Attenborough schools MPs on climate breakdown

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Sir David Attenborough is today giving evidence to the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee.

Right now, we are facing our greatest threat in thousands of years. Climate change.

Sir David Attenborough will appear before MPs to face questions about climate breakdown.

The naturalist, 93, is giving evidence to the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee on Tuesday.

Sir David is expected to be questioned on a range of issues relating to climate breakdown and the country's ambition to have net-zero emissions by 2050.

Disaster

The veteran broadcaster is expected to be asked about his views on public engagement and public perceptions of climate change, the ecological impact of global warming, and the benefits and costs of the transition to a low-carbon economy.

It comes after his surprise festival appearance on Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage to introduce a trailer for the BBC's new series Seven Worlds, One Planet.

Sir David's views on climate change are well known.

In April, he warned of a "man-made disaster on a global scale" and a "devastating future" if action is not taken in the BBC documentary Climate Change: The Facts.

Annihilate

He said: "Right now, we are facing our greatest threat in thousands of years. Climate change.

"Scientists across the globe are in no doubt that at the current rate of warming we risk a devastating future. The science is now clear that urgent action is needed."

Earlier this year he called on the international community to come up with a climate change plan at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Speaking alongside the Duke of Cambridge, he warned that humanity needed to act so that it did not "annihilate part of the natural world".

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Henry Vaughan is a reporter with PA.