State of Climate and Nature

Debate between Mary Creagh and Jonathan Davies

Monday 13th July 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mary Creagh]

Again, my hon. Friend tempts me beyond my brief. Given that most local authorities have declared a climate and nature crisis, it strikes me that her suggestion is an excellent topic for the Youth Parliament—or local youth panels could be organised through schools.

[Jonathan Davies (Mid Derbyshire) (Lab)]

The Minister was right when she said that climate change drives nature loss, and nature loss drives climate change. We are seeing the effects of that on people’s health, the economy and global security, so I welcome the work that the Government are doing to address that. There has been a national security assessment on global biodiversity loss. May I encourage the Minister to put as many as possible of its findings into the public domain, so that people understand the threats to our security? May I also invite her to give us some information about the relationship between the report’s findings and the new climate security taskforce?

[Mary Creagh]

The climate security taskforce is part of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s remit, so I can ask my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero to talk to my hon. Friend about that. The report that he mentions says that analysis shows there is “high confidence” that

“ecosystem degradation is occurring across all regions. Every critical ecosystem is on a pathway to collapse.”

It goes on:

“Global ecosystem degradation and collapse threaten UK national security and prosperity…Without major intervention…this is highly likely to continue to 2050 and beyond.”

So what is already in the public domain makes for sobering reading, and I commend the full document, which is in the public domain, to all hon. Members.