the other parties must try to win back. And to do that they need to change their policies. Five years ago, when I became leader, few would have believed that we would see a ban on fracking, the phasing out of the production of fossil-fuelled cars, and the acceptance that we will need to retrofit our entire country's housing stock. It’s often been lonely going against the perceived orthodoxy. Being the only party to oppose austerity, propose a 4-day working week or a Green New Deal, we have seen our ideas increasingly taken up. The unfair electoral system of course makes it hard to persuade people to trust us with their votes. In 2015, if seats had matched votes, we would have had 25 MPs. Six years later, the Green Party is now polling ahead of the Lib Dems as the country’s third party. This would translate into 65 MPs under a proportional system. But even without the democratic reform, we need the two big parties to know that these votes are what they need to win a general election. Our strategy has therefore been to create the confidence for people to vote green. To build from the ground up. To win council seats. And then build on those council wins to gain seats in regional and national Government. Since 2015, we have more than trebled our councillors, now playing a part in running over a dozen local authorities. Our sister party is in Government coalition in Scotland. And as well as members in both chambers at Westminster, we have three members on the London Assembly. It is in these positions of power that Greens are not just changing policy but ensuring that the policies are put into action. A quiet revolution has been happening at the local level with over 150 local authorities now declaring local "climate emergencies" and putting in place measures to tackle it not by 2050, but by 2030. On the London Assembly, the Mayor's feet are being held to the fire on everything from transport to the capital's green spaces. In Scotland, there is a Government with the resolve to move away from dependence on North Sea Oil for the first time. The momentum is clear, as is the widespread realisation at last that a vote for the Green Party is the most powerful - and important - vote anyone can cast right now. It has been an absolute honour to have had the opportunity to play a part in that.
Dr Julian Caldecott (67-74), Ecologist and Writer, Edinburgh, Scotland
Always drawn to wildlife conservation, and encouraged by excellent biology teachers - Brian Jones, Ted Bowen-Jones and Chris Gayford - I watched badgers while at school before taking a gap year to work in West Malaysia (Malaya) on a field study of elephants. I then trained in ecology at Southampton, doing an undergrad field project on montane forests and primates. This was followed by a PhD at Cambridge on pig-tail monkeys, again in Malaya, and post-doctoral work for WWF in Sarawak (Malaysian Borneo) on bearded pigs, hunting, and the effects of logging on ecosystems in the interior of the island. Afterwards I managed a project in Nigeria for WWF to set up the Cross River National Park, and then went to Indonesia as a government adviser on biodiversity management. I spent the 1990s to 2010s consulting for other governments and donor agencies, first on biodiversity conservation in various tropical countries, then on conserving rainforests as a way to head off climate change and mass extinction, and more recently on nature-based and community-based solutions to the impacts of climate chaos. Every few years I take time out to write a book on what I've learned. These include Hunting and Wildlife Management in Sarawak (IUCN 1988), Designing Conservation Projects (Cambridge 1996), The World Atlas of Great Ape Conservation (California, 2005), Aid Performance and Climate Change (Routledge, 2017), and Surviving Climate Chaos (Cambridge 2021). I settled in Edinburgh in 2020, from where I've been leading evaluations of the Danish and Swiss governments' aid programmes on climate change, while also being on the Council of the Scottish Wildlife Trust and a Fellow at the Schumacher Institute. My current focus is to promote 'peace with nature', inspired partly by what I've seen being done in Costa Rica since the late 1980s, and partly by the recent call of UN Secretary-General António Guterres to end humanity's 'war with nature'. This will hopefully be the subject of my next book. Retirement doesn't seem to be an option as the tasks now facing humanity are so huge and urgent. I'd encourage anyone to study ecology and join the struggle for life on Earth as a career. The world needs dedicated life scientists as never before, and increasingly seems to know it. He later joined forces with co-founder Robbie Lockie, and the pair officially launched the company in 2017. Since then, Plant Based News has accumulated 2.5 million followers across its social media platforms, totalling 1.62 billion impressions.
Marco De Benedictis (90-00), Head of Sustainable & Transition Finance, Corporate Banking, Barclays
Marco heads Barclays’ Corporate Banking Sustainable Product Group, which was established in early 2020 to support the company’s 2050 decarbonisation ambition. His responsibilities include origination, focused on growing both sides of the balance sheet; portfolio management of the existing book; and sustainable product innovation. Marco also co-chairs the Corporate Banking Sustainability Forum.
On page 39, Marco reflects on the changing nature of finance and the extent to which investors are acting responsibly. Green finance and impact investing a not a new thing .
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