Chris Packham urges MPs to ‘listen to the science’ on climate change

Chris Packham has urged MPs to “listen to the science” on climate change as he warned of a “dangerous wave of misinformation”.

The TV presenter and naturalist attended an “emergency climate change summit” on Thursday, where MPs, peers, business leaders and celebrities heard from experts about how the UK was unprepared for rising temperatures.

Delivering a speech at the start of the briefing, Mr Packham, 64, questioned why progress on the issue had been slow.

“Why are we unbelievably pulling back on rapidly and forthrightly addressing the greatest crisis to ever threaten our species, climate breakdown, and biodiversity loss?” he said.

“Well, to start with, climate denialism has been a mainstream thing again, thanks to the well-oiled machines of the rich, powerful and influential lobbyists from the fossil fuel and other industries.

“A dangerous wave of misinformation and lies fill our lives, but worse, it fills the lives of our decision makers and these are the people who shape policy.”

Mr Packham told the briefing that fossil fuel companies were “significant contributors” to some of the UK’s political parties.

The naturalist said leaders now needed to win their “Victoria Crosses”.

He urged attendees to “listen to the science”, adding: “Because if you don’t, things go wrong and lives are lost.”

The presenter referred to the recently published Covid inquiry, describing it as a “devastating indictment of poor governance”.

He said: “The failure to suppress the egos of government, their government departments and individuals, has cost lives.

“It’s not about you, it’s not about your departments, it’s not about your parties, it’s about us, those that have elected you.

“Because it’s more than that, we didn’t just elect you, we’ve given you our trust, and our lives and those of millions more are in your hands.”

Mr Packham said the issue of climate change was “tragically far, far greater than Covid”, adding: “It’s not thousands, it’s not hundreds of thousands, or millions of lives that are at risk, it’s billions of lives that are at risk… ”

He said divisions must be set aside, adding: “We are one species, on one planet, with one big problem, and one last chance to sort it out.”

“We have declared war on our one and only home, we’ve set or house on fire, so we, that’s you and I, that’s all of us, need to lead the UK on an immediate route to recovery,” he said.

Green Party leader Zack Polanski, who attended the summit, said the “severity” of the information presented was clear.

“This is an emergency, and needs to be treated as such,” he said.

And he said: “A running theme throughout the economics of it, tipping points, food, the transition, was the power of vested interests, which have been insidious, both in our politics and our science, and the way that we have conversations about these things.”

He said it was important to keep challenging vested interests which had spread misinformation for decades.

He also said that the summit heard how tackling the climate crisis also offered the same solutions to tackling the cost of living crisis, and other issues.

“This is about warmer, more affordable homes, this is about public transport and active travel, that’s walking and cycling, which is good for the health of our nation,” he said.

“We need to transform our economy and the way that we look at these things and make sure that people and planet are the priority, rather than big business and corporations which are destroying our environment, destroying our democracy and destroying our communities,” he said.

He also criticised Chancellor Rachel Reeves for scrapping the ECO energy efficiency scheme, which is paid for on energy bills, to reduce costs for households, describing it as “outrageous and absolutely incoherent” to cut vital measures to insulate homes and tackle fuel poverty.