Wales Climate Week 2024
Wales Climate Week takes place from 11th-15th November 2024 and brings together cross-sector stakeholders to discuss climate change adaptation.
With extreme weather events becoming more frequent, it’s crucial that Wales adapts its homes, communities, and businesses to rising heatwaves, droughts, storms, and floods.
The virtual conference is the launch pad for Wales Climate Week 2024. It’s free and accessible to anyone interested in discussing solutions for tackling climate change. Sessions will cover topics such as:
Strategic responses to climate change fall broadly under two categories – mitigation and adaptation – which both come with their interdependencies and trade-offs.
At South Wales Fire and Rescue Service, we, like the rest of the Welsh public sector, are working towards net zero carbon status by 2030 – reducing carbon emissions within our buildings, fleet and supply chain and then offsetting emissions that cannot be reduced any further by investing in removing carbon from the atmosphere. This is climate change mitigation – doing our part to reduce our emissions in order to lessen the effects of climate change.
Climate change adaptation are the changes and adjustments that we put in place when considering the effects of climate change. Some changes are already ‘locked-in’ and will not be influenced by mitigation efforts. However, lots of predicted effects can be avoided altogether, or significantly lessened by mitigation efforts. For us, this will include changing how and how often we respond to floods, wildfires, and other heat and extreme weather-related incidents. It will also mean future-proofing our assets and workforce for predicted changes and in readiness of likely changes.
This is not to say that there isn’t still huge work to be done via mitigation – our actions as an organisation and collectively as individuals can make a real difference to the type of world ourselves, and future generations, will live in.
We also have responsibilities when working with people on the ground. We’re a trusted presence, and can advocate for our communities on issues of safety and fairness as we adapt to a warming world and its implications, in the name of reducing risk, raising awareness and protecting the environment.
In 2025, we will continue with our mitigation efforts and will also plan for how we will continue to serve our communities, even in light of climatic, socio-cultural, and infrastructure trends.
How can I get involved with Climate Week?