The Pursuit for Climate Resilience: A national cross-sector conversation
Find out what happened when we brought together industry leaders and executives for a pivotal cross-disciplinary discussion on climate resilience.
Driving the conversation on resilience to climate change with industry-leading actions
At JBA it’s our ambition to lead in society’s pursuit for resilience to climate change.
Throughout 2024 we achieved many “firsts” in support of this ambition. In September we ran a Climate Resilience Week; this was a first for JBA and a first in our industry. Never before has a consultancy sought, via a dedicated week-long series of activities and thought-leader pieces, to start and drive a conversation about resilience to climate change.
We also launched the JBA Climate Resilience Podcast, another first in our sector. The podcast features deep-dive conversations with inspirational thought leaders on climate resilience.
It explores what resilience to climate change is all about, who has important roles, what challenges exist and what’s needed to deliver it.
On 20th November 2024, we brought together for the first time, industry leaders and executives for a round-table discussion about the challenges of achieving whole society resilience to climate change, entitled ‘The Pursuit for Climate Resilience: A national cross-sector conversation’. Held at One George Street, London, the session enabled an important cross-sectoral discussion.
Why did we do it?
We know that resilience to climate change means different things to different people and organisations. But in recent years the term has become ubiquitous. It’s used in everyday language across almost all subjects and constantly in the media. Using it as shorthand without an explanation is unhelpful.
With our changing climate, we know there will be weather events in the future that bring disruption to society, through increased frequency and severity of floods, storms, drought and extreme heat.
Resilience to climate change is more substantial than just absorbing a shock or recovering from a disruption. It’s about better and more integrated outcomes. It’s about outcomes that allow the whole of society to become more aware of their risk, be able to adapt, and have the capacity to respond and recover more effectively.
By bringing together industry leaders and professional institutions for the first time, we provided an opportunity for a crucial cross-disciplinary discussion and debate around these increasingly urgent issues and the challenges we face in building the whole of society's resilience to our changing climate.
Inspirational leadership
Our event was expertly Chaired by Annie Shepperd OBE, Chair of the Trustee Board of CIWEM, and our industry experts covered sectors such as water resources, flood risk management engineering, emergency planning, farming and agriculture, land drainage, energy and landscape.
Annie guided the discussions around three key questions:
- Given the challenges faced, what are the top four things that need to change with a sense of urgency?
- What do you think needs to happen now, so we see a step-change over the next five years?
- What recommendations should we be making to the Government to achieve the whole society’s resilience to climate change?
To help us capture the narrative in a relatable format, we commissioned artist, Raquel Durán, to create a live mural of the discussions. The synergy between creativity, culture, and business in driving climate resilience is a powerful tool. This visual representation of our complex discussion will aid us in making the issues accessible and relatable to further engage individuals and communities. We look forward to sharing more information about the mural shortly – stay tuned!
What next?
We intend to inform the UK Government of the outcomes from our discussion. We feel it’s important that the views from industry and sector leaders on whole society resilience to climate change are captured and shared so they can help shape future policy, strategy and funding decisions.
We'll be releasing a short video that captured the views of those who attended, together with the mural artwork created during the event, next week. Follow us on social media for the latest updates.
