Green Britain: Assessing Year One of Labour’s Environmental Agenda

Steve Coulter is Head of Economy at Green Alliance, an environmental think tank based in Westminster, where he leads on issues related to the green economy, finance, industrial strategy and skills, as well as Green Alliance’s responses to Budgets, Spending Reviews and economic consultations. Steve joined Green Alliance in June 2023 from the Tony Blair Institute, where he was head of industrial strategy, sustainability and skills. He is also senior visiting fellow at the European Institute of the London School of Economics, where he previously taught political economy. Steve has also worked in Brussels for the European Trade Union Institute, and for BBC News as an economics and business journalist.

Amer Gaffar is Director of Industrial Strategy Partnerships  at Manchester Metropolitan University and a sustainability professional with more than 25 years’ experience in the sector. Amer is a passionate advocate for fuel cell and hydrogen technology and Net Zero innovation which led him to founding the Greater Manchester Hydrogen Partnership in 2013. He has a track record of building multi-million-pound innovation programmes such as the £4.1m funding for the Manchester Fuel Cell Innovation Centre, £6m Greater Manchester Electrochemical Hydrogen Cluster (GMEHC) which is a triple helix partnership between government, industry, SMEs, and academia designed for the acceleration of hydrogen innovation and deployment projects.

As a leading subject matter expert in hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, Amer has given evidence to multiple inquiries for the Department of Net Zero and Security, the House of Lords, the House of Commons, the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society on key net zero ambitions for the UK with a focus on the role of Hydrogen and Innovation within the energy transition. Through the development of strong partnerships, Amer has developed one of the leading placed-based programmes for hydrogen innovation in the UK as cited within the joint report by the Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering highlighting Manchester as an exemplar regional model across the UK. In 2024 Amer became a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts Manufacture and Commerce and through recognition of his achievements, Amer was named both Green Leader and Public Sector Leader of the year at the 2025 North West Leadership Awards.

Claire is an experienced sustainability consultant specialising in strategy development, reporting, training, and process implementation for large corporates, private equity clients, and their portfolio companies. Since 2018, she has led sustainability projects across sectors, including retail, FMCG, and professional services, with clients such as Tesco, Amazon, and Palatine Private Equity.

With in-house experience as interim Sustainability Director at Palatine, Claire brings first-hand insight into the pressures companies and asset managers face in meeting evolving reporting requirements from both regulators and investors. She regularly advises investors and executives on aligning sustainability commitments with operational realities, and as a trained B Leader, supports companies on their journey to B Corp certification.

On the panel, Claire will offer an on-the-ground perspective on how UK climate policy is impacting businesses and investors, and what this means for industry readiness, compliance, and ambition in the road to net zero.

Head of SEC Newgate’s Northern office in Manchester, Simon is a strategic communication professional and former journalist with extensive experience across the public and private sectors. The Manchester team work on behalf of organisations leading transformational change, including developers of new homes, renewable energy projects, major infrastructure and more.

Simon joined SEC Newgate from Transport for Greater Manchester, where he supported the rollout of the transformational Bee Network and led communications for the revised Greater Manchester Clean Air Plan.

In a first for a Destination Management Organisation, Simon served as Content Curator on behalf of the Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership (now GM Business Board) at Marketing Manchester, part of the Growth Company. The role supported the city-region in increasing awareness of its sector strengths nationally and internationally, helping to attract inward investment, visitors and students.

Simon worked at the Manchester Evening News for 15 years, with stints on the business and features desks. He edited the MEN’s award-winning standalone business magazine, Greater Manchester Business Week.

Amy is a chartered environmentalist with two decades experience working with the businesses at the heart of the net zero transition. She has an MSc in Environmental Monitoring, Modelling and has developed a deep understanding of the technologies and drivers that are shaping the business and skills agenda.

Amy has a unique understanding of the supply chain and advocates for the sector with buyers, local decision makers and national policy makers. Amy and her team have established Green Economy to improve the competitiveness of the supply chain, to overcome the market failures that prevent uptake of low carbon technology and to promote the businesses playing a key role in delivering the UK’s net zero ambition