National security assessment of climate and biodiversity loss: comment

Commenting on the release of the national security assessment on global ecosystems today by the Government [1], Gareth Redmond-King, Head of International Programme at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) said: “We have only one scientific solution to the growing danger and spiralling costs from climate change, and that is to cut our planet-heating emissions to net zero.

"Last year saw the second worst harvest at home [2], whilst extremes of heat and rain hit harvests hard in nations around the world that supply us with food that we can’t often grow in the UK. [3] This is a cost-of-living crisis, driving up food prices on supermarket shelves for UK households. Some UK taxpayer money is spent helping farmers abroad sustain the livelihoods in the face of floods and heatwaves, but it is increasingly evident that our nation’s national security interests rely on moving further and faster towards net zero, to halt climate change and the breaching of dangerous tipping points.”

ENDS

Notes to editors: 

1. Defra: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nature-security-assessment-on-global-biodiversity-loss-ecosystem-collapse-and-national-security

2. ECIU: https://eciu.net/media/press-releases/2025/england-has-second-worst-harvest-on-record-comment 

3. ECIU: https://eciu.net/analysis/reports/2024/climate-and-food-home-and-away 

For more information or for interview requests:

George Smeeton, Head of Communications, ECIU, Tel: 07894 571 153, email: george.smeeton@eciu.net