The consensus on cheap renewable power has cracked - to fight back we must re-focus on stability, fairness and cost, and not lose sight of clean power. 

From infrastructure challenges to marine opportunities, Labour Party Conference was rife with competition for energy and environment events this year as businesses and NGOs looked to draw crucial insights from Ministers and MPs on Labour’s plans for delivering on its climate and nature promises.  

As we reflect on our time in Liverpool, our own events and those we attended, Seahorse has pulled together questions for organisations to ask themselves that help execute an event to remember during Conference season.

In the third and final Seahorse guide to party conference season, we’ve selected a line-up of green events at the Conservative Party Conference, taking place in Manchester between Sunday 5th October and Wednesday 8th October.

The Conservative Party Conference is usually the final get-together of the three major parties, however Reform UK’s performance in the polls has put a fourth conference on the map this year.

The scene is set for this year’s Labour Party conference, taking place from Sunday 28th September – Wednesday 1st October in Liverpool.  

The Seahorse team have curated the top environmental events that attendees can’t afford to miss. From overfishing to clean heat, this year’s programme is brimming with the most pressing environmental topics of the day.

With conference season in full swing, Seahorse is continuing the annual tradition of mapping out the must-see environmental events across the three biggest parties’ conferences. The Liberal Democrats gather in Bournemouth 20-23 September, and, unlike Labour or Conservative conference, Liberal Democrat members have the unique opportunity to debate and vote on motions that can become official party policy. 

As Parliament’s summer recess begins, this breather from the usual pace of Westminster gives those of us working on national policy some space to take stock, assess what has been achieved in Labour’s first year in office on the environment, and plan next steps ahead of Parliament’s return. 

Site visits have the potential to be useful implements in the toolkits of those looking to build support for a net-zero and nature-positive world. In this piece, we explore why they’re important when engaging with political and media stakeholders and how they should be coordinated to maximise impact. But first: what are they?

While COP30 still feels far away, this summer’s key environmental events are already shaping the global climate conversation. From ocean protection to climate finance, these moments are essential for building the momentum and public pressure needed to ensure COP30 delivers where previous summits have fallen short. 

To understand where global priorities are shifting, and where major commitments might be made ahead of COP30, Seahorse is tracking five of the most impactful environmental events this summer.

A week today, Rachel Reeves will deliver her first Spending Review as Chancellor.

While the Government has already set out plans for overall spending in the coming years (the ‘spending envelope'), this hugely important review will set detailed departmental budgets allocating funding over most of this parliament. As key Departments go to the wire securing their final settlement, Seahorse has been thinking about what this all means for climate and nature.

It’s been a fantastic year for the Seahorse team, working alongside brilliant clients to drive meaningful change. We’re proud to share that we’ve been shortlisted for Best Advocacy Strategy at the Purpose Awards 2025, as well as Communications Agency of the Year at the UK Green Business Awards 2025.

10 months into Government, Labour have suffered a shocking reversal of fortunes in Runcorn in Cheshire, as well as in council and mayoral results across the country. The party won only 6% of council seats up for election compared to 41% for Reform UK, and there have only been 17 previous parliamentary by-elections in which a majority as big as Labour's in Runcorn – around 35% – has previously been overturned. What does this mean for the politics of the three (or now four?) main parties and how will the results impact the shape of environmental policies? 

Attenborough’s acclaimed new film Ocean is a timely and powerful intervention as world leaders prepare for the UN Ocean Conference in Nice this month. However, it raises questions as to how visual storytelling can move beyond entertainment and deliver real policy change for the environment.

Against mounting political headwinds, Labour has remained committed to its ambitions for a world-leading low carbon economy. However, the clean power target that helps build the economy of the future requires significant scaling up of technologies and processes that are still heavily reliant on global supply chains and exposed to the risks that come with them. 

Across Government, Ministers are looking to expert-led taskforces to progress complex policies outside the normal processes. The goal is to bring in new voices and fresh ideas outside the orthodoxy of the often siloed civil service.  

With little progress having occurred over recent years, policy development on the circular economy seems a perfect fit for this approach. Indeed, the Government has created a new ‘Circular Economy Taskforce’; a group of experts covering industry, academia, and civil society, chaired by Andrew Morlet, former CEO of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.  

The environment sector has been talking about food a lot. This isn’t really a surprise. Food cuts across so many interests, priorities and sectors: health, climate change, nature loss, trade, agriculture, fishing and, of course, growth. As we get sicker, further deplete our struggling natural environment and farmers take to the streets to voice discontent, policymakers, businesses and campaigners are being much more explicit about how diverse interests interact and often compete with one another. And this is a good thing.  

The Government is only going to succeed in its pledge to lower bills as we decarbonise if it unlocks making it cheaper and easier to use and store green energy.

As a member of Gen Z, I’ve grown up alongside the rise of social media, which arguably, has come to define the 21st century. Facebook was founded in 2004, Twitter (now X) in 2006, and Instagram in 2010—these social media giants have shaped not only my experience but the way billions of people connect, share, and engage.  

Just a few years ago, water pollution was rarely mentioned in the media and wasn’t described as a public priority. Yet in a short space of time, it has come to dominate the political, public and media agenda. This shift couldn’t be better represented by the ‘March for Clean Water’ last Sunday. 15,000 people peacefully marched on the streets of London, all dressed in blue, with one simple ask for Government and industry – stop poisoning Britain’s rivers.

Like many people who attended UK secondary school in the 2010s, I first learnt about climate change in Geography, when I was taught about its causes and impacts on the natural environment.

With climate and nature rising the political agenda, it wasn’t surprising that this year’s Labour Party Conference agenda was filled with events discussing the key challenges and opportunities for the environment and energy transition. However, competition for political speakers was fierce with attendees having to choose between 3-4 clashing events spread across the Conference map.