Jon Alexander meets Caroline Lucas, former MP and Leader of the Green Party, and climate “actionist” Ellie Meredith, to ask if and how people power can still provide a meaningful response to the climate emergency.

We are now living in both a climate emergency and a democratic emergency. Climate impacts are no longer a thing of the future, but an immediate reality, and at the same time, autocrats, authoritarians and outright fascists appear to be on an inexorable rise. Few politicians seem capable of charting a credible path forward in the face of these immense challenges.

Yet just beneath the media radar, another story is taking shape: a story of democratic renewal and reinvention, with citizen participation, community power, and serious joy at its heart.

Come and explore this possible future, and where it’s already emerging, with Jon Alexander, author of Citizens: Why the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us. He’ll be in conversation with Caroline Lucas, former MP and Leader of the Green Party, and Ellie Meredith, the young star of ACTionism, a film which is being screened and seeding discussion and action in communities across the world.

Event Schedule

6:00pm: Pre-event socialising and networking

A cash bar will be available for refreshments.

6:15pm: Event begins

7:30pm: Event ends

Speakers:

Caroline Lucas was the Green Party’s first MP, representing Brighton Pavilion between 2010 and 2024, when she stood down to focus more on writing and campaigning on nature and climate.  She is a Professor of Practice at the School of Progressive Futures, University of Sussex and her most recent book, a Sunday Times bestseller, is Another England: How to Reclaim our National Story.  Find her on Bluesky: @carolinelucas.bsky.social and on X: @carolinelucas

Ellie Meredith‘s journey from anxiety to action, and her discovery of a community to take that action with, is at the heart of the film ACTionism. That community is the Re-Action Collective, a fast-growing global collective of outdoor organisations reshaping that industry through repair, sharing and community-led initiatives. Ellie works with Re-Action as a Community Cultivator, helping amplify the stories emerging from across the collective. She also works both in digital communications and as a Forest School practitioner with Shropshire Wildlife Trust, weaving together storytelling and nature connection in her work with young people and local communities.

Jon Alexander is the author of CITIZENS: Why the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us, and co-founder of the New Citizenship Project, a book and company that work to shift the dominant story of the individual in society from Consumer to Citizen. Among other plaudits, CITIZENS was listed by McKinsey as one of its Top 5 Recommended Books in its Summer Reading Guide 2022, described as “an underground hit” in the Financial Times, and selected by the World Economic Forum for its CEO Book Club. Jon began his career with a decade in the advertising industry, before shifting his attention to understanding how communications skills might be deployed to invite people into their agency as citizens, instead of just selling stuff to them as consumers.