In a speech made on February 4th at Wolfson College, University of Oxford, Environment Agency Chief Executive Sir James Bevan, told listeners that mitigation and adaptation is how we’ll beat the climate emergency.
“We are a major player on mitigation. We regulate most of the greenhouse-gas emitting industries in this country, and with those industries are progressively reducing their emissions. We run the UK Emissions Trading Scheme which caps and reduces the emissions from aviation, steel and other heavy industries. We are a major player on adaptation. We build flood defences that will better protect communities in the face of growing flood risk. We work with planners and developers to create places that will be more resilient to climate shocks. We manage drought risk. We work to restore and enhance nature: planting trees, creating new habitat for wildlife, restoring peat bogs, returning rivers to their natural courses after the Victorians engineered many into straight drains, opening up rivers to fish and so on – all of which both helps mitigate climate change, because trees and peat bogs trap the carbon that causes it, and helps adapt to its effects, because thriving nature is more resilient to shocks.” said Sir James.
