Putting resilience into Manchester Climate Change Agency (Webinar)

UK Climate Resilience Programme Webinar Series 2021-2022

Date: Tuesday 21 June 2022, 12.00pm (GMT)

Speaker: Paul O’Hare (Manchester Metropolitan University). Respondent: Sean Morris (Policy & Strategy Lead, Manchester Climate Change Agency)

Chair: Suraje Dessai

See below for links to the webinar recording and presentation slides

Abstract

Since 2018, Manchester has had a city-wide and sector-level policy framework to drive action to mitigate climate change. However, efforts to make the city’s infrastructure more resilient to climate change have not enjoyed the same focus. The talk will reflect on the experience of the presenter as an embedded researcher with the Manchester Climate Change Agency developing a policy strategy and associated actions for realising greater climate resilience across Manchester. The work involved the development of the concept ‘progressive resilience’. This entailed taking scientifically informed, academically robust interpretations of resilience, and giving them a city-level policy and practice perspective to ensure climate resilience initiatives gain traction across multiple agendas. The work will inform the Manchester Climate Change Framework by developing a series of principles for achieving resilience. The work also involved the production of associated communications and material, including animations, case studies and a website that promotes best practice throughout the city and beyond.

Biography

Paul O’Hare is a Senior Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University. He conducts work on the governance of risk, stakeholder engagement in decision-making, and climate change resilience and adaptation. In January 2021 he worked as the resilience lead for the Manchester Climate Change Agency, developing policy on the city’s adaptation and resilience strategy. This placement was funded by the UKCR Programme’s Embedded Researcher Scheme.

Sean Morris is Policy and Strategy Lead for Manchester Climate Change, seconded from Manchester City Council where he was a Principal Policy Officer for 13 years focused on energy and international Policy. Prior to that Sean worked as an Emergency Planning Officer for 10 years at Leeds City Council.