Extreme Weather Conference

Lucy Munn is Deputy Director for Operations in the UK Cabinet Office’s COBR Unit. She is responsible for delivering the technology, capabilities and facilities that enable a coordinated cross-government approach to crisis management. Between 2021 – 2023 she served as Deputy Director, Counter Terrorism Programmes with the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, based in Amman, and prior to serving overseas was a Senior Policy Advisor on cyber security, national security vetting and critical infrastructure policy in the Cabinet Office. She holds a BA in Classics from Cambridge University and an Executive Masters in Economics and Public Policy from the London School of Economics.

I am a consultant in public health in the Extreme Events and Health Protection Team at UKHSA. I am responsible for oversight and delivery of the Adverse Weather Health Plan, including development of research that underpins the Plan, issuing of extreme weather (heat and cold) alerts and reviewing and updating of the guidance. I previously supported the establishment of Toronto’s (Canada) cold weather response plan and I am UKHSA lead for the HPRU in Environmental Change and Health, a collaboration with London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The primary of purpose of this research collaboration is to ensure action on climate change, across UKHSA, is supported by a robust evidence base.

George Leigh was the senior adviser on the London Climate Resilience Review, an independent report commissioned by the Mayor of London that makes recommendations to better prepare the city for climate impacts including heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, sea level rise and storms. Before the Review, George was the senior adviser to two chairs of the Environment Agency and he has 15 years’ experience working on environmental risks, in crisis management in government and as a campaigner in the NGO sector.

Dr Candice Howarth is the Head of Climate Adaptation and Resilience at the LSE Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, where she oversees the Institute’s work on extreme heat preparedness in the UK. She has an interdisciplinary background in climate policy and pro-environmental behaviour with degrees in meteorology (BSc), climate change (MSc) and a PhD in climate policy and pro-environmental behaviour. She has extensive experience in climate governance and climate adaptation and is currently leading a British Academy Fellowship in collaboration with the British Red Cross looking at integrating adaptation and mitigation measures to enhance community preparedness to extreme heat. She is the UK lead for the Horizon 2020 €6,2 million riskADAPT project exploring adaptation solutions to climate impacts in the EU and she was the PI of the £3,5 million Place-based Climate Action Network (PCAN). She co-leads the Adaptation Community of Practice, chairs the Royal Geographical Society Climate Change Research Group, sits on the Royal Meteorological Society Climate Science Engagement group, is a member of the London Heat Risk Group and was a member of the Steering Group of the Physiological Society’s Heat Resilience Strategy. She was a contributing author for the 3rd UK Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA3). She sits on the Editorial Board of the journal Environmental Communication and is an Associate Deputy Editor for the journal Climatic Change. She regularly advises a range of international, government and non-governmental organisations, her work is regularly covered in local, regional and national media, and she is a frequent speaker at policy, practice, third sector and events.

Hannah is a Newcastle Academic Track fellow in climate resilient energy systems. She gained her PhD from the University of Reading in 2017 and has since worked on four climate services projects with relevance to the energy, transport and finance sectors. Hannah specialises in modelling UK and European electricity demand and renewable generation. She has also worked on developing these tools for Mexico, India and multiple regions of Africa. A key outcome of her work has been to improve the accessibility of large meteorological datasets to energy system modelers and policy makers.

Jon Chappell is a Senior Policy Adviser at the National Infrastructure Commission. Jon is the Commission’s water policy lead. Jon was lead author of the environment and resilience chapter of the UK’s second National Infrastructure Assessment and has worked on Commission projects covering a range of issues including asset management, surface water flooding and speeding up the planning consent process for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects.  Jon has been with the Commission for five years and prior to joining the environment policy team he served as Head of the Commission’s Private Office.

Will Lang is the Met Office’s Head of Situational Awareness, with responsibility for the National Severe Weather Warning Service and the team which advises government and the resilience community around impactful weather. His background is in operational weather forecasting, with 25 years of experience, including as a Chief Forecaster and Chief Hydrometeorologist. He chairs the World Meteorological Organisation team responsible for international best practice around impact-based weather warnings.

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.

Matthew is one of JBA Consulting’s lead flood forecasting model and system developers, having worked in the UK and internationally for over 10 years.  These models and systems are the backbone of the flood warning process used by governments and organisations across the world, enabling more time to respond effectively to flood risk.  In the work that he does, Matthew emphasises the importance of communication; whether this is informing on the best approach or detailing the performance and inaccuracies of modelling to the end user.  He equips others to use flood forecasting model data to inform effective decisions and responses to flood events.  Matthew also has a strong background in hydrometry and telemetry, understanding the vital role of different data streams in flood forecasting.

Lucy Munn is Deputy Director for Operations in the UK Cabinet Office’s COBR Unit. She is responsible for delivering the technology, capabilities and facilities that enable a coordinated cross-government approach to crisis management. Between 2021 – 2023 she served as Deputy Director, Counter Terrorism Programmes with the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, based in Amman, and prior to serving overseas was a Senior Policy Advisor on cyber security, national security vetting and critical infrastructure policy in the Cabinet Office. She holds a BA in Classics from Cambridge University and an Executive Masters in Economics and Public Policy from the London School of Economics.