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Mitigating for and adapting to climate change is a key focus for IEMA. Through the Climate Change and Energy Network, we seek to distill and share best practice in this area, with insights from a range of sectors, to enable IEMA members to tackle climate change in their work and personal life.

The Climate Change and Energy Network is led by a steering group of members from different sectors of the economy. The role of the steering group is to oversee the delivery of an annual work programme of activities, including webinars, workshops, reports and much more.

Join the climate change and energy network

Opting to become a member of the network means you'll receive updates about developments in this sphere and the work of the steering group, invitations to apply to join the steering group or get involved in other ways, requests to participate in consultations, and notification of relevant webinars and other IEMA or external events. Use the button below to navigate to the portal and select 'climate change and energy network' in your subscription preferences.

Climate change

Climate change is a change in the long-term distribution and severity of weather patterns caused by changes in global temperature.

Climate change mitigation

Reduce the magnitude of climate change. This means decarbonising economies using cleaner energy sources, such as renewables, reducing reliance on fossil fuels, building a smart electrical grid, investing in carbon capture and storage/utilisation (CCS) and potentially other technologies that remove GHG from the atmosphere (i.e. sequestration).

Climate change adaptation

Adapt to the consequences of a changing climate and limit vulnerability. This means preparing to live with the effects of climate change, some of which are underway or inevitable. Adaptation is both a technical and a political challenge. Technical adaptation means transforming our relationship with nature as nature transforms. Examples include:

  • building seawalls around vulnerable coastal cities
  • giving land back to mangroves and salt marshes, so they can act to break tidal surges during storms
  • opening wildlife migration corridors, so that species can move as the climate warms and
  • developing more sustainable forms of agriculture that can function, even as weather patterns vary wildly.
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Natalie Bird

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Elizabeth Wood

Sustainability Manager and Principal Consultant, Beyondly
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Kay Johnstone Johnstone

Climate Adaptation Adviser, Environment Agency
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Ellie Murtagh

UK Climate Adaptation Lead, British Red Cross
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Rebecca Lydon

Smart Energy & Sustainability Associate, Hydrock
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Helen Sprakes

Director, Environmental Strategies Ltd
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Conor Savage

ESG Programme Manager - Sainsbury's
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Georgina Phillips

Environmental Manager, EDF Energy

About Rebecca

Rebecca is Midlands 'born and bred' and has over 14 years experience in energy and sustainability consultancy following her academic studies and research (BSc Sustainable Technology and MRes Materials for Sustainable Energy - Hydrogen Fuel Cell Group ) at The University of Birmingham. In her career to date, she has spent time within engineering and planning consultancies to develop her knowledge and skills into a strong technical pre-planning advisory role in the property and construction sector. Rebecca now leads the Strategy and Planning work streams within the Smart Energy and Sustainability division at Hydrock, with a particular focus on strategic housing and employment sites across the UK.

About Conor

Conor is an ESG Programme Manager with Sainsbury's, where he is responsible for leading the development and maintenance of Sainsbury's Bank's ESG strategy. Before this he was a Climate Reporting Manager with NatWest Group, where he provided advice and technical expertise on climate, nature, and other sustainability-related policy. He joined the Group in 2019, as a Change & Business Solutions Graduate with Ulster Bank. Prior to this he studied Marine Biology at Bangor University, completing both a BSc and MSc. Whilst there, he specialised in the effects of Arctic sea ice retreat on sea ice-reliant/associated species, in particular walruses!

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Sara Halliday PIEMA

Sustainability and ESG Manager, ASD Limited
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Matthew Tompsett

Head of Environment and Sustainability, Kier
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Mairi Dorward

Principal Environmental Consultant, Xodus
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Andy Wilkins

Committee Member

About Andy

Andy has over a decade of working in the environmental assessment industry, predominantly in infrastructure engineering in consultancy. Working on development large and small, across the country and with a wide range of teams has given Andy a broad range of experience and skills. Andy is transitioning to the carbon/sustainability specialism, assisting a wide range of clients on their carbon reduction journey. Andy has over seven years of project management and stakeholder engagement experience. As a person of neurodiversity and an auto-immune condition, Andy is passionate about diversity in the sustainability sector.

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Alec Tang

Committee Member
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Rosemary Horry, FIEMA Cenv

Midlands Regional Network Chair & Fellows Network Steering Group Member
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Colin Robertson

Steering Group Chair | Manager of Sustainable Business at Yorkshire Water

About Alec

After doing an industrial placement in an environmental consultancy as part of my degree at the University of Bath, I wanted to find out more, so took more papers on sustainability sparking an interest in indigenous environmental perspectives. I then did a masters in environmental science at the University of Auckland. My main role is at Kāinga Ora, the New Zeland public housing and urban development agency, where I oversee development and implementation of the sustainability programme. This involves integrating sustainability considerations in investment and planning decision-making processes, developing strategic directions, and piloting interventions.

About Rosemary

Rosemary is the Chair for the Midlands Regional Steering Group a position she has held for over 13 years and is a Fellow of IEMA. She is a senior lecturer in Geoscience at the University of Derby. Alongside lecturing her work has included technical manager for the DE-carbonisation project working with SMEs on a variety of projects to reduce their carbon impacts. She is passionate about all things sustainable and is Chair of the Fairtrade Committee at the University working to ensure the continued commitment to Fairtrade. She is also on the Responsible Futures group which promotes ESD throughout the education provision. She is about to submit her DPhil at UWE, on the topic of ISO14001: the benefits and barriers to implementation. She is also an honorary Fellow with the Environmental Association of Universities and Colleges (EAUC) in recognition of her work to further environmental management within the sector.

Rosemary is the Chair for the IEMA Midlands Regional Steering Group a position she has held for over 13 years and is a Fellow of IEMA. She is a senior lecturer in Geoscience at the University of Derby.​ Alongside lecturing her work has included technical manager for the DE-carbonisation project working with SMEs on a variety of projects to reduce their carbon impacts. She is passionate about all things sustainable and is Chair of the Fairtrade Committee at the University working to ensure the continued commitment to Fairtrade. ​ She is also on the Responsible Futures group which promotes ESD throughout the education provision.

About Colin

Colin, MIEMA, CEnv, is an experienced environmentalist and Manager of Sustainable Business at Yorkshire Water. As both an in-house professional and external advisor his career has spanned multiple sectors including built environment, food, drink and hospitality, utilities, and construction.

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Want to know more?

If you want to know more about the work of our policy and practice team, please get in touch!

[email protected]