To watch this event, you can rent or buy the video here.
Tuesday 22nd July 2020 saw The Future Economy Network run their last interactive webinar for 4 weeks, titled “Adapting to a Warmer Climate”. The topic and our fantastic panel brought FEN and non-FEN members alike to join us on the day to discuss the topic from the perspectives of transport, infrastructure and employee wellbeing.
The team introduced everyone to the virtual events space and gave quick training on how to make the most out of the interactive webinar and networking opportunities. Once everyone had gotten used to the space and enjoyed the novelty of something brand new, the seminars began. Katherine Piper, Director of The Future Economy Network, welcomed attendees, highlighting the benefits of joining the Network and also sharing updates about The Future Economy Network’s Carbon Neutral Hub in Bristol, Future Leap. Katherine also briefly ran through the plans for The Festival of Sustainable Business, and you can check out the video here.
First up, we welcomed Vedantha Kumar, Head of Transport and Industry at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). Vedantha opened his talk by expressing his concern that adaptation is neglected within COP26 discussions and the difficulties around us meeting the 1.5C or 2C targets set at the Paris Agreement. He then focused on 3 modes of transport; walking, road transport and shipping. With reference to walking, Vedantha explained the concept of the wet bulb temperature and how both Pakistan and UAE have exceeded this, with other countries likely to follow suit. This will have huge health and economic impacts with the potential for 1 in 5 Indians being exposed to such a heat wave and a projected worse case scenario of a 45% decrease in GDP.
With regards to road transport, sea level rises will mean that as much as 15% of the UK's major road network will be at significant or moderate risk of flooding, which will likely mean the need for flood defences and the replacement of these roads. There will also be issues with cracked asphalt and roads melting. Vedantha then stressed the importance of adequate funding in electric vehicles to improve their range and the reduce the prevalence of ICE carbon emissions. Finally, he discussed the opening up of the Northern Sea route due to melting in the Arctic region. This could bring about huge geo-political changes with Russia and others keen to claim sovereignty.
- Government report on the effects of a sea level rise in the UK
- EU study into the effects of climate change on the transport sector
- A news article on the effects of climate change on energy use in cars
- One study into geopolitical implications of climate change in opening up the Northern Sea Route
Next up, we welcomed Alexander Furey, Head of Growth at Drawdown UK to speak about the challenges of a warmer climate and its effects on our buildings and physical infrastructure. He introduced Project Drawdown, a project to communicate the best solutions to peak and then decline GHG emissions, and Drawdown UK, which aims to scale drawdown solutions in the UK. With a projected two thirds of the global population living in urban settings by 2060, there will be a need to double our current building stock. These buildings will need to take account of the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, the concept of urban areas being warmer due to human activities such as waste heat created by transport, buildings and people's activites. Alexander went on to discuss some of the possible solutions to counteract the UHI effect such as better refrigerant management, dynamic glass, green and cool roofs. The challenge with a lot of these solutions however, being the upfront cost associated with their installation.
Our final speaker for the morning was Paul Hoggett, Co-Founder of Climate Psychology Alliance, a network of psychologists, therapists, researchers and activists. Paul spoke about how as humans, we defend ourselves from anxiety provoking experiences. He stressed that many of us see and know the implications of a warming climate but at the same time, we cannot bear to know this and so we deny it. Paul explained the concept of 'Catastrophic Anxiety' where people feel completely alone with an end of the world feeling. They feel shock and disorientation, constantly ruminate on the climate emergency and adopt splitting processes as their first line of defence. Splitting processes include thoughts such as "It's now or never", "It's all or nothing" and "You're either with us or against us". The Climate Psychology Alliance work with people to find new and more helpful narratives which heal this splitting, moving from a catastrophic to a realistic anxiety.
We continued with mini Q&A’s after every speaker, which created a continuous buzz throughout the event. The seminar finished with some insightful and high-level questions to the panel as a group after the mini Q&A’s. The emotive response was clear in the virtual room and everyone was very keen to understand how to achieve climate resilience.
Finally, Victrex Manufacturing and Network members CSE and Sustainable Business Design gave a 60 second pitch - a popular opportunity at these events. Everyone was then able to network in different groups using facilitated break out rooms, before the event finished. A huge thank you to the speakers and attendees of this event, without which our events calendar would not be possible.
