Carla Denyer

Carla Suzanne Denyeris a British politician who has served as co-leader of the Green Party of England and Wales alongside Adrian Ramsay since 1 October 2021. She has been a city councillor in Bristol since 2015 (initially for Clifton East ward, and since the 2016 boundary changes for Clifton Down). She is also noted for her lead role in bringing about Bristol City Council's declaration of a climate emergency in 2018, which was the first in Europe.

Education and early career

Denyer studied mechanical engineering at St Chad's College, Durham from 2005 to 2009, beginning her environmental activism as an environmental representative at her college. She went on to work in the wind energy sector, working for a Bristol-based renewable energy consultancy, GL Garrad Hassan, from 2009 until shifting her career to politics.

Denyer joined the Green Party in 2011. Her political campaigning included participating in direct action campaigning against SUVs in Clifton. From 2012 she developed an interest in ethical investment and specifically fossil-fuel divestment through participation in the Quakers and the UK Fossil Free campaign. She participated in bringing about British Quakers' divestment from fossil fuels.

Following her work on the Quakers' divestment, Denyer became a leading figure in the campaign for the University of Bristol to divest from fossil fuels, first tabling a motion in her capacity as a city councillor sitting on one of the university's governance bodies in November 2015. Despite initial defeats, the campaign succeeded in March 2017. Denyer also participated in achieving the 2015 divestment of Bristol's Avon Pension Fund from fossil fuels.