On 14 August over 50 organisations sent the following letter to the UK Prime Minister, Andy Burnham. It was first published by Green New Deal Rising.

Dear Prime Minister,

As the fifth heatwave of the summer hits the UK, three-quarters of the country is in drought and wildfires have broken out across the country – and the world. Unprecedented extreme heat is now acting as a direct brake on the UK economy – closing schools, crippling regional transport networks, and pushing an overstretched NHS to the brink. We are writing to ask why you have remained silent on the driving cause of this extreme weather: climate change, and the only viable solutions: restoring nature and rapidly achieving net zero.

Climate change is a leading concern for the UK public, and its effects are wide ranging and catastrophic. From failed harvests, unsafe working temperatures, dangerously hot homes and firefighters stretched to breaking point, this crisis is directly impacting the lives of people across the UK and the world now. It can no longer be treated as a distant or abstract issue.

The British public deserves leadership that speaks honestly about the nature and complexity of the challenges we face this year, and in the years to come.

The Met Office have announced that this summer is on course to be the UK’s hottest summer since records began. Scientists have warned that our heatwaves will get “hotter and hotter and hotter until we get to global net zero greenhouse gas emissions [and] we stabilise the climate”. The International Energy Agency’s most recent assessment shows that global energy-related CO2 emissions reached a record 38.4 billion tonnes in 2025, driven by fossil fuels.

We welcome your decision to hold a COBRA meeting in response to this summer’s extreme heat but climate change, caused by the burning of fossil fuels, is making extreme weather events like this more frequent and more intense.

Without naming the cause of our rapidly changing environment, you will be unable to adequately prepare the country for the adaptations it will need to make, and the efforts needed to cut carbon emissions rapidly. You may not seize the economic opportunities of the green transition if you are unable to articulate and champion the UK’s role in tackling climate change. You will also lose an opportunity to connect with the British public who are deeply concerned about what they see is happening to the world around them.

In your role as Greater Manchester Mayor you said that, ‘Tackling climate change isn’t just about protecting the planet – it’s a powerful opportunity to build a fairer, greener future for our communities and businesses’. You were clear that ‘there should be no turning away from net-zero.’

We applaud these statements, and we urge you to command the same clarity of position demonstrated in your mayoral leadership, in your position now as Prime Minister. That means publicly recognising the scale of the crisis, naming its cause, and using your position to tackle this grave threat to our lives and livelihoods now and the lives of our children and grandchildren in the future.

Yours,

Hannah Martin and Fatima Ibrahim – Co Directors, Green New Deal Rising

Areeba Hamid – Co-Exec Director, Greenpeace UK

Tanya Steele, Chief Executive, WWF

Asad Rehman, Chief Executive, Friends of the Earth

Jeryl Stone, Chair, National Federation of Women’s Institutes

Sonja Graham, CEO, Global Action Plan

Robert Palmer, Deputy Director, Uplift

David Hillman, Director, Stamp Out Poverty

Kerry Postlewhite, Chair, Mainstream

Dr Shanon Shah, Director, Faith for the Climate

Helen Meech, Executive Director, The Climate Coalition

Caroline Lucas, Professor of Practice, University of Sussex

Gareth Cunningham, Director, Marine Conservation Society

Ed Matthew, UK Director, E3G

Simon Francis, coordinator, End Fuel Poverty Coalition

Suzi Shingler, Campaign Manager, Stop Rosebank

Richard Benwell, CEO, Wildlife and Countryside Link

Isaac Beevor, Partnerships Director, Climate Emergency UK

Dr. Karen Barrass, Director, Climate Insights

Joe Guinan, President, The Democracy Collaborative

Joel Silver, Director of Policy & Engagement, Hope for the Future

Anna Coote, Principal Fellow, New Economics Foundation

Bethan Sayed, Head of Politics and Advocacy Climate Cymru

Hannah Dewhirst, Head of Campaigns and Communications, Positive Money

Lorraine Currie, Chief Executive, SCIAF

Jake Dubbins, Co-Founder, Conscious Advertising Network, Media Bounty and ACT Climate Labs

Emma Tozer, Co-Founder, Media Bounty

Harriet Kingaby, Co-Founder, Conscious Advertising Network

Charlotte Howell-Jones, Co-Director of Parents for Future UK

Abby Coften, CEO, Transport Action Network and Low Traffic Future

Jenny Raggett, Director, Transport for New Homes CIC

Connor Watt and Ruth Potts, Worker Organiser and Worker Led Transition Campaign Manager, Platform

Sofie Jenkinson, Co-Director, Round Our Way

Anna Krajinska, UK Director, Transport & Environment

Rachael Orr, CEO, Climate Outreach

Richard Dilks, Chief Executive, Collaborative Mobility UK

Louis Willis, Director, Invest in Britain

Anne Jellema, Executive Director, 350

Juliet Michaelson, Co-Director, Possible

Mahir Ilgaz, Regional Program Director, Oil Change International

Liz McKean, Executive Director, War on Want

James Ward, Co-director, Adfree Cities.

Guy Shrubsole, campaigner and author

Will Walker, UK Policy Lead, Ashden and Let’s Go Zero

Alice Harrison, Senior Director, Secure Energy Project

Paul Staples, CEO Ryecroft NRC

Dave Taylor, Director Walsall Working For Change CIC

Tara Connolly, Programme Lead, Beyond Fossil Fuels

Jamie Clarke, Director, Engaging Climate

Dr Brenda Boardman, Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford

Meilyr Tomos, Swyddog Tlodi Tanwydd / Fuel Poverty Officer, Cyngor Gwynedd

Frazer Scott, CEO, Energy Action Scotland

Jonathan Bean, Policy Lead, Fuel Poverty Action

Maya Mailer and Becky Ward, Co-Founders of Mothers Rise Up

James Sutton and Amy McDonnell, Co-Executive Directors, Zero Hour