Britons kept in dark about scale of climate crisis, say viewers of ‘first-of-its-kind’ emergency briefing — SkimNews
Get the Energy newsletter
Daily energy & climate — solar, EVs, oil, the policy fights and tech bets shaping the transition. Free.
- The People's Emergency Briefing featured nine experts at Central Hall Westminster last November in what organizers called a "first-of-its-kind" national emergency briefing; the resulting film has reached an estimated 185,000 viewers across more than 3,400 screenings.
- A survey of 13,000 viewers found 87% felt more motivated to act after watching, with researchers reporting a "substantial shift" in environmental understanding and concern.
- 89% of respondents said the government should mount an emergency-level mobilisation on climate, comparable to the UK's Covid-19 or World War II response, while 93% said the public isn't being fully informed about the crisis.
- Prof Mike Berners-Lee, chair of the National Emergency Briefing, compared the public trust built during Covid-19 to what's needed now; Prof Lorraine Whitmarsh of the University of Bath, who led the research, flagged "second-order risks" around national security, food supplies and the NHS that haven't reached the public.
- Scottish First Minister John Swinney attended a screening at the Scottish parliament, and the team is publicly calling on Andy Burnham to acknowledge the scale of the threat.
- The UK government told the outlet it "welcomes any campaign" keeping climate in public discussion but didn't commit to screening the film, and has previously refused to publish a UK intelligence report warning of ecosystem-collapse security risks.
Why it matters: With 93% of surveyed viewers saying the public isn't being fully informed on climate, campaigners now have polling-style ammunition for a wartime-scale mobilisation push. The political test is whether Andy Burnham, John Swinney or Westminster frontbenchers will agree to a prime-minister-fronted televised briefing — a format the UK government has so far dodged by neither committing to screen the film nor releasing a withheld intelligence assessment on ecosystem-collapse security risks.
Ask SkimNews
