UK appoints new climate security envoy – here’s what she could change

The UK government has just appointed Madeleine Alessandri as the world’s first special representative for climate security. Prime minister Andy Burnham announced the new role in his speech at the UN climate summit, Cop31, in Turkey. This, he said, would be part of “a new era of British leadership on climate”. He also cited climate as “a national security issue” – a sign that Burnham considers this environmental crisis a significant risk to the country’s social stability and economy. With a remit to “support ministers to champion UK leadership on climate and nature security”, Alessandri will report to the foreign secretary. Climate change has long been considered as a threat multiplier because it compounds and increases many risks to national security. Unfortunately, many governments have failed to acknowledge such threats, resulting in a dangerous blind spot. For example, a warmer world will produce more erratic weather that will impact harvests. Less food produces price spikes. In order to try to ensure food security, governments implement export controls. This can cause globally traded food prices to spike driving people into food poverty, exacerbate tensions and lead to conflict. The 2026 UK harvest is the worst on record. Four of the five worst harvests have happened since 2020. This puts further pressure on UK farmers. As climate security envoy, one of Alessandri’s priorities will need to be the state of national food security. That’s because the UK imports 40% of the food it consumes and so is extremely exposed to the tightening of global food supply. Given that this year’s super El Niño (when certain parts of the Pacific are warmer than usual) is already creating havoc around the world, Alessandri may soon find herself embroiled in efforts to ensure that the responses to the consequences of the climate crisis do not make the situation worse. Responding to extreme weather and climate consequences can produce derailment risks whereby efforts to reduce climate change get blown off course by escalating climate and social destabilisation. For example, in response to rising food insecurity national governments can ban food exports. This increases food prices even further. Protests over the cost of living can spiral into wider unrest. All this can make it difficult to maintain the political will required to progress the energy transition. Alessandri may soon find herself embroiled in efforts to ensure that the responses to climate impacts do not make the situation worse. AndriiKoval/Shutterstock Read more: Ecological myopia: the blind spot holding back climate action A gear change? Alessandri is a career civil servant and the former chair of the UK’s joint intelligence committee (JIC) which oversees the UK’s secret intelligence services. Until now, the security implications of climate change sat within Katie White’s remit as the UK’s minister for climate transition in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. It is perhaps no coincidence that it was the JIC that commissioned the previously supressed report on the national security implications of climate change. While published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, it is widely acknowledged that the national security assessment on global ecosystems was produced by the JIC while Allesandri was leading it. She will now be in a position to negotiate directly with other nations and organisations specifically about the food and wider security impacts of climate change. I would expect other governments to create similar roles in the near future because climate change is rapidly rising up the ranks of issues that are relevant to national security.