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The Rest Is Politics
The Rest Is Politics

Will Climate Action Go Backwards Under Burnham?

August 13, 2026 • 52m

Summary

⏱️ 8 min read

Overview

In this Rest is Politics Climate special, Alistair Campbell and Rory Stewart interview former Green Party leader Caroline Lucas about climate change as a national security issue. The discussion covers Lucas's recent podcast series on climate threats, data centers and water resources, national emergency briefings, international climate action, and how to rebuild political consensus on environmental issues. The conversation reveals significant areas of agreement on nature and local action, but notable tension over AI infrastructure priorities and Britain's role in global climate leadership.

Caroline Lucas's Climate Series and Security Threats

Caroline Lucas produced a series examining climate and nature collapse as national security threats, based on suppressed government intelligence reports. The series covered topics from food security to climate migration, interviewing military leaders and former intelligence officials. This work aimed to elevate climate from a policy issue to an existential security concern, highlighting warnings from MI5, MI6, and GCHQ about ecosystem collapse.

  • Joint intelligence report named climate and nature collapse as a national security threat
  • The series interviewed Lieutenant General Richard Nuge and former Foreign Office official Arthur Snell on unexpected impacts of climate on global security
  • Episodes covered food security crisis, data centers versus drinking water, and climate migration
" if I was going to be a bit cheeky, I might say, well, get Zack Polanski to ask for it to happen, because he was asking for a COBRA meeting on the floods and the heat waves. And we've just heard this week that the COBRA meeting is happening. "

The Case for a National Emergency Briefing

Over 200 listeners asked about the need for a COVID-style prime-time climate emergency briefing to level with the public. Lucas describes an existing film featuring top scientists briefing MPs and journalists, which communities are showing locally. The debate centers on whether the government is infantilizing the public by not sharing the full severity of climate risks, with examples ranging from global extreme weather to absurd local evacuation signage in Lincolnshire.

  • A film of Westminster Central Hall briefing by top scientists is being shown in communities to engage local councillors and MPs
  • Lincolnshire has evacuation route signs saying only 'E.R.' rather than spelling it out, exemplifying government reluctance to alarm the public
  • Lucas argues we need a shared understanding of climate risk similar to wartime mobilization
" we need to have a sense shared in the country of the level of risk we face. You know, sometimes people make comparisons, don't they, with kind of wartime mobilization. The difference in wartime is that there was a shared understanding of the risk that we were facing. "
" They actually had to end up with signs that say E.R. Do you know what that stands for? It stands for evacuation route. But they wouldn't put evacuation route on it in case it alarmed people. "

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