UK Appoints World's First Special Representative for Climate Security, Intelligence Chief Madeleine Alessandri to Take the Role

The UK government has appointed the world's first special representative for climate security, in what the report describes as the strongest sign yet of fears that climate breakdown will bring chaos to the country.

Madeleine Alessandri, chair of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), will take on the role. The JIC oversees MI5 and MI6, and she will advise No 10 on climate-related national security risks.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham will announce the move on Thursday at Cop31, the UN climate summit. The new role is designed to advise the government on national security risks from the climate crisis before they spell catastrophe.

Burnham will tell the talks on Thursday morning that everyone should recognise the summer was not normal, that the climate crisis is upon all of us now, and that wildfires devastated lives and livelihoods everywhere.

This year's summer was the UK's hottest on record. Back-to-back heatwaves supercharged by the climate crisis caused health services and transport to suffer, schools to close and thousands of people to lose their lives prematurely, the report says.

Burnham will add that his message at his first Cop as prime minister is that the UK remains determined to reach net zero by 2050 and to work with partners to build a clean energy future. He will say the world has changed, the consensus once enjoyed on science and climate action has broken down, the UK will not stand by, and he has pledged a new era of British leadership over the next decade.

Burnham arrived in Antalya, Turkey late on Wednesday night, before joining scores of heads of state and government for a series of high-level meetings at the talks, which are presided over jointly by Turkey and Australia. He will also confirm UK support for a proposed target of 35% electrification by 2035 and help towards plans to raise £5bn in private finance for clean energy projects across the world.

Under Alessandri, the JIC collaborated on a secret report warning that within five years the UK could begin experiencing national security impacts from the collapse of ecosystems overseas, driven by the climate crisis and overexploitation of the living world. Those impacts included food shortages, rising food prices, mass migration and conflict among nuclear-armed countries.

The report was suppressed under former prime minister Keir Starmer, but its contents were revealed last year, ahead of a redacted publication earlier this year.

Dame Madeleine Alessandri said climate change and nature loss are increasingly shaping the security environment in which the UK operates, placing additional pressure on resources, economies and communities around the world. She said the best time to address these risks is before they develop into crises, and that in this role she will work with partners across government and internationally to strengthen understanding of climate threats, build resilience and ensure better preparation for the challenges ahead.

Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has also highlighted the risks of the climate crisis to national security. He has been briefing foreign capitals on the findings of the JIC report and is also at Cop31 this week. He said national security is the next frontier of the fight for climate action, and that scenarios once of science fiction are now regular occurrences in the daily news. He added that climate breakdown is one of the greatest national security threats faced, resulting in food security risks, threats to infrastructure and population movements, and that those who stick their heads in the sand on climate are putting national security at risk.

Campaigners, however, pointed to what they said were Burnham's failures to take the measures needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at home and to provide the funding needed to protect vulnerable countries overseas from the kind of risks the JIC has warned about. The government is mulling a major weakening of targets for electric vehicles, has given the green light to the Jackdaw gasfield in the North Sea, and is considering a new oilfield, Rosebank, west of Shetland.

Mohamed Adow, director of the Power Shift Africa thinktank, said what is being seen in part is double standards. He said Britain cannot preach a clean development gospel while expanding fossil fuels back at home, and one set of rules cannot be expected for Africa and another for Britain.

Asad Rehman, chief executive of Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland, said the UK's credibility was crumbling. He said the prime minister's first climate talks should be an opportunity to demonstrate he means business, but if this is all the UK has to offer, the questions about his climate credibility are more than justified.

In common with many wealthy nations, the UK has significantly rolled back its climate finance, funnelling money instead to military spending. In July, Burnham fronted a pledge to lower the cap on UK bus fares, funded by changing international climate donations into repayable loans.

Prakash Dahal of Pro Public and Friends of the Earth Nepal said finance was vital for his country's adaptation to climate breakdown and recovery from disasters such as the catastrophic flash flood that struck Nepal in August. He said this essential funding must come as grants, not loans, and that Nepal is not asking for charity but demanding justice.