Welcome to the Green Alliance podcast, with a charity and think tank that is all about achieving ambitious leadership for the environment.

In this episode, we'll be bringing you the highlights from one of our online events, where we discussed the important part that nature can play in the post-COVID recovery.

Tune into this eye-opening discussion between the heads of the environmental groups,

National Trust, RSPB and Natural England,

as they chat together about the impact of the current crisis on environmental NGOs and the role of nature in the nation's recovery.

After the economic crash in 2008,

world leaders paid very little attention to nature or climate change.

The focus was all on economic recovery, whatever the cost.

This time, there is genuine hope that we can, as the phrase goes, really

build back better. But nothing can be taken for granted. I'm delighted that we got three

great speakers to discuss how we can ensure that the nation's recovery and nature's recovery go

hand in hand. Hilary McGrady is Director General of the National Trust and has worked for the Trust since 2006,

including as Director for Northern Ireland and then Director for Wales.

Becky Spate is Chief Executive of the RSPB and before that headed up the Woodland Trust.

And Tony Juniper has been Chair of Natural England since April 2019 and is a former director of advocacy and campaigns

at W.O.F. and also a former chief executive of Friends of the Earth. So they're eminently

qualified to tackle these questions. My colleague Ruth Chambers will be collating the live

questions as well as those that were sent in advance and we'll try to cover as much ground

as possible. And you'll also on the website be able to see a blog from our first speaker, Hillary,

based on a piece that Hillary wrote in the Daily Telegraph on Saturday.

And Hillary, in that piece you argued that the government's aim of improving the environment

within a generation depends in a large part

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