Extreme Weather Conference

I lead the Environment Agency’s Incident Response Service, working closely with key partners including Defra, Met Office, Cabinet Office (COBR) and MHCLG. My teams cover the wide range of activities that enable us to plan and prepare, respond and recover effectively, efficiently and intelligently to the most serious flood and environmental incidents. The EA is currently focussing on preparing for this winter, ensuring the resilience of the system for potential flooding and putting in place the learning from last winter’s named storms across the whole system response.

Ben Brook is the Chief Fire Officer of Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service. Ben has been a leader within the sector for almost 25 years and is passionate about the future of the sector.   Ben is the NFCC lead for Climate, Environment and Sustainability.   Ben is keen to develop a space for thinking about how best the Fire and Rescue sector can continue to reduce risk and support vulnerable communities into the future in a changing world.

Richard is Head of Adaptation at the Climate Change Committee. He leads the secretariat’s work on advising on building resilience to climate change in the UK. Richard is a physical climate scientist by training and holds a doctorate in atmospheric physics. Richard has worked across the CCC’s remit since joining in 2018; prior to joining he contributed to the IPCC’s Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5C.

Mark works within Civil Contingencies at the Met Office where he has worked for over 36 years. For the last 13 years, he has worked alongside Category 1 & 2 responders, providing them with meteorological and climate related information, supporting them as they face ever-increasing risks from extreme weather. As a Met Office Civil Contingency Advisor, he leads on the wide variety of online training courses which are provided for emergency responders, the voluntary sector and community responders.

Dr Rachel Allison is Carbon Manager at High Speed Two Ltd, the company tasked with building the new railway between Birmingham and London. She is responsible for providing specialist carbon leadership and knowledge across the project. This includes setting ambitious mitigation requirements and targets to drive emission reductions. Her experience at HS2 includes embedding climate adaptation and resilience across the design, construction and operation of the railway. Rachel has focused on ensuring the construction of the railway is resilient to extreme weather events and has supported innovations to drive progress in this space.

Rachel is a climate practitioner with experience across academia, consultancy and industry. She is an advocate for holistic thinking across sustainability to identify solutions to unprecedented climate challenges and accelerate progress towards a net zero, resilient future.

Kieran leads country-level climate research at LSEG, where he drives the development of data and analytics that evaluate national progress on climate goals. He also leads the creation of the Net Zero Atlas, LSEG’s flagship publication in the climate space. In his role, Kieran defines LSEG’s strategic research agenda on sovereign climate issues and represents the organisation with key external stakeholders, including clients, standard setters, academia, and media.

With over a decade of experience in climate research, Kieran previously served as Head of Climate Research at ESG Book and was a researcher at Imperial College London. He also earned his PhD in atmospheric emissions modelling from Imperial College.

Dustin is the MD of sustainability at Forefront Advisers, a policy and political advisory company. Previously, he was policy director at Green Alliance, leading its work across energy, resources, and the natural environment. He previously worked at Defra, where he was chief analytical advisor to Henry Dimbleby’s National Food Strategy and led the department’s analysis of food vulnerability. Earlier in his career, Dustin led on climate and renewables at the Campaign to Protect Rural England. He holds an MA in Political Thought and Theory from the University of Birmingham and an MA in International Relations and French from the University of St Andrews.

Jonathan has 20 years of experience working within Flood & Climate Resilience Management for the Environment Agency and Leeds City Council. He has managed teams, projects and programmes within the Yorkshire Area that reduce flood risk to people, property and infrastructure, managing community and partner facing teams helping the public, partners and businesses to be prepared for and recover from flooding.

Jonathan has experience of major flood events from localised flash flooding in the Calder Valley to tidal surge events in December 2013 and the devastating widespread flooding during 2007 and 2015, working with colleagues across the country as part of the incident response arrangements. He has also pioneered the establishment of apprenticeship schemes, social enterprises and innovation programmes, such as the West Yorkshire Flood Innovation Programme and the Aire Resilience Company.

He is now the Executive Manager – Flood & Climate Resilience at Leeds City Council the 2^nd largest metropolitan district in the country and 3^rd largest city. As a Lead Local Flood Authority his teams manage flood risk and the wider impacts of climate change across the city and Jonathan plays a leading role on strategic, regional and national partnerships and initiatives relating to climate change and flood risk in both research and delivery capacities. He plays an active role in both the Leeds and Yorkshire & Humber Climate Commissions and manages the West Yorkshire Flood Innovation Programme. Jonathan will represent Leeds City Council on the board of the Aire Resilience Company.