Campaigners Want Community Film Screenings of Nature and Climate Crisis Emergency Briefing to spread Nationwide
Climate and nature campaigners need a late surge of money to raise £150,000 to get a film of a National Emergency Briefing shown in communities across the UK.
And they are looking for venues to host local screenings in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as their crowdfunder passes £42,000 - just a third of the total required - with a fortnight to go.
The UK’s first ever National Emergency Briefing (NEB) on the Nature and Climate Crisis took place in London last November.
The event at Westminster Central Hall was attended by more than 1,200 invited MPs, peers, civil servants, business leaders, faith and civic leaders, activists and journalists. Also there were familiar faces such as Deborah Meaden, Jennifer Saunders, Zack Polanski, Mark Rylance, and Brian Eno.
The NEB was organised to highlight the crisis in climate change and nature to politicians, leaders and policymakers - and show them some ways to tackle it.
The NEB Day Was Just the Start of Campaign Activity
In the weeks since the NEB in November, organisers have set out to achieve three main objectives:
- Encourage as many people as possible to sign an open letter, calling on the major TV networks and Prime Minister Keir Starmer to agree to a televised briefing for the country.
- Publish each individual talk by the nine experts, with the aim to get all policymakers (who didn't attend) to watch the presentations.
- Create a film version of the event, essentially a people's emergency briefing, that will be shown in halls, community spaces, churches, local council meetings and cinemas in early 2026.
How are they doing?
The open letter has more than 45,000 signatures. The individual talk videos are on the NEB YouTube channel. The curated documentary film for the nation is due for public screenings in the spring.
Organisers also want the public to help in two more ways. Firstly, to encourage their local MP to join a parliamentary call for that televised national emergency briefing. Secondly, to register interest in hosting - or recommend a venue for - local community screenings of the film of the NEB event.
How to Watch the National Emergency Briefing Talks
The nine talks from the NEB day in London are listed on the National Emergency Briefing website.
All the talks can also be found on the NEB YouTube channel.
You can find and view the videos of the individual talks using the links below:
Introduction by Professor Mike Berners-Lee
Nature by Professor Nathalie Seddon
Energy Transition by Tessa Khan
Climate by Professor Kevin Anderson
National Security by Lt General Richard Nugee
Food Security by Professor Paul Behrens
Weather Extremes by Professor Hayley Fowler
Health by Professor Hugh Montgomery
Tipping Points by Professor Tim Lenton
Each talk outlines problems and challenges with nature and the climate crisis, and presents some ideas and solutions for overcoming them.
You can also read my summary report on the NEB event, written for the Association of Sustainability Practitioners, which had some members in attendance.
A Quick Recap on the NEB
The National Emergency Briefing in November was put together by science communicator Simon Oldridge and co-founder of the Climate Science Breakthrough communications project, Nick Oldridge. It was supported by Ben Casey and Henrik Delehag of the Utopia Bureau.
They believe that the damage, risks and threats of climate change to people, places and nature are so severe that the UK is already experiencing an emergency - and that the whole country deserves to know what’s happening and what can be done about it.
The NEB event was opened by Chris Packham - the renowned British naturalist, conservationist, photographer, TV presenter and activist - and chaired by carbon footprinting researcher and writer Mike Berners-Lee). The nine speakers delivered presentations on climate, nature, health, energy, tipping points, food security, weather extremes and national security.
Towards the end of the event British actress Olivia Williams read out an open letter to Kier Starmer and leaders of the major broadcasting companies. The letter called on them to hold an urgent televised national emergency briefing for the public, and to run a proper public engagement campaign.
The campaigners want everyone to understand the serious and real risks this crisis poses to themselves and their families.
Chris Packham, in his opening address to the NEB, showed a picture of the Earth and said: "That's our home, it's the only one we've got. It’s where all of our species has lived and died, everyone, every single human.
"It's where we breathe, it's where we eat, we laugh, we cry, we love, we hate and as far as we know, together with all the other wonderful life on Earth we are the only known life forms in the universe and we've got nowhere else to go."
He warned that failure to trust in science places billions of lives at risk.
