Climate change is happening now, but – in the words of Government’s own advisory body – the UK is ‘strikingly underprepared’. The Government’s 2019 commitment to a Net Zero target has meant that the nation’s mitigation agenda, to reduce our greenhouse gases and sequester carbon, is making slow progress. Yet, there has been far less action to adapt our society to the significant effects of climate change we know are coming. A new report by Public First, commissioned by the National Trust, analyses why adaptation has been left behind and makes recommendations for rescuing ‘mitigation’s poor relation’.

This webinar will explore these recommendations, both in the context of national policy and of individual sectors and organisations. The report concludes that climate adaptation is losing out because it is seen as an environmental problem rather than a whole Society issue and that action has stalled because we do not have a clear vision for what a climate-adapted UK looks like. We will hear from a range of representatives from different industries, to understand the challenges and opportunities presented by climate adaptation across our society.

Climate change is likely to affect your assets and operations directly (for example through heavy rain, increased temperatures and humidity, high winds, droughts, wild fires and coastal erosion) and indirectly (for example through increasing insurance premiums, changing visitor numbers and patterns, increasing product prices and changing product availability due to pressure on supply chains). This webinar will subsequently be of interest to all members, whether the focus of your organisation is land/biodiversity management, heritage, museums and galleries, other tourism and visitor businesses, providing charitable services or aid, research, fund-raising, retail, and events.

Please join us on the 27th June to hear from Public First and a diverse panel on:

• How climate change will affect your operations and the nation as a whole, understanding why climate adaptation needs to be recognised as a whole society problem.

• What are the challenges, benefits and opportunities of a changing climate?

• The conversations we need to have (within our organisations and nationally) about what we want to achieve in climate adaptation. What are our aims both individually and collectively, and what does success look like?

• How can we set ourselves goals and a clear course when there are many unknowns about what our future climate will look like?

• The Next Steps! How can your organisation keep up to date with research, resources, approaches, and lessons learnt etc.?

Panel includes:

• Ben Howarth, Chief Sustainability Officer at the Association of British Insurers (ABI)

• Ruth Knight, Head of Climate & Sustainability at English Heritage

• Keith Jones, National Specialist - Climate Change Adviser at the National Trust

Climate Adaptation: Rescuing the Poor Relation