On Thursday 21st July, an open letter to Andy Burnham was published in the Financial Times calling on him to hold a national emergency briefing on climate and nature. The full text of which follows:
National renewal depends on a shared understanding of the challenges ahead. The UK faces an accelerating climate and nature emergency with profound implications for the economy, cost of living, health, food supply, infrastructure and national security. We, the undersigned, urge the Prime Minister to convene a live, televised emergency briefing, delivered by independent experts.
Dear Andy Burnham,
As you prepare to lead a period of national renewal, the UK is entering a more dangerous period of accelerating climate change impacts and ecological decline, with serious and immediate implications for our economy, public health, food security, infrastructure, and national security.
This summer, those impacts have become increasingly visible across the country. Children have struggled to learn in overheated schools, our transport system has struggled to function, health services have come under increasing pressure, and our farmers are losing their crops. In May and June alone, extreme heat is estimated to have killed more than 2,700 people in England and Wales.
An escalating national threat taking and affecting lives on this scale would normally trigger an immediate, coordinated national response led from the centre of government and addressed openly by the Prime Minister. To date, this has not happened. The public knows that something is deeply wrong, but so far the government has not acted as though we are facing an emergency. This undermines public trust.
Alongside the immediate impacts, climate change is increasingly recognised as a threat multiplier, amplifying risks across critical infrastructure, water resources, energy systems, public health and economic resilience. At the same time, responding effectively presents one of the greatest opportunities for economic renewal, industrial investment and job creation that the country has seen in generations.
Last November, the National Emergency Briefing laid out the threat and the positive economic and social opportunities arising from a commensurate response to the climate and nature crises, with presentations from nine of the UK’s top experts. The resulting People’s Emergency Briefing, a 50 minute film of that event, has already been shown, or is scheduled to be shown, along with facilitated discussion, at over 2,300 screening events in community, workplace and institutional settings across the UK. We believe these events have already reached more than 100,000 people, and that number is growing fast.
Each of these events is a wake-up call that energises hope within communities. Collectively, they provide a strong mandate for your renewal agenda. Interim findings from the University of Bath, based on a survey of many thousands of participants, show that after the screening events, 58% report feeling more hopeful (vs 15% less so), 88% feel more informed, and 87% more motivated to act.
This initiative is showing that people are more resilient than they are often given credit for. When they are treated as adults, trusted with the evidence of the scale of the challenge and the opportunities before us – they are remarkably willing to engage constructively and to play their part.
We think it is high time to level with the British people by convening a prime-time, televised emergency briefing, introduced by you, and delivered by trusted, independent experts who are honest about the scale and immediacy of the risks, as well as the benefits that will result from government and citizens taking commensurate action. This will create the shared understanding and the democratic mandate that is needed for a whole-of-society response, and for the wider programme of national renewal that you seek to lead. It will transform fear into agency, and despair into hope. Over 100 MPs have already joined the National Emergency Briefing’s Parliamentary Call for this to happen.
A televised emergency briefing will help you deliver a richer, fairer, healthier, more resilient and more hopeful society, and a stronger, greener economy delivering good growth in every postcode. This is the national and international leadership for which the country is yearning.
We urge you to seize this opportunity.
Yours sincerely,
Prof Mike Berners-Lee Chair, National Emergency Briefing
Prof Kevin Anderson Professor of Energy and Climate Change, Tyndall Centre, University of Manchester
Prof Paul Behrens British Academy Global Professor and expert in food system transformations at University of Oxford
Prof Hayley J. Fowler FRS Professor of Climate Change Impacts, Director of Centre for Climate & Environmental Resilience, Newcastle University
Angela Francis Economics speaker, National Emergency Briefing
Prof Tim Lenton OBE Professor of Climate Change, University of Exeter
Prof Hugh Montgomery OBE Director of the Centre for Human Health at University College London
Lt General Richard Nugee CB CVO CBE Senior British Army Officer (retired)
Prof Nathalie Seddon Founding Director of the Nature-based Solutions Initiative and The Agile Initiative at the University of Oxford