On Thursday 27^th November, over 1,200 people gathered at Westminster Central Hall, including around 150 Parliamentarians, along with senior civil servants, business leaders, faith voices, cultural and sport figures and community leaders.

This event was the first ever official-style National Emergency Briefing on Climate and Nature. Nine expert speakers presented a powerful account of the interconnected threats facing the UK, alongside the urgent actions that science suggests are necessary.

The meeting was chaired by Prof Mike Berners-Lee with a powerful introduction by Chris Packham.

Briefing Speakers

• Prof Hayley Fowler: Weather Extremes
• Prof Kevin Anderson: Climate / Energy
• Tessa Khan Energy: Transition
• Prof Paul Behrens: Food Security
• Prof Nathalie Seddon: Nature 
• Prof Hugh Montgomery: Health Impacts
• Lt General Richard Nugee: National Security
• Angela Francis: Economics
• Prof Tim Lenton: Tipping Points

These experts gave a stark assessment of the scale of the changes needed to adapt the UK to the rapidly changing climate and ecological situation. Speaking on climate, Kevin Anderson, professor of energy and climate change at the Universities of Manchester, Uppsala and Bergen, said: “The choice is between deep, rapid and fair decarbonisation of modern society, and an organised-ish technical and social revolution; or ongoing rhetoric and delay as temperatures [rise]. And then we’ll have a revolutionary style change that will be both chaotic and violent.”

On nature, Nathalie Seddon, professor of biodiversity at the University of Oxford, said: “We are facing a national emergency not only because the climate is changing, but because the living systems that protect the climate are breaking down.”

Richard Nugee, a retired general, said politicians focused on the threat from Russia were failing to see the greater threat of the climate crisis. “Climate change is going to be a bigger problem than Russia,” he said. “It’s an insidious threat, one that has crept up. It’s going to do more damage than the threats they’re focused on now. But all they see is a resurgent Russia.”

Tim Lenton, director of the Global Systems Institute at the University of Exeter, said that a collapse in the Atlantic meridianal overturning current (Amoc) would leave London freezing in winters of -20C, “and yet the summers would still be hotter than today’s”, leading to a situation where the UK would be 100% reliant on food imports. “We have got to do everything in our power to limit the amount of time we spend above 1.5C [above preindustrial temperatures],” Lenton said.

This historic moment showed that Britain is ready for a hard reset in how we confront this crisis. The age of warnings is over. We are already living with the impacts and it is time to step up and rise to the challenge.

This is only the beginning. The aim now is to ensure every community and every household can access the same trusted, unfiltered evidence without delay or distortion. With your support, we can carry this message far beyond Westminster.

What can you do now?

1. Sign our letter – At the event, a letter was read out by actor Olivia Williamson, calling for a televised emergency briefing. Please sign and share.

2. Get on social media – Please visit the Post NEB Content Pack – with content ready for you to share. Together we can help turn this moment into a national turning point.

Speakers Bullet Points https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:EU:aa9cab85-06d0-48c6-b615-247a42c4a9ae

If you wish to watch the complete 3-hour briefing follow this link. WATCH: National Emergency briefing on climate and nature by UK ex perts – YouTube   A shorter edited version will be available early next year.