The security report the UK government doesn’t want you to see
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is The Guardian.
What is the landmark report the UK government didn't want you to see?
Today, the landmark report the UK government didn't want you to see.
Last October, I and other journalists got quite excited because we thought that we were going to be attending a great event at the Natural History Museum. This is Fiona Harvey. She's Environment Editor at The Guardian. And we'd be talking about biodiversity at the Natural History Museum and looking at the risks and the challenges. crises that we're facing the joint crises of climate and biodiversity and looking ahead to what was going to happen at the COP the UN climate summit just a few weeks later.
On the guest list were government ministers ambassadors eminent scientists even the king.
We had been told that there was a major report being launched at this event. And this report was going to come not just from where you'd expect from the government's environment department, but also from the Joint Intelligence Committee.
Why were journalists barred from the report launch event?
And they are the UK's spy chiefs. MI5, MI6, the intelligence agencies, and they were taking an interest in the climate and biodiversity and the threats that they posed to the UK's national security.
The day before the event, Fiona was told that she was no longer welcome. And it wasn't just her, but all the other journalists on the list.
At first we thought perhaps it was the palace who can be a bit sensitive about such things. But when it transpired that this report, this key report, was not coming out after all, we realised there was something bigger afoot.
Fiona, well, she did what she does best. She began to dig around.
I went and tried to talk to as many contacts as I could to find out about the report, what was in it, who'd written it, what the advice was to ministers and how it was going to be acted upon. And I found out some very interesting things.
What was the significance of the report on national security and climate?
I got parts of the report read out to me and saw various bits of it. It was really peculiar that it was not being put out at this time. And we were told by various sources that the people who had suppressed this report were actually Number 10 Downing Street.
From The Guardian, I'm Nosheen Iqbal. Today in Focus, why did Labour try to bury a report about the collapse of our ecosystems? Fiona Harvey, you're the Guardian's Environment Editor, and we're here to talk to you about the report titled Global Biodiversity Loss, Ecosystem Collapse and National Security. Doesn't roll off the tongue, but you're about to explain to me why it's so important. Can you start by telling us its origin? What do we know about when this report was commissioned and who put it together?
Well, this report was commissioned from the Joint Intelligence Committee.
How did Fiona Harvey uncover details about the suppressed report?
They direct the work of MI5, MI6, the national security agencies that look after us. They tell the cabinet what they need to know about national security threats that are coming down the line. And they need to be involved. in thinking about biodiversity and the climate, because these are things that pose an enormous risk to the UK, but they don't normally get through to that kind of military planning level. And it's been in planning for a long time. By the time it was first supposed to come out last October... It had already been around for nearly a year. A lot of people had seen it in the intervening months. It wasn't viewed as a terribly secret thing. It was intended for publication.
What were the main findings regarding biodiversity loss and national security?
I think a lot of people might just be trying to get their heads around the fact that, hang on, so the spy chiefs are interested in the climate crisis and how that poses a massive risk to our national security. Fiona, what exactly were they tasked with looking at?
So we know that we have a lot of ecosystems around the world that are on the brink of collapse. And that's from a combination of threats. It's from the climate crisis. It's from people turning forest and other landscapes to food production. It's from pollution. It's from the encroachment of people onto areas that were previously wild. So these threats are multiplying. We know that these systems are in danger.
How does climate change impact food production and security in the UK?
And the problem is when they collapse...
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:09
2
What is the landmark report the UK government didn't want you to see?
0:09–1:20
3
Why were journalists barred from the report launch event?
1:20–2:20
4
What was the significance of the report on national security and climate?
2:20–3:22
5
How did Fiona Harvey uncover details about the suppressed report?
3:22–4:14
6
What were the main findings regarding biodiversity loss and national security?
4:14–4:57
7
How does climate change impact food production and security in the UK?
4:57–5:45
8
What are the potential conflicts arising from climate-induced resource scarcity?
5:45–28:23