No national security without nature security, Green Party says

The Green Party says that nature loss and biodiversity decline should be treated as seriously as other national security threats.

Delegates to the Party's conference in Brighton backed a motion proposed by Green Party Environment Lead Adrian Ramsay MP for a new law to require Ministers to treat nature decline as seriously as other national security risks, including carrying out statutory risk assessments, resilience planning, treating nature as critical national infrastructure and cross-government action on flooding, drought, extreme heat and sea-level rise.

The proposed Nature, Biodiversity and National Security Act [1] comes as the UK has just been hit by a summer of extreme heat and wildfires, claiming thousands of lives and costing farmers nearly £4.8 billion in lost revenue, and after warnings from the Joint Intelligence Committee in January that global ecosystem degradation and collapse threaten UK national security [2]. The government is refusing to make public an unredacted version of the report, prompting Adrian Ramsay and Green Party leader Zack Polanski to call on Burnham to tell the truth [3].

As well as publishing the full, unredacted version of the report, the motion calls for additional measures including:

• Extending Scotland's statutory biodiversity duties to England and Wales to create a duty on all public bodies to protect and restore nature

• Ensuring national security spending supports nature resilience

• Strengthening food, water and energy security planning

• Establishing ecocide as a criminal offence

• Returning water to public ownership

• Enshrining the rights of nature in law  

Adrian Ramsay said:   

"Greens have been warning for over 50 years that the destruction of nature is a threat to our way of life. Now the Government's own intelligence experts have confirmed it. The Joint Intelligence Committee has told ministers that biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse threaten national security, and the Government has repeatedly failed to act.

"That is why Green Party delegates have backed a Nature, Biodiversity and National Security Act. It would put restoring nature and protecting the living systems that our economy, food supply, infrastructure, health and wellbeing depend on right at the heart of Government decision-making. Natural systems are critical national infrastructure, and it is time we treated them that way.

"The Green Party understands the scale of the threat posed by climate breakdown and the nature crisis. The Government has been handed the evidence. It must now stop looking away and act."

Last week Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband told counterparts at the UN General Assembly that the climate and nature crises, and the coming El Niño, pose a threat to national security, but still refused to make public the full Joint Intelligence Committee.

The motion also calls on the Government to establish ecocide as a criminal offence. Through amendments to the Environment Bill, Green peers made several attempts to add the UK to the growing list of ecocide countries but were unsuccessful. France and Belgium already recognise ecocide as a crime [4] but we have yet to see any cases brought forward.

Ends

Notes 

1. Text of the motion: 

The Green Party believes that the protection and restoration of nature is not only intrinsically important, but a fundamental national security priority. 

The Green Party recognises that ecological collapse is a systemic threat multiplier, driving food insecurity, economic instability, damage to critical infrastructure, increased vulnerability to flooding, drought and extreme weather, and wider social and geopolitical instability. 

The Green Party considers that the UK's approach to national security policy and spending should reflect the scale of the threat posed by the climate and nature crises, and that economic security, food security, water security and societal resilience depend upon healthy and functioning ecosystems. 

The Green Party therefore calls for a Nature, Biodiversity and National Security Act which would: 

1. Recognise nature loss and biodiversity decline as national security threats requiring statutory risk assessment, resilience planning and coordinated cross-government action. 

2. Extend to England and Wales the statutory biodiversity duties established under the Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2026, creating a unified duty on all public bodies to protect and restore biodiversity. 

3. Ensure national security policy and spending (PSD319) support resilience, development and prevention, alongside defence and deterrence. 

4. Strengthen the attention in national security planning given to food security (EC951 CY400f), water security, energy security (EN001), ecosystem resilience and protection from flooding, drought, extreme heat and sea-level rise. 

5. Strengthen food security through sustainable domestic food production, public procurement, restoration of the natural systems on which agriculture depends, and reduced reliance on vulnerable global supply chains and fossil fuels. 

6. Enshrine the Rights of Nature in law (WH100) through the Nature's Rights Act, providing ecosystems with legal protection and representation in decision-making. 

7. Legally halt and reverse biodiversity loss and give effect in domestic law to the UK's international nature commitments. (WH003)  

8. Protect and restore critical ecosystems, including rivers, wetlands, peatlands, woodlands, coastal habitats and marine environments, by addressing the systemic causes of nature loss.(EC100) 

9. Recognise biodiversity and natural systems as critical national infrastructure essential to economic prosperity, public wellbeing and long-term national resilience. 

10. Strengthen the resilience of food, water, energy, health and environmental systems on which social, economic and democratic stability depends. 

11. Establish ecocide as a criminal offence in domestic law (WH130) and support international efforts to recognise ecocide as a crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. 

12. Reform economic governance to recognise that long-term prosperity and national resilience depend upon maintaining healthy natural systems. (EC100)  

13. Return water services to public ownership as a core national security measure, enabling strategic investment to modernise infrastructure, reduce leakage and build resilience to drought and flooding.(NR428)  

14. Require all Government departments and public bodies to consider nature, biodiversity and ecological resilience in policy-making, spending decisions and strategic planning. 

15. Consolidate environmental governance, enforcement and accountability mechanisms to ensure effective implementation, policy coherence and delivery. (WH101) 

A Nature, Biodiversity and National Security Act would establish a national mission to restore nature, strengthen resilience and build long-ter security by protecting the living systems upon which our economy, food supply, infrastructure, health and wellbeing depend.

2. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce9y1e09j72o   

3. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/sep/09/zack-polanski-calls-report-ecosystem-collapse-published-greens

4. https://greenallianceblog.org.uk/2025/06/30/will-scotland-become-the-first-uk-nation-to-criminalise-ecocide/