Dear [Name],
The year may be winding down... but we’ve not stopped! Last week, Beccy and Ben headed to Westminster to join politicians (some of them, anyway) for a National Emergency Briefing on climate and nature. We’ve also been busy working on our new website, which is just weeks away from launch. And of course, we’ve been keeping up with events in the political calendar – from the COP climate conference to the Budget and what it means for climate.
We hope you enjoy our last update for 2025. We wish you a peaceful, relaxing time this festive season, however you’re spending it. See you in the new year!
You may have heard about last Thursday’s National Emergency Briefing for corporate bosses, senior civil servants, civic leaders – and, crucially, MPs – in Westminster's Methodist central hall.
Chris Packham warned leaders to “listen to the science”, with the event including briefings from nine experts on topics such as the economy, health, national security – and of course the impacts for climate and nature. Beccy and Ben from VoteClimate had a great day listening to the speakers and meeting attendees from like-minded groups – check out our photos from the day on X.
National Emergency Briefing are asking people to sign and share this open letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer and media bosses, demanding an urgent televised national emergency briefing for the public.
From councils up and down the country to the devolved assemblies, 2026 is a year of elections. We want to attend more events like the National Emergency Briefing to get our VoteClimate message to politicians and voters. Increasing the visibility and strength of our campaign costs money – and we’d really appreciate your help. A regular subscription of just £5 a month will help us push the government further.
Please visit our website to become a paying subscriber – or increase your subscription if you are already a subscriber.
In the first week of COP, we brought you our ultimate guide to this year’s climate conference. In this newsletter, we’re bringing you the main developments from the rest of the conference:
KEY OUTCOMES: The Brazilian COP presidency agreed a ‘global mutirão’ (collective effort), covering items not on the formal agenda. Significantly watered down from previous drafts, it called for a tripling of adaptation finance by 2035 but contained no roadmap for the phase-out of fossil fuels (something many nations, including the UK, had demanded). You can read more about conference outcomes in this in-depth piece from Carbon Brief.
A CONFERENCE OF PROTEST: On the conference’s middle Saturday (15 November), Indigenous-led demonstrators marched through the streets of host city Belém. Reporters described a ‘festival atmosphere’ at a march which called for Indigenous voices to be truly heard – days after activists broke into the venue in protest at the lack of Indigenous representation in the conference hall. You can see beautiful images and video of the march in this Guardian article. And check out this fantastic report on the march in Democracy Now!’s daily podcast, which contains interviews with Indigenous leaders.
A few days later, Munduruku activists from the Amazon basin blockaded the conference entrance, preventing delegates from entering the venue – and eventually securing an audience with COP President André Corrêa do Lago, leading to the conference’s most iconic and moving image.
OUR HOUSE IS ON FIRE: In what seemed to many a striking visual metaphor for the global situation, proceedings were halted on the conference’s second Wednesday when a fire broke out at the COP venue. Delegates left a chaotic conference centre, leading to a delay of many hours before talks could resume. No one was seriously hurt.
The Budget was yet another missed opportunity for the government to take the action needed to curb emissions. Here are the main climate-related announcements (you can read more detail in Carbon Brief):
These announcements are either tinkering at the edges – or just plain bad. The government is once again dragging its heels when it comes to climate.
Despite this, we are gearing up for an exciting year ahead – with 2026 presenting real opportunities to push politicians to take meaningful climate action. The major political event of the year is May’s local and devolved elections, with a huge number of Labour seats up for grabs this time round. We will be providing our voting recommendations wherever there is a contest – so keep an eye on your inbox as the campaign gets underway.
Thanks for all your support in 2025 – have a great break, we’ll see you in the new year!
With very best wishes
Beccy, Ben, Jamie, Peter, Steve & William
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