Defence Online

The UK government has launched its first dedicated climate security taskforce, bringing together leading academics, military figures and security experts to assess and strengthen the country’s preparedness for the national security consequences of climate change and nature loss.

Announced on 26 June by Climate Minister Katie White, the taskforce is co-chaired by White and Security Minister Dame Angela Eagle and will advise government on how to better anticipate and respond to the growing risks climate change poses to stability, infrastructure and supply chains. It will identify gaps in existing preparedness, review resilience work across government and set out clear recommendations to strengthen readiness.

The context is pressing. The UK’s 2025 National Security Strategy identifies climate and nature loss as core drivers of global instability and security risk. This week the UK is experiencing another record heatwave; the UK Health Security Agency estimated over 1,500 heat-related deaths last summer, and analysis has shown that hot and dry conditions in 2025 led to £800 million in crop losses for British farming.

Dame Angela Eagle set out the breadth of the risk, describing climate change as “disrupting supply chains, which pushes up prices in the shops” and “driving conflict and instability around the world.” The taskforce will examine how climate impacts overseas translate into domestic pressures, including risks to the UK and global economy as assets, infrastructure or entire regions become too costly to insure or invest in, and rising geopolitical tensions in areas such as the Arctic where melting ice is creating new security challenges.

The initial taskforce membership draws on expertise spanning food systems, energy, geopolitics, biodiversity and climate diplomacy. It includes General Richard Nugee, Non-Executive Director for Climate Change and Sustainability at the MOD, who said he was delighted to join a group that “puts climate change and biodiversity loss at the heart of National Security for this country.” Janani Vivekananda, Director of the Climate Diplomacy and Security Programme at Adelphi Global, described the taskforce as an opportunity to ensure the UK “acts early and decisively with integrated, evidence-based and accountable responses that prevent climate and nature risks from becoming crises.”

For defence and security supply chain businesses, the establishment of the taskforce is a signal that climate security is moving from policy aspiration to structured government action, with implications for infrastructure resilience, logistics, energy systems and the sustainability requirements attached to procurement. Businesses operating in sectors where climate risk intersects with national security, from energy and utilities through to logistics, construction and technology, should monitor the taskforce’s emerging recommendations closely.

Relevant capability areas for businesses seeking to engage with climate security and resilience procurement include:

• Climate resilience and infrastructure protection
• Energy security and clean energy systems integration
• Sustainable supply chain management and risk assessment
• Defence estate sustainability and net-zero compliance
• Geospatial and environmental risk intelligence
• Logistics and supply chain continuity planning
• Nature-based solutions and biodiversity in defence estate management