There has been a conspiracy of silence from successive British governments on the true cost of biodiversity collapse. The foreign secretary’s recent announcement, cutting the international climate aid budget by some 14% has only made matters worse.
The response to the climate and nature threats we face has too often amounted to little more than hand-wringing as the ecosystems we all depend on are slowly chipped away at.
Part of the challenge for those of us raising the alarm is how easily these concerns are brushed aside.
Just as climate change was dismissed for years, and still is by some – the political class too readily downplays the long-term consequences of weakening environmental protections or failing to invest in a serious nature recovery plan.
Britain is also rolling back its responsibilities on the world stage. Yet the impacts of climate change and the destruction of vital global ecosystems are real and they are already being felt. Floods, droughts, and other climate-related disasters are not confined to distant parts of the world; they are already affecting lives here in the UK.
The costs of acting are painted as abstract or long into the future when set against pressures more immediately felt in people’s pockets. We have got to be clear about the stakes of ecological collapse – and the urgency of preventing it.
The government recently found £2.2 billion to increase defence spending when pressured to do so by Donald Trump.
If the reasoning for this shift really is our national security – it’s a serious oversight that the same urgency has not been applied to the government’s own intelligence assessments, which conclude that ecosystem collapse is now one of the gravest threats to UK national security.
Developed with the involvement of the joint intelligence committee, the body that oversees MI5 and MI6, this report found that global breakdown of key ecosystems risks geopolitical instability, economic insecurity, conflict, mass displacement and increased inter-state competition for resources, all of which will cause devastating consequences for the UK.
Every critical ecosystem is already on a pathway to collapse, and the impacts are already here, in food prices, flooding, and rising insurance costs hitting British households.
Depressingly, the government delayed the publication of this national security assessment for months. When it finally emerged, it was heavily redacted, raising serious questions about whether the UK is prepared for the consequences it outlines.
It’s more than concerning that this has coincided with a weakening of environmental protections at home – and Ministers retreating from our international obligations too.
International climate finance has been cut from £11.6 billion over the past five years, to just £9 billion in the next, a reduction of close to 40 per cent in real terms. The Biodiverse Landscapes Fund has been slashed from six regions to two. The £500 million Blue Planet Fund is being cut. Multi-year commitments have been reduced to single-year allocations, telling partner countries plainly that the UK cannot be relied upon.
The decision to walk away from the Tropical Forest Forever Facility is further evidence that we are sticking our head in the sand. This landmark mechanism, co-developed with UK involvement and launched at COP30 last November, delivers sustained payments to tropical forest countries for every hectare they protect. The total pledged stands at over $6.7 billion USD. Germany and Norway have committed.
And yet, the UK, which helped design the very architecture of global forest finance, has contributed nothing, citing fiscal constraints.
Tropical forests store enormous amounts of carbon and help regulate global weather patterns – essential for keeping temperatures liveable and weather reliable enough to grow food. When these ecosystems break down, the effects ripple across the world, directly impacting people here in the UK. Cutting funding for their protection is not prudent budgeting; it is a failure to safeguard our security.
When ecosystems collapse, economies fail and the UK pays through emergency aid, security responses, disrupted supply, and food prices that squeeze households and strain public services. The savings made by cutting the Biodiverse Landscapes Fund will be spent many times over on the consequences of its collapse.
These are the dots the government has not connected. Conflict, instability, and the fraying of alliances, are compounded by ecosystem breakdown.
Climate change and biodiversity loss exacerbate resource conflicts, and destabilise fragile states. And yet, currently, we are pouring money into dealing with the consequences while cutting the investment that would address the root causes.
A serious security strategy requires treating nature as critical infrastructure; a resilient network that both protects and powers the UK. Climate action and nature restoration must be embedded into every major decision, not as competing priorities, but as the foundation for all others.
Governing seriously means acting on the evidence. Ministers must reinvest in international climate and nature, treating this security assessment as an urgent call to action.
The vast increases in defence spending demonstrate that significant, targeted funding can be deployed quickly when deemed necessary.
It is high time that nature breakdown and climate change are recognised across Whitehall as a national security issue, with a coordinated, cross-government response to the global threats we face.
After all, no nation is secure when the natural world that sustains it is in freefall.
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