Experts urge Prime Minister to put nature-related security risks on the international agenda

Nature loss is increasingly recognised as a threat not only to the environment, but also to national security, economic prosperity and societal resilience. The degradation of ecosystems around the world creates interconnected risks to food and water security, public health, infrastructure, supply chains and geopolitical stability.

In September 2026, the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery, Blavatnik School of Government and colleagues brought together a group of senior experts from politics, science, civil society and security research for a private roundtable at the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government. The discussion focused on the UK Government’s landmark National Security Assessment, Global Biodiversity Loss, Ecosystem Collapse and National Security, which recognised ecosystem degradation as a systemic and cascading national security risk.

Participants explored why, despite growing recognition of these threats, action has not yet matched their urgency or scale, and identified practical opportunities to better integrate nature-related risks into the UK’s resilience, security and prosperity agendas.

One of the key outcomes was a collective call for the Prime Minister to use the UK’s international influence to raise the issue of nature-related security risks at COP31 and the G20.

The resulting letter, signed by senior experts and leaders from across politics, science, civil society and security research, welcomes the Government’s assessment and sets out priorities for action. These include recognising systemically important ecosystems as Critical Natural Infrastructure, strengthening early-warning systems and risk assessment, and building international cooperation to protect the natural systems on which global security and prosperity depend.

With the Prime Minister attending COP31, the letter calls on the UK to put nature-related security firmly on the international agenda and build a forward-looking, action-oriented biodiversity and security agenda.

Read the letter to the Prime Minister below.

Dear Prime Minister,

We write as a group of senior experts from politics, civil society, science and security research who met at the Blavatnik School of Government to discuss the Government’s National Security Assessment on Global Biodiversity Loss and Ecosystem Collapse. We warmly welcome the Assessment. It is world-leading: by treating the loss of nature as a matter of national security rather than solely an environmental concern, it recognises ecosystem degradation as a systemic, cascading risk to food and water security, public health, infrastructure, economic stability and geopolitical order. The Foreign Secretary’s recent statement reinforced that message, and the UK now has a credible basis to lead internationally on a risk most governments have yet to confront.

Three considerations stood out. First, the risks are interlinked, compounding and in some cases irreversible. Oceans, forests, wetlands and soils absorb around half of humanity’s annual carbon emissions; as they degrade, they accelerate climate change and raise the likelihood of tipping points, while the loss of pollinators, healthy soils and freshwater systems undermines food production. This summer’s heat and drought, with crop failures and strain on water, transport and health services, showed how quickly these pressures reach UK households. Second, much of the UK’s exposure lies overseas, in supply chains, financial markets and fragile, nature-dependent regions, so domestic resilience cannot be separated from international cooperation and finance. Third, the natural systems most critical to our security, from tropical forests, oceans and coral reefs to our own soils and water catchments, are not yet monitored, valued or protected as the critical infrastructure they are.

Several priorities follow. Systemically important ecosystems should be treated as Critical Natural Infrastructure: monitored, risk-assessed and invested in alongside energy, water and transport networks. They should be recognised internationally as “too big to fail”, backed by early warning systems and regular scenario analysis that draws on both ecological and economic evidence. The NATO commitment to direct 1.5% of GDP to wider resilience offers a vehicle for safeguarding food and water security; conversely, funding higher defence spending through cuts to development, climate and nature finance would deepen the very risks the Assessment identifies. Existing action, including agri-environment schemes, water sector reform, support for the Tropical Forest Forever Facility, forthcoming deforestation due diligence rules and tougher enforcement against environmental crime, provides a strong platform, and the new taskforce on National Security and Resilience Risks of a Changing Climate and Nature Loss is well placed to bring these strands together. Internationally, the UK could build a coalition around Critical Natural Infrastructure, including reform of the debt and financial architecture that pushes nature-rich countries towards unsustainable over-extraction of resources. The test of the Assessment will be whether it changes how risks are identified and where preventive investment is directed, before crises emerge.

We therefore ask that the UK uses COP31 and the G20 to put nature-related security risk firmly on the international agenda, and that the Government build on the Assessment to develop a forward-looking, action-oriented biodiversity and security agenda.

We would welcome the opportunity to meet with you and your advisers at No 10 to explore how such an agenda could be shaped and delivered, including cost-effective measures that strengthen resilience while easing pressure on household costs, and would be glad to contribute our expertise.

Yours sincerely,

Prof Achim Steiner, Senior Fellow, Oxford Martin School / Director – Security Futures Programme.

Prof Yadvinder Malhi, CBE FRS, Director, Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery

Dr Tim Clack, Director, Climate Change & (In)Security Programme, University of Oxford and Adjunct Associate Professor – Climate Security and Resilience, United Nations University

Barry Gardiner, Member of Parliament for Brent West

Louise Selisny, Coordinator, APPG for Climate, Nature and Security

Ed Davey, Head, WRI Europe UK Office

Prof Annette Idler, Professor of Global Security, ETH Zurich; Director of Global Security Programme, University of Oxford

Dr Duncan Depledge, Senior Lecturer in Geopolitics and Security, Loughborough University

Richard Reeve, Coordinator, Rethinking Security

Amanda Carpenter, CEO, Achill Legal

Dr Richard Benwell, Chief Executive, Wildlife and Countryside Link

Matt Whitney, Secretary of All Party Parliamentary Group on Local Nature Recovery

Prof Nicola Ranger, Executive Director, Earth Capital Nexus, London School of Economics

Kate Levick, Deputy Executive Director and Director of Systemic Resilience, Earth Capital Nexus

Prof Kathryn Brown OBE, Executive Director of Science, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology

Toni Pearce, Head of Business Advocacy, WWF-UK

Prof Nathalie Seddon, Director, Nature-based Solutions Initiative, University of Oxford

Dr Helena Wright, Executive Director, Oxford Climate Policy Monitor, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford

Dr Sophus Zu Ermgassen, Senior Research Fellow, Oxford EARTH; Nature finance lead, The Oxford Nature-Positive Hub, University of Oxford

Alison Smith, Senior Researcher on Nature Recovery Policy, University of Oxford

Contact address:
Prof Yadvinder Malhi,
The School of Geography and the Environment,
Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3QY
yadvinder.malhi@ouce.ox.ac.uk