Today (27 November 2025), MPs and key stakeholders are gathering for the UK’s first National Emergency Briefing on the Climate and Nature Crisis, an independent initiative designed to ensure Parliament is fully informed about the scale of the emergency we are facing.
The climate and nature crisis is a multi-pronged international threat that shapes every part of life, from housing, health and food supplies to national security and community resilience.
This briefing brings together the latest evidence, aims to outline what is at stake, and sets out credible, actionable solutions. It asks a crucial question: Is the UK adequately prepared – and is Parliament properly equipped to hold the Government to account?
It’s a vital step. And we’ll be watching with interest.
In recent weeks the event has gained significant attention in LinkedIn and policy circles, and in traditional media, with the help of Naturalist Chris Packham calling a war on the crisis with carefully timed coverage on Remembrance Sunday. It’s an interesting model and could provide an example for other countries to emulate or adapt. It will, of course, be important to see how many MPs attend and whether Parliament recognises this briefing as valuable or the turning point it needs to be.
But as welcome as this initiative is, something crucial is missing.
The climate crisis is not gender neutral
At Wen, we welcome this national moment of focus. But we also know, from decades of work, that climate impacts are not experienced equally.
Women and children, particularly from racialised and marginalised communities, face:
- Greater exposure to poor housing, pollution, toxic chemicals and overheating, as well as greater health risks as a result
- Higher levels of food and energy insecurity
- Increased unpaid care burdens during climate shocks
- Fewer resources and less decision-making power
- Disproportionate health impacts
- Women are also often unable to access the health benefits of nature due to safety concerns.
Any national emergency planning that fails to recognise these intersecting inequalities risks leaving those most affected least protected.
An intersectional, gender-responsive approach must be central to how the UK prepares for and responds to the climate and nature emergency. And how it is discussed at events like these.
Where are the grassroots voices?
While today’s briefing brings vital scientific and strategic expertise into Westminster Central Hall, it is disappointing that grassroots leaders and communities with lived experience of climate impacts have not been more involved, which is a point we highlighted to the organisers.
Across the UK, and globally, women, migrants, racialised communities and those living on the sharp edge of inequality are already driving climate resilience and community protection. Their insights are essential to shaping effective solutions.
Diverse Women must be part of the conversation and part of the solution.
Without their voices, decisions risk being disconnected from the realities people face every day.
What Parliament must do next
We welcome this briefing, and the recognition that the climate and nature emergency must be treated as a national priority. But for this initiative to succeed, and for the UK to set an example internationally, Parliament must now ensure that:
- Equity-focused, gender-responsive planning underpins all climate policy
- Grassroots expertise informs policy development
- Women and racialised and marginalised communities are part of decision-making at every stage
- Emergency planning reflects the real, lived impacts already unfolding
- Solutions centre justice, community leadership and long-term resilience
The questions raised today are important. But the answers, and the next steps, must meaningfully include the people who are most affected. Because a climate response that leaves women and particularly marginalised and racialised women and their communities behind is not a climate response at all.
Read our joint paper with Birth Companions on reproductive justice and the climate emergency.
Read our Feminist Green New Deal policy papers developed in partnership with the Women’s Budget Group.
NNENNA ONWUKA, FEMINIST CLIMATE JUSTICE POLICY CAMPAIGNER
