MACC Hub Webinar Series #3: Visions for a well-adapted UK

The Event

SWM is involved in the MACC Hub as an engagement partner covering the whole of England, and to support the development of non-academic outputs. As part of this, we invite you to join a conversation on one of the most urgent and underexplored questions in climate action: what does a well-adapted UK actually look like?

Unlike emissions targets, adaptation lacks a shared, measurable vision to guide ambition, align efforts, and inspire investment. A clear vision could shape a pathway toward a desirable common future—defining what we are aiming for, how we coordinate to get there, and why clarity is essential to embed resilience across society. Without it, adaptation remains fragmented, reactive, and under-resourced, locking in future risks and higher costs.

Agenda

This webinar will explore key questions at the heart of vision-building for adaptation:

• Who benefits—and who loses—from dominant visions of a well-adapted UK?
• What trade-offs are we willing (or not willing) to make in building resilience?
• How can we create space for conflict, contestation, and dissent in vision-building?
• How can we avoid visions that depoliticise climate adaptation and erase responsibility?

Structure

This one-hour webinar will feature four invited speakers from across the fours nations of the UK. Each will offer a 7 minute provocation responding to the guiding questions, drawing on practice, scholarship, and lived experience. Rather than formal presentations, these short talks are designed to seed collective reflection, spark debate, and open space for imagining alternative futures.

A Q&A and open discussion will follow, inviting participants to share perspectives, challenge assumptions, and co-create ideas for how a vision for a well-adapted UK might take shape—at national, regional, and local levels.

Speakers

We are pleased to welcome to the panel discussion:

• Ruth Hunter (PhD) – Professor at Queen’s University Belfast (Northern Ireland)
• Colleen Cluett – Sustainable Development Advisor, Office of the Future Generations Commissioner (Wales)
• David Gunn – Senior Research Fellow, Sustainability Accelerator, Environment and Society Centre, Chatham House (England)