Green liberalism values the planet very highly; it is considered very important that the planet be passed down to the next generation unharmed. Green liberalism accepts that the natural world is a system in a state of flux, and does not seek to conserve the natural world as it is. However, it does seek to minimise the damage done by the human species on the natural world, and to aid the regeneration of damaged areas.

In economic issues, green liberals take a position somewhere between classical liberalism and new liberalism: they favor slightly less government involvement than do new liberals, but far more than do classical liberals. Some within the circle of green liberals practice free-market environmentalism and thus, sharing similarity with classical liberalism or libertarianism. This is one of few reasons why blue-green alliance is possible in politics.

The historian Conrad Russell, a British Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords, dedicated a chapter of his book The Intelligent Person's Guide to Liberalism to the subject of green liberalism. The term green liberalism was coined, however, by political philosopher Marcel Wissenburg in - among others - his 1998 book Green Liberalism: The free and the green society.