Portsmouth councillors back emergency briefing

Portsmouth councillors have thrown their support behind Chris Packham’s National Emergency Briefing documentary on climate change.

A full Portsmouth City Council meeting recently debated and carried a motion to promote the National Emergency Briefing film.

The 50-minute documentary, spearheaded by naturalist and TV personality Chris Packham, invites communities to attend local screenings and discuss expert assessments of the climate crisis.

It aims to pressure the UK government into broadcasting a prime-time, multi-channel televised emergency briefing.

Speaking to councillors, local campaigner Viola Langley underscored the importance of climate awareness after the country experienced “five heatwaves this year”, which experts say could be “nothing compared to what is expected next year and the years after”.

She highlighted a heat-induced critical incident at Queen Alexandra Hospital, the impact of public transport and the effects of heat on the city’s green spaces.

She asked the chamber to “remember the nights we couldn’t sleep” and the “days we couldn’t work properly”.

Introducing the motion, councillor Graham Heaney said the briefing “provides an opportunity to hear about the range of issues which we now face”, as well as to “engage in discussion” afterwards.

He highlighted findings from the University of Bath, which found that 58 per cent of people who watched the screening felt “more hopeful” and 80 per cent felt “more informed”.

Cllr Kimberly Barrett, cabinet lead for climate change, said she had seen the film “five or six times”.

“It brings real mixture of emotions after you’ve watched it,” she said. “I certainly learned quite a lot of new and rather sobering facts about what’s going on.”

She stressed: “It’s really important to have the conversations with friends and family – it’s definitely something you can have a good talk about around the dining table.”

Cllr Sam Coupland said that, “despite being part of the Reform team”, he had “always been a very big advocate for renewable energy”.

He shared concerns raised by his friends in Nepal, a country that has faced “catastrophic devastation” to communities and infrastructure “primarily due to increased melting of glaciers”.

He said the country needed to take action and “ramp up” efforts to make energy more renewable.

He added that he supported climate education and would prefer to rally people rather than scare them into action.

“I champion respect for our planet – we all call it home and we’ve only got one.”

Cllr Peter Candlish said this year’s heatwaves “would have killed an enormous number of trees, it will have led to early deaths and it would have impaired learning by children in our schools”.

He highlighted recent analysis that found Portsmouth was the UK city “most affected by heat” and raised concerns that “climate and green issues have dropped in saliency over the last couple of years”.

Addressing Cllr Coupland, Cllr Lee Hunt said: “You are in the wrong party”, citing Reform UK’s positions on abolishing net zero targets, expanding North Sea oil and gas production, and fracking.

He also highlighted the party’s “well known” opposition to renewable energy, including its deputy leader Richard Tice, who “frequently challenges consensus climate science”.

Cllr George Madgwick thanked the “former Tory” for realising Reform UK “have more policies than just the one he thinks we have”.

He agreed that Reform UK does “criticise the climate emergency” and called for more “evidence led approaches”.

The evidence for climate change is backed by an overwhelming scientific consensus, with more than 99 per cent of studies supporting human-caused global warming, as confirmed by NASA and the World Meteorological Organization.

The motion called on the council to back the film’s demand for a live televised emergency briefing and help organise screenings in council-run venues.

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