Anglian Water has announced that in addition to its role as co-lead of the COP26 Resilience Hub’s Water theme, the pioneering climate adaptation initiative Future Fens: Integrated Adaptation will be showcased at a global hybrid event at COP26.

The event, Reimagining the future of water: how landscape-scale solutions will win the race to water resilience will take place on Friday 5 November 2021, 1300-1430 (GMT) in the Blue Zone at COP26 in Glasgow, and will be open to a global online audience to attend free of charge via COP26 Resilience Hub. Registration is open now.

The event brings together an international panel including UK cabinet minister Steve Barclay MP and Environment Agency Chair Emma Howard Boyd CBE to discuss how integrated adaptation, combined with strategic, joined-up financing, is driving crucial change.

It will showcase how holistic, nature-based and community-led solutions in low-lying regions in the UK, the Netherlands, Vietnam, Bangladesh and India are making a real difference in the face of a warming climate and act as a spur to future international collaboration.

The event will shine a spotlight on Future Fens: Integrated Adaptation as an exemplar of best practice in holistic, multi-sector adaptation to the risks of climate change. The Fens will be a case study of how better water management can not only mitigate flood and drought risk, but also sustain agricultural productivity, increase natural capital, support carbon sequestration and facilitate sustainable housing growth, job creation and infrastructure development.

The Future Fens: Integrated Adaptation initiative is a collaboration between Anglian Water, Water Resources East, the Environment Agency, and many regional partners. It will align multiple agencies and sectors to manage water resources holistically, unlocking a wealth of new opportunities for an area that faces multiple challenges currently, by protecting from flood risk, improving transport connections and enabling all places in the Fens to maximise their economic potential.

The interactive event will demonstrate how multi-sector, place and landscape-based approaches to water management can deliver climate resilience and unlock environmental and social prosperity alongside economic growth, and create places where water is treated as an asset to be valued.

Confirmed speakers include:

The Rt Hon Steve Barclay MP, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Minister for the Cabinet Office and MP for North East Cambridgeshire, who will be delivering a keynote speech

Emma Howard Boyd CBE, Chair, Environment Agency, co-chair, Coalition for Climate-Resilient Investment and UN Global Ambassador for Race to Zero and Race to Resilience, who will be delivering a keynote speech and attending as a panel member

Dr Kala Vairavamoorthy, Executive Director, International Water Association, who is chairing the event

Peter Simpson, CEO, Anglian Water, and Co-Chair, Corporate Leaders Group, who will be presenting the Future Fens: Integrated Adaptation case study and attending as a panel member

Dr Hue Le, Deputy Director of Living Deltas, Senior Researcher at the Central Institute for Natural Resources and Environmental Studies, Vietnam National University, who will be presenting and attending as a panel member

Professor Mashfiqus Salehin, Institute of Water and Flood Management, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, who will be attending as a panellist

Anglian Water CEO Peter Simpson said:

“Through this event we’re keen to show that good adaptation to climate change can deliver not just climate resilience and economic growth, but a step change in environmental and social prosperity, both here in the UK and internationally.

“Our own Future Fens: Integrated Adaptation initiative, being delivered with the Environment Agency, Water Resources East, and a host of other partners, is a blueprint for multi-sector integrated adaptation and we’re thrilled to showcase it to a global audience.

“We’re also delighted to partner with Living Deltas Hub, who work with communities in India, Bangladesh and Vietnam, and to hear perspectives from the Netherlands, which faces similar water management challenges. Exploring our shared adaptation challenges and opportunities will bring learnings for all of us which we can take into our work – and which, we hope, will inspire those who attend to take tangible action as a result.”

Living Deltas Hub Director Andy Large said:

"Much focus in the global climate change debate has been on mitigation, but in the highly vulnerable low-carbon and rural delta landscapes of South and SE Asia, adaptation - and especially locally led adaptation that draws on indigenous and intergenerational knowledge - becomes key for any kind of sustainable delta future."

Click here to find out more and sign up to attend the event free of charge