Academics from across Alliance Manchester Business School took part in the recent Manchester Festival of Climate Action, organised by The University of Manchester, which considered the challenges at the forefront of the climate crisis.

To coincide with the ongoing COP-26 conference, we are showcasing the video sessions involving all AMBS academics over the coming week. In this latest film Duncan Shaw, Professor of Operations and Critical Systems at AMBS, was joined by Burcak Basbug from Middle East Technical University and Katia Tynan, Manager of Resilience at the City of Vancouver, to discuss how local communities can become more resilient to the threats posed by climate change.

It is not just governments that need to respond to the challenge of climate change. Communities across the world have an important role to play in building their own resilience and providing a local resilience capability to mitigate, prepare, respond, and recover from emergencies when they happen.

In recent years AMBS has been at the forefront of helping cities and local governing authorities to become more prepared for climate-induced disasters, in particular through the promotion of a global standard for disaster volunteers.

As Professor Shaw told the session: “Across the University we have been talking a lot about the need to build capability within our communities. What that means is enabling communities to be able to respond to major incidents and emergencies. For instance here in the UK one of the highest risks on our national risk register is major coastal flooding and that will be affected by changes in our climate.

“As an international community we are very vulnerable to disaster risks and as a result we have to take action to address those risks. We need to constantly remind ourselves that more needs to be done.”

Professor Shaw also took the opportunity to discuss the recent launch in the UK of the National Consortium for Societal Resilience [UK+], which he co-founded, and which brings together local government authorities to develop new ways of engaging communities in building their own resilience.

Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHgrlx3tJ7s

Written by

Dr Matthew Alford

Senior Lecturer, International Business and Management

Alliance Manchester Business School