Just 60 MPs are expected to attend an emergency climate briefing by the UK government’s chief science adviser in Parliament on Monday, the Guardian has learned.
The briefing, organized by the all-party parliamentary group on climate change, will be an updated version of the slides that chief science adviser Sir Patrick Vallance showed Boris Johnson ahead of the Cop26 UN climate summit in Glasgow in November. But the APPG told the Guardian that fewer than 10% of MPs had registered to watch.
The slides, due to be presented at 3.30pm on Monday, show the latest climate science, including the rise in carbon dioxide concentrations and global average temperatures in recent decades. Johnson credited them with giving him a “road to Damascus” moment on climate change.
At the time he said, “I got them [government scientists] to go through all of that and, if you look at the almost vertical curve up the temperature graph, anthropogenic climate change, it’s very hard to argue. It was a very important moment for me.”
The briefing was made possible after campaigner Angus Rose staged a 37-day hunger strike outside Parliament calling for the information to be made available to all MPs.
It was backed by 79 of Britain’s leading climate scientists in an open letter, who said a briefing similar to that given during the Covid-19 pandemic would be useful for MPs.
The briefing, which will cover the health, environmental and other impacts of climate emergencies relevant to UK citizens, will be updated to take account of the latest IPCC reports, which warn: “We are at a crossroads. The decisions we make now can ensure a livable future. We have the tools and know-how to limit warming.”
Scientists and politicians hope the assembled MPs will be prompted to demand more urgent action to tackle the climate crisis.
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Caroline Lucas, the Green Party MP who runs the APPG, urged her colleagues to attend. She said: “It is three years since Parliament declared a climate emergency, but ministers are still not heeding the dire warnings of scientists about the climate emergency, and MPs are still not fully informed about the latest climate sciences.
“It is therefore very welcome that the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser and a team of climate scientists will be informing MPs and their colleagues and answering their questions, thanks in no small part to the actions of Angus Rose.
“[I] would urge parliamentarians of all parties to attend and equip themselves with the knowledge and understanding they need to protect us now and in the future.”
Vallance’s team has been contacted for comment.
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