The team behind the event has since crowdfunded to produce the People\u2019s Emergency Briefing, a 50-minute film outlining the urgent threats that climate and nature breakdown pose to food security, the economy and public health.<\/p>\n
The call for a televised briefing comes as parts of the UK experience their third heatwave of the summer. In June, most of Europe sweltered in its worst ever heatwave that scientists said<\/a> would have been impossible without the human-induced climate crisis. In summer 2022, more than 60,000 people died due to heat in Europe.<\/p>\n The film, hosted by the TV presenter and environmentalist Chris Packham<\/a>, calls on the government to stage a prime-time, televised emergency briefing on the climate and nature crisis. So far, 91 cross-party MPs and peers and members of the UK\u2019s devolved legislatures have signed a parliamentary call urging the government to host this briefing. Signatories include the peer Rosie Boycott and Tim Farron, a former leader of the Liberal Democrat party.<\/p>\n \u201cI understand it\u2019s human nature to prefer not to know, to try to bury our heads in the sand. But if we all take a breath and watch this together, well first of all that\u2019s a huge relief and second we can figure out what to do about it,\u201d Packham says at the start of the film.<\/p>\n Lt Gen Richard Nugee, a retired senior British Army officer, describes climate breakdown in the film as being the \u201cmost insidious threat to our society\u201d which is putting the \u201cvery fabric of our society at risk\u201d.<\/p>\n A recent report<\/a> by senior UK national security officials warned the country was under severe threat from the climate crisis and the looming collapse of vital natural ecosystems, with food shortages and economic disaster potentially just years away.<\/p>\n The government did not respond to the Guardian\u2019s request for comment on whether it will hold a televised briefing, but a spokesperson said the government already held an annual statement on the state of the climate, the second of which is planned for later this year.<\/p>\n In the first statement<\/a>, last year, the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, outlined the work the government was doing in response to the climate and nature crises. He said the government had secured the largest investment in clean power in a generation and secured the largest flooding programme in history.<\/p>\n The Climate Change Committee has warned for more than a decade<\/a> that the UK\u2019s plans to protect people from rapidly worsening extreme weather are inadequate. The government\u2019s advisers said<\/a> an additional \u00a311bn per year in spending, with about half coming from the private sector, was needed to adapt to the climate crisis.<\/p>\n Members of the public, businesses and community groups are being encouraged to host their own screenings of the People\u2019s Emergency Briefing. More than 2,000 screenings of the film have either taken place or have been confirmed to take place so far.<\/p>\n The call for a televised emergency briefing has also been backed by a coalition of the UK\u2019s large church denominations and Christian organisations.<\/p>\n
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