By Ed Jarvis, SAFER Campaign Manager, The Climate Majority Project

The climate and nature movement is having a moment of collaboration - and it's working.

On 3rd September, MPs packed into Westminster Hall to debate one clear ask: publish, in full, the Joint Intelligence Committee's report on global nature loss and national security and the government's food security review. Together, the reports warn that the natural world breaking down elsewhere in the world could hit the UK hard - through food insecurity, economic shock, conflict, and rising migration pressure. There's never been a report quite like it published anywhere in the world, and we believe people deserve to see the full, uncensored version: not to dwell on how hard the future could be, but so the country can understand what's coming and get ready for it - with a properly funded resilience plan, and with all of us able to find our own part to play in our communities.

Image: (L - R) Alison Seddon, Climate Majority Project; Felix Sanctuary, Zero Hour; Ed Jarvis, Climate Majority Project; Amy McDonnell, Zero Hour; Laura Reineke, National Federation of Women's Institutes; Jaz Vorasso, The Climate Coalition outside Parliament on the day of the debate. 

 A powerful cross-party effort

It came about through an unusually powerful cross-party effort: Adrian Ramsay (Green), Roz Savage (Lib Dem) and Rachel Maskell (Labour) led the call amongst around 40 MPs. Behind that push sat a wave of public mobilisation that The Climate Coalition - more than 120 organisations reaching millions of people - helped drive, making sure community voices were heard and those asks landed. 

The Coalition, including Zero Hour, The Climate Majority Project and National Emergency Briefing - who have now shown their film on the climate and nature emergency to tens of thousands of people across the UK - asked its members to email their MPs urging them to attend. In just three weeks, an amazing 9,300 emails landed with over 580 MPs. Professor Paul Behrens and Lieutenant General Richard Nugee, both from the National Emergency Briefing team, added their own personal calls for the reports to be published. Cross-party MPs, a coalition of over a hundred organisations, and a team of scientists and security experts - all aligned around one clear ask. That's not something that happens by accident.

Image: MPs after the debate; Credit: Zero Hour
MPs pictured (back to front, L-R): Brian Mathew, Ellie Chowns, Olly Glover, Sarah Dyke, Martin Wrigley, Danny Chambers, Jeremy Corbyn, Fleur Anderson, Rachel Maskell, Chris Hinchliff, Richard Foord, Kerry McCarthy, Roz Savage, Adrian Ramsay, Neil Hudson, Julia Buckley, Toby Perkins

Why we have to work together

Coming together like this matters more than ever. We've now passed the point scientists call the safe limit of global warming, and this summer showed, more clearly than any before it, that we're already living with more extreme and dangerous weather. Against that backdrop, The Climate Coalition spent the summer uniting its members behind three clear asks of the new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham:

• A proper plan to cut the pollution heating our planet, restore nature, and prepare for a changing climate.

• Publish the intelligence assessment on nature and security, and the government's food security review, in full.

• Fund a national resilience plan, with independent oversight to make sure it actually gets delivered.

Sharing information and intelligence across the Coalition doesn't just help us pressure government and reach more people with the same clear message. As a team of six, it also means we’re plugged into shared intelligence and coordination we could never generate on our own. And it's what got 9,300 people writing to their MPs about a single Parliamentary debate in three weeks. That's not something the Climate Majority Project could have pulled off alone in that time, even though we like to think we punch above our weight for a team of six part-time people. Collaboration like this makes the whole movement more powerful: we can put the same call out to everyone at once, show politicians a coordinated, aligned ask, and that laser - like focus is what unlocks our power. 

What made the debate remarkable was that it was genuinely multi-party - MPs from every major party took part. That's down to the Coalition choosing an issue, and a framing, built to bring people together rather than divide them: who doesn't want a safer future for their community, better prepared for the flooding, extreme heat, wildfires, energy outages and water shortages we've all seen more of this summer? Safety is something everyone wants, whatever their politics - and that's exactly what made this debate different.

Why individual action matters

We're stronger when we act together. An ocean is made of countless drops, and a campaign works the same way - lots of individual actions, over a defined stretch of time, adding up to something powerful. Those 9,300-plus emails are what filled Westminster Hall with MPs from across the spectrum, and made the whole debate carry more weight behind those three asks.

If you're not sure your own action really counts: it does, now more than ever. Every MP I've spoken to has said the same thing - hearing from constituents is one of the clearest ways they know what people actually want. And what’s even more powerful is your email doesn’t stop at your MPs inbox. They regularly count them up and take those numbers straight to government ministers, using them to push for a response. That's part of how this debate happened at all. It's a reminder that coming together works, and that we should keep doing more of it.

Collective power in motion

When a coalition moves together - politically, organisationally, publicly - it gets heard in a way that none of its parts could manage alone, and it helps people feel less alone in caring about this. What we saw this summer, across the climate and nature movement, politicians of every party and NGOs working on these reports, is what happens when people get the full picture, see a clear and practical way to respond, see that others are acting too, and get support to face hard realities without feeling overwhelmed or isolated. That's what turns concern into action.

What's next

So what can you do next?

1. Write to your MP. We need to keep pushing for The Climate Coalition's three demands. Get writing here to follow up with your MP - or better still, catch them at a surgery and tell them in person why this matters. Most MPs underestimate how much their constituents care about climate and nature - don't let that be true in your constituency. Our short guide has a ready-to-adapt template that takes about ten minutes to send: it'll help you thank or follow up, ask them to back our three calls, make it local, and invite them to mark Great Big Green Week 2027 with you.

2. Build your own power. Join Build. Grow. Lead. Over six months, The Climate Coalition will help you build or strengthen a community group that can take action all year round, ready to make Great Big Green Week 2027 the biggest yet. They’ll support you to build or strengthen a community group that can take action all year round, grow its own leadership, and arrive at Great Big Green Week 2027 ready to make it the biggest and best yet. You'll finish in December with real skills, connections to fellow organisers across the UK, and a concrete plan that's yours to own.

3. Join The Climate Coalition. Now's the moment to become a member and help make the movement stronger through working together. The Climate Majority Project can't recommend it enough.