Dealing with Extreme Weather

Location: Friends Meeting House, Lancaster

This event considered the impact of the floods in Lancaster caused by Storm Desmond in December 2015, the heatwave in Paris in 2003 and planning for extreme weather in Catalonia.

Event Recordings:

Anne Chapman, Green House: Introduction and impact of climate change on extreme weather.

Natalie Bennett, Green European Foundation: Introduction

Caroline Jackson, Lancaster City Council: Lancaster and Storm Desmond- Chair Natalie Bennett

Sergi Alegre Calero, Vice-Mayor, El Prat: Climate Adaptation planning in Barcelona Metropolitan Area- Chair Natalie Bennett

Alice Le Roy, Fondation de l'écologie politique: The 2003 Paris heat wave and its aftermath in France- Chair Natalie Bennett

Questions to Caroline Jackson, Sergi Alegre Calero and Alice Le Roy- Chair Natalie Bennet

Roger Kemp, Lancaster University: Living without electricity, lessons from Lancaster- Chair Natalie Bennett

Peter Leeson, Woodland Trust and Rod Everett, Backsbottom Farm: Upland Management- Chair Anne Chapman

Hugh Ellis, Town and Country Planning Association: Planning and Climate Change- Chair Anne Chapman

Mark Bartlett, Emergency planning officer, Lancaster City Council and Kerryanne Wilde, Community Emergency Response Team: Community responses and emergency planning- Chair Rupert Read

Speaker Biographies​

Anne Chapman – is a director of Green House Think Tank and from 2003 to 2011 was a member of Lancaster City Council.
Natalie Bennett – is a director of the Green European Foundation and formerly leader of the Green Party of England and Wales.
Caroline Jackson – is a former head teacher.  She is a member of Lancaster City Council and in 2016 chaired the council’s Resilience Commission which looked into the flooding caused by Storm Desmond in 2015.
Sergi Alegre Calero – is Vice-mayor of El Prat, councillor of the Metropolitan Government of Barcelona, member of the national board of Iniciativa per Catalunya Verds, chairman of the environmental board of ICV and a member of the international board of ICV.
Alice Le Roy – is co-chair of the Scientific Council of Fondation de l'écologie politique.  She was a policy advisor for Paris City Council from 2001 to 2010, where she worked on the first participatory Climate Change Action Plan and on the launch of a citywide Biodiversity Strategy. In 2015 she published a book about the impact of climate change on communities in France based on a documentary produced by French public television (France 2).
Roger Kemp – spent most of his working life in the rail industry but, for the last 13 years, has worked at Lancaster University. He has been involved in several major studies on the challenging engineering implications of meeting the 2008 UK targets for CO2 emissions and, more recently, the demands this will place on the power grid.  After the Storm Desmond floods, he organised a workshop at the university where many affected organisations described their experiences. The report on the workshop was published by the Royal Academy of Engineering and forms the basis of his presentation this afternoon.  The report is available here.
Peter Leeson – a chartered surveyor by training Peter moved from a business background in his early career through the water industry to arrive in the Woodland Trust (a charity which champions native woodland and trees for people and wildlife) some 25 years ago.  He now works to encourage landscape change in the uplands through working in partnership with others. “We are seeking to re-establish management in the uplands which recognises the huge potential of these areas to store water, sequester carbon and to work for people and wildlife.”
Rod Everett – lives and farms at Backsbottom Farm in Roeburndale, Lancashire.  The original farmhouse of his farm was swept away in the Wray flood of 1967.  Rod farms according to permaculture principles and is working with a range of natural flood management techniques to slow the flow of water from his land, and is hoping he can persuade his neighbours to follow his example.
Dr Hugh Ellis – is Head of Policy and the Town and Country Planning Association.  He led research in 2016 for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on the delivery of climate policy through local plans which showed we were critically unprepared for the climate threat.
Mark Bartlett – is the civil contingencies officer at Lancaster City Council.
Kerryanne Wilde - is Founder and CEO of CERT (UK) – Community Emergency Response Team (UK), which specialises in crisis, emergency, disaster recovery and support, not only in Cumbria but throughout the UK.  Kerryanne set up CERT (UK) at the height of the Cumbrian floods following Storm Desmond and the subsequent floods on 5th December 2015.  22 months on, CERT (UK) has supported over 20,000 homes and businesses across 9 Counties and is still supporting over 500 clients from the initial floods, through a team of 6 part-time staff and 60+ volunteers.