Green Alliance, the charity and think tank that's all about achieving ambitious leadership for the environment.

I'm Fiona Reynolds, chair of the Green Alliance, and very honoured to be so.

All I want to say, if it weren't evidence to every single person in this room,

is that they could scarcely be a more timely or

challenging moment for the environment. The whole question of Brexit, but more than that, has raised

issues about our credibility as a nation, and indeed, whether we're prepared to stand up for the

high standards that we all believe is so important. And tonight's debate lands those issues at this critical moment of decision-making.

And I think we're extremely fortunate to have the speakers, both Laurence and the panel here tonight.

So all I want to do is hear the debate, and I'm very, very honored to welcome Evan Davis to chair it.

He, of course, you'll know, is the former BBC economics editor, presenter of today program and

now Newsnight, but also he's been a terrific champion and engaged with the environmental

movement for many years too. So Evan, over to you and thank you very much.

When I saw this title, how will climate ambition define Britain's role as a global player?

It's sort of my eyes wafted over it and I thought, oh, thank God we're not talking about Brexit.

And then I realized, oh, we are talking about Brexit.

They just didn't put it in the title.

Well, after the vote, it kind of wasn't quite clear which way we should think about the vote.

It wasn't clear what the public wanted.

Was it a more global Britain looking beyond the EU in which the 0.7% was a kind of

a thing about which we were enthusiastic and proud? We wanted to be a multilateral player.

Or was this a vote about retreat and kind of a more inward-looking Britain? We're two years on now from the referendum.

I don't think any of us have a clue what the public was saying on that day,

...