I’ve belatedly discovered that on November 27th at Westminster Central Hall:

Ten of the UK’s leading experts briefed an invite-only audience of around 1,250 politicians and leaders from business, culture, faith, sport and the media with the latest implications for health, food, national security and the economy.

According to the National Emergency Briefing’s web site:

These briefings are the clearest, most up-to-date picture of the climate and nature crisis in Britain. For the first time, the UK’s top experts give one integrated, unfiltered account of the risks and the solutions. This is the baseline the national conversation must now start from. Every policymaker needs to see it.

The talks will be available on our YouTube channel in the coming days…

A 45 minute documentary is now in production for release early next spring.

Whilst we wait for the official videos, here’s a summary of the event via Dave Borlace’s “Just Have a Think” YouTube channel:

Lieutenant General (Ret’d) Richard Nugee CB CVO CBE spoke on “climate and national security”, and mentioned the Arctic in that context:

The Arctic is becoming a new flash point due to the climate crisis directly. You’ve heard how sea ice is receding and [the Arctic is warming] at four times the rate of the rest of the world. But let’s put that in a geopolitical context:

The Russian Duma has claimed [the Arctic Ocean] is a Russian internal sea, whereas we treat the Arctic as international waters. So there’s a risk of conflict over access, over resources and of course, over shipping routes. So the climate crisis is now shaping strategic and military competition.

The encouraging part is that what we need to do on climate also make Britain safer and more resilient. Take energy independence. Renewables, storage and a decentralised grid reduce our dependence on foreign oil and gas, and they are less vulnerable…

Some are using the threat from Russia to say “Let’s not worry about climate change now, or not at all”. But that’s a false choice. Tackling climate is central to our national resilience today. It’s part of our today’s security threat, not tomorrow’s.

According to the National Emergency Briefing web site once again:

81 MPs and 52 Peers signed up to attend, and many others arrived at the last minute without tickets.

Do you suppose that any of them were listening?

To be continued…