The EPA, as part of the National Dialogue on Climate Action, will host a hybrid (attend in-person or online) public lecture. Professor Neil Adger will explore how climate change poses risks to life and livelihoods through flood risk, heatwaves, wildfires and drought.

This lecture proposes ways to ensure health and well-being are accounted for when planning for floods and will examine whether people are made healthier and happier by strategies such as hard engineering, managed retreat, or living with risk. Professor Adger will draw on new findings from Ireland, the UK and Ghana.

Guest Speaker: Professor Neil Adger

Professor Neil Adger is a Professor of Human Geography at the University of Exeter. He is a leading social scientist on economic and social dynamics of climate change, resilience and vulnerability. He is a Highly Cited Researcher with work published across the social and natural sciences with landmark publications on adaptation to climate change, human security and demography. Neil is also a Professor of Human Geography at the College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter.

He is currently leading research on social dynamics of well-being, health, migration and climate change in the UK, Ireland, India, Bangladesh, Ghana and in Australia, with grants from Wellcome Trust, ESRC, FCDO, Belmont Forum, and the National Institute for Health Research.

Neil has served as a Commissioner for the Lancet Commission on Climate and Health 2015, and as Lead Expert for the UK Foresight field-defining report on Migration and Global Environmental Change in 2011. He led the IPCC assessment of human security dimensions of climate change.

The evening will be chaired by broadcaster and journalist Ella McSweeney. Ella will chair a live audience Q&A session with Professor Adger after his presentation. You can register here.