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British Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced a world-first appointment on Thursday, naming former Joint Intelligence Committee head Dame Madeleine Alessandri as the United Kingdom’s special representative for climate security.
Speaking at the UN’s COP31 climate summit in Antalya, Turkey, the Labour leader framed global warming as an urgent national emergency, recalling how he spent his first three weeks in office responding to Britain’s worst-ever wildfires during a record-shattering European heatwave.
As the sole G7 leader attending the summit, Burnham stressed that climate issues have taken too much of a backseat globally.
Alessandri will coordinate across government agencies and international partners to analyse climate threats and bolster national resilience.
While E3G climate expert Cosima Cassel praised the dedicated security envoy role as a global first, environmental groups tempered their reception.
Greenpeace welcomed the appointment as a crucial step against a “threat multiplier,” but criticised Burnham over his recent authorisation of North Sea gas drilling.
