UK appoints world’s first special representative for climate security
The UK government has appointed the world's first special representative for climate security, with Madeleine Alessandri, chair of the UK's joint intelligence committee, taking on the role to advise on national security risks from the climate crisis.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham will announce the appointment at Cop31, the UN climate summit in Turkey, with the new role designed to advise the government on national security risks from the climate crisis before they become catastrophic. This move represents the strongest indication yet of fears that climate breakdown will bring chaos to the country.
Burnham will tell the key climate talks: "We should all recognise the summer was not normal. The climate crisis is upon all of us now. We saw that with the wildfires that devastated lives and livelihoods everywhere." This year's summer was the UK's hottest on record, with back-to-back heatwaves causing health services and transport to suffer, schools to close, and thousands of premature deaths.
Security warnings
Under Alessandri, the Joint Intelligence Committee collaborated on a secret report warning that within five years the UK could begin experiencing national security impacts from the collapse of ecosystems overseas. These impacts include food shortages, rising food prices, mass migration and conflict among nuclear-armed countries. The report was suppressed under former Prime Minister Keir Starmer but its contents were revealed last year.
Climate change and nature loss are increasingly shaping the security environment in which the UK operates, placing additional pressure on resources, economies and communities around the world. The best time to address these risks is before they develop into crises.
Contradictory policies
Campaigners have pointed to what they say are Burnham's failures to take sufficient measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at home. The government is considering weakening targets for electric vehicles and has approved the Jackdaw gasfield in the North Sea while evaluating the Rosebank oilfield west of Shetland.
Mohamed Adow, director of Power Shift Africa, criticized the approach: What we're seeing in part is double standards. We can't have Britain preaching a clean development gospel but expanding fossil fuels back at home. You cannot expect one set of rules for Africa and another for Britain.
Asad Rehman of Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland added: "The prime minister's first climate talks should be an opportunity to demonstrate he means business. But if this is all the UK has to offer, then the questions piling in about his climate credibility are more than justified."
Global concerns
Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has been briefing foreign capitals on the JIC report's findings, stating: "National security is the next frontier of the fight for climate action – the scenarios once of science fiction are now regular occurrences in the daily news." He emphasized that climate breakdown threatens food security, infrastructure and population movements.
The UK has significantly reduced its climate finance while increasing military spending. In July, Burnham pledged to lower bus fares caps, funded by converting international climate donations into repayable loans. Prakash Dahal of Pro Public and Friends of the Earth Nepal stressed: Crucially, this essential funding must come as grants – not loans. Nepal is not asking for charity. Nepal is demanding justice.
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