Transcript
A (0:00)
This is the Guardian.
B (0:09)
Today, the landmark report the UK government didn't want you to see.
C (0:20)
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A (0:44)
Last October, I and other journalists got quite excited because we thought that we were going to be attending a great event at the Natural History Museum.
B (0:54)
This is Fiona Harvey, she's Environment Editor at the Guardian.
A (0:58)
And we'd be talking about biodiversity because the Natural History Museum and looking at the risks and the crises that we're facing, the joint crises of climate and biodiversity, and looking ahead to what was going to happen at the cop, the UN Climate Summit, just a few weeks later.
B (1:21)
On the guest list were government ministers, ambassadors, eminent scientists, even the King.
A (1:28)
We had been told that there was a major report being launched at this event. And this report was going to come not just from where you'd expect from the Government's Environment Department, but also from the Joint Intelligence Committee. And they are the UK's son, spy chiefs, MI5, MI6, the intelligence agencies, and they were taking an interest in the climate and biodiversity and the threats that they posed to the UK's national security.
B (2:03)
The day before the event, Fiona was told that she was no longer welcome. And it wasn't just her, but all the other journalists on the list.
A (2:12)
At first we thought perhaps it was the palace who can be a bit sensitive about such things. But when it transpired that this report, this key report, was not coming out after all, we realized there was something bigger afoot.
B (2:24)
Fiona, well, she did what she does best. She began to dig around.
A (2:30)
I went and tried to talk to as many contacts as I could to find out about the report, what was in it, who'd written it, what the advice was to ministers and how it was going to be acted upon. And I found out some very interesting things. I got parts of the report read out to me and saw various bits of it. It was really peculiar that it was not being put out at this time. And we were told by various sources that the people who had suppressed this report were actually. Number 10 Downing Street,
