Helen Meech is Executive Director of the Climate Coalition, the UK's largest group of organisations dedicated to action on people, climate and nature. Over 130 member organisations, from the National Trust to Oxfam to Save the Children, plus a network of around 3,500 community organisers across the UK. And yet most people have never heard of them. As Helen explains, that's deliberate.
We talk about Great Big Green Week, the Coalition's flagship campaign, running this year from 6 to 14 June. It has more than doubled in size every year for three years: 250,000 people, then 600,000, then 1.2 million last year, with around 2 million expected this year. The stat that matters most: over a third of attendees had never engaged with climate or nature before. They came because someone they knew organised something, or because it was free to do with the kids on a Saturday.
We also dig into where power actually sits. Helen's framing, "creating the space for politics to move into," challenges the idea that change is something politicians do to us. And we compare notes on the People's Emergency Briefing, which we recently screened at the Grange Hub, and the tension every communicator in this space wrestles with: realism versus hope.
The post-interview chat gets into Tom's view that the era of being polite about the emergency is over, Chloe's case for hope grounded in community rather than technology, and why we still don't have a Help for Heroes equivalent for the climate movement.
About the guest
Helen Meech is Executive Director of the Climate Coalition. She has spent 25 years in environmental campaigning and movement-building, including roles at the National Trust and the RSPB, where she was Head of Movement Building and led the development of the People's Plan for Nature. Her work is built on a single belief: people are powerful, especially when they come together.
The Climate Coalition: theclimatecoalition.org Great Big Green Week: greatbiggreenweek.com
Chapters
00:00 - Welcome and intros
01:30 - Grange update: screening the People's Emergency Briefing at the Hub
04:30 - Watching hard truths in community, and why that changes the experience
06:55 - Tom's case: the days of being polite about the emergency are over
07:30 - Wilder Connections summer programme: co-design with young people
10:57 - Who is the Climate Coalition?
14:59 - Why most people haven't heard of the Climate Coalition (on purpose)
17:24 - "Creating the space for politics to move into"
20:05 - Everyone has power: protest, community organising, media, culture
22:18 - Great Big Green Week: nightclubs, litter picks, fetes and school assemblies
23:59 - The infrastructure behind 6,000 local events
29:54 - Flooded pitches: why grassroots sport is organising
30:30 - The unexpected challenge: keeping the big NGOs on board
32:43 - Greenwashing and a brand with a life of its own
34:15 - The Coalition's three policy asks
36:50 - The five million target, and matching Children in Need for awareness
39:43 - Helen's reaction to the People's Emergency Briefing
42:28 - Rebecca Solnit and hope as an action
44:35 - How to get involved in Great Big Green Week
46:03 - Tom and Chloe debrief: community action vs direct action
48:27 - The 3.5% rule, and whether the research still holds
50:45 - The school drop-off apology problem: why we need a safe movement to belong to
53:40 - Hope vs fear: did the briefing get the balance right?
Key takeaways
Over a third of Great Big Green Week attendees have never engaged with climate or nature before. They come because the event is organised by someone they know, connected to a community they're already part of, or simply free to do with the kids. Over 80% of those newcomers wanted to do more afterwards.
Great Big Green Week has more than doubled in size every year for three years, and reached a media audience of over 60 million last year. Around 11% of the UK population recognises it when prompted, on a par with campaigns that have run for decades.
Helen's core argument about power: if we say politicians are the only ones with power, we're handing ours to them. The Coalition's job is to make the public mandate visible so politicians have space to move into.
The Coalition's three policy asks: climate finance flowing where it's most needed, fairness at the heart of climate action (bills, jobs, just transition), and the urgent protection and restoration of nature.
Fear needs to be combined with agency. Helen cites the Branding Biodiversity report: hard-hitting information without a path to action paralyses people. Twenty-five years into her career, the People's Emergency Briefing still made her cry. Her response was to write a to-do list.
Hope is an action, not a mood. Rebecca Solnit's framing: pessimists and optimists both excuse themselves from doing anything.
Resources and links mentioned
Organisations and campaigns
Ideas and references
- Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark
- Joanna Macy, Active Hope: activehope.info
- Branding Biodiversity report (Futerra): fear combined with agency
- The 3.5% rule (Erica Chenoweth's research on nonviolent resistance)
- The People's Plan for Nature: peoplesplanfornature.org
Come and stay with us
If this conversation has you craving time somewhere slower, our off-grid cabins sit in a quiet corner of Monmouthshire surrounded by 80 acres of recovering nature. Visit grangeproject.co.uk and click "Stay with us" in the top right corner.
