Summer 2025, Climate Security & Resilience in the UK

This briefing note by CCIP’s Tim Clack and Louise Selisny examines the compounding impacts of the UK's hottest summer on record and argues for a reframing of climate change as a pressing national security concern. Drawing on evidence from the 2025 heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, and infrastructure failures, Tim and Louise demonstrate how climate stressors cascade across health systems, economic stability, defence readiness, and public trust. The analysis emphasises that climate security is not solely a strategic or global issue, but one that plays out acutely at the local and everyday level. Vulnerable groups, frontline workers, and low-income households bear the brunt of these disruptions, which are exacerbated by policy and infrastructure shortfalls. The briefing note highlights institutional blind spots in the UK’s current climate risk governance - particularly in the absence of an integrated climate security intelligence capability - and calls for whole-of-government, anticipatory responses. Tim and Louise argue that future resilience depends on linking global climate drivers to local consequences through early warning systems, inter-agency coordination, and inclusive planning. The briefing note underscores that without sustained investment in adaptation, the UK risks systemic breakdown under converging crises - commonly termed as ‘polycrisis.’ Climate security must therefore be embedded into all dimensions of national resilience policy. See full briefing note here.