A group of senior experts from politics, science, civil society and security research has written an open letter to the Prime Minister calling for nature-related security risks to be placed firmly on the international agenda at COP31 and the G20.
The letter follows a September round table at the University of Oxford, convened by the Environmental Change Institute’s Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery and the Blavatnik School of Government. It highlights how biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation pose interconnected risks to food and water security, public health, economic stability and geopolitical security.
Among the signatories are Alison Smith, Senior Researcher on Nature Recovery Policy at the ECI, and Professor Yadvinder Malhi, Ecosystems and Biodiversity Programme Lead at the ECI and also Director of the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery.
The letter calls on the UK Government to recognise systemically important ecosystems as Critical Natural Infrastructure, strengthen early-warning systems and risk assessments, and build international cooperation to protect the natural systems on which global security and prosperity depend.
Read the open letter to the Prime Minister.