How could South Yorkshire be the most resilient region in the world? It’s a bold and ambitious question but this is exactly what we posed to attendees of SYSC’s 2025 Annual Event, Our Future, Our South Yorkshire.
SYSC’s research currently has a focus around climate change mitigation and how we can support a just and sustainable transition to net-zero for the region. However, this year’s event also looked at resilience, which, as average global temperatures continue to rise, must form an essential part of our response to climate change alongside mitigation.
Why focus on resilience?
Climate change is already affecting weather patterns. South Yorkshire has experienced flooding events and extreme heat, droughts and wildfires in recent years. Extreme weather events have far-reaching impacts. For example, extreme heat causes heat-related illnesses and exacerbates chronic conditions, putting extra pressure on health services. Agricultural production is also vulnerable to extreme weather, with drops in yields linked to food inflation which disproportionately impacts the most vulnerable communities. These examples are just a drop in the rising oceans.
Whilst reducing carbon emissions remains crucial, it is clear that adaptation is also essential. We must build resilience to ensure that South Yorkshire can continue to thrive despite the changing climate.
People and Place at the Heart
We were thrilled to be joined by Oliver Harmar, Natural England’s Chief Officer for Strategy, who delivered an engaging and energetic keynote speech that set out a vision for “thriving nature for people and planet”.
Oliver highlighted the crucial role of community-driven partnerships as a mechanism for delivering nature recovery. Oliver stressed the urgent need to connect people with nature, deploy nature-based solutions for climate challenges, enhance natural capital, and utilise diverse expertise in order to protect and restore our natural environment.
Natural England's strategies emphasise the multiple benefits that can be achieved by restoring and protecting our natural environment. Access to natural spaces can improve health, wellbeing and overall socio-economic prosperity. Nature-based solutions can also be cost-effective, long-term responses to the impacts of climate change whilst also restoring ecological function. In short, if we work with nature and with people, there is an opportunity to build thriving and resilient communities, habitats and economies.
The challenge for the UK is great but Oliver drew attention to the critical importance of regional and sub-regional action as a mechanism for achieving larger scale goals - large scale regional initiatives such as the Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission’s Climate Action Plan, to local habitat restoration projects such as Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust’s Ughill Farm and community engagement projects such as the Urban Agriculture Task Force all matter, and all contribute to landscape scale nature restoration and landscape scale resilience.
Pioneering Urban Resilience in South Yorkshire
The event featured a motivating and impassioned panel talk chaired by Roz Davies (Green Estate) with Damian Allen (City of Doncaster Council), Paul Johnson (South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority), Dr Anna Hawkins (Sheffield Hallam University) and Ben Tongue (Digital Sustainability Programme Lead NHS).
The panel struck an upbeat note, calling on attendees to focus on what we can do with the assets and resources that we have - even if the action seems small. Small actions can help combat fear and give us hope by shining a light on pathways through seemingly insurmountable challenges.
With action-focussed workshops ahead, panellists called on attendees to consider ‘where are the quick wins in your roles and your lives?’ - what building and land do organisations or individuals control and what powers do they have? What infrastructure can they access?
The panel emphasised a key and important point - small actions, when visible and promoted to others, can have a powerful effect on our perceived ability to act - and can bring some much needed hope and inspiration to the South Yorkshire community.
The buzz of collaboration
One of the best things about SYSC events is how an engaged, diverse and vibrant network of people come together to share ideas, experiences and knowledge across a range of topics and expertise. There’s always a buzz of excitement with attendees eager to learn from each other and contribute to the discussions.
We wanted to provide a platform to highlight all of the region’s great projects and initiatives whilst also providing opportunities for collaboration. Lightning talks showcased projects and initiatives ranging from water quality and air quality to clean energy and nature conservation. These talks gave participants ideas about what could be done ahead of the action-focussed World Cafe sessions in the afternoon.
Pull up a chair at the World Cafe
World Cafes offer a structured conversation methodology for collaborative group dialogue and action. Our World Cafes were designed to build on the morning sessions - to look at what assets and gaps there are in South Yorkshire and to consider what bold actions could be taken across four areas; communities, infrastructure, landscapes and food systems.
The sessions promoted a positive, constructive atmosphere where any and all thoughts and ideas were welcomed. What became clear was that South Yorkshire has lots of assets to draw upon, from its universities and networks of committed organisations to natural capital and a history of climate action. By bringing our network together around these theme areas, we have been able to set some bold ambitions for a resilient South Yorkshire in the future.
The SYSC team is still working on the final outputs from the World Cafe sessions, but we plan to share them over the coming weeks.
Looking ahead
Our Future, Our South Yorkshire brought into focus why resilience should be a key focus for the region and showcased everything that is already being done. But more could and should be done. For its part, SYSC will be looking for opportunities to conduct and apply research in support of building regional resilience.
2025 is set to be the biggest year so far for SYSC. The centre is moving into the final year of its current funding and the research from our broad portfolio will be ready to share by January 2026.
Our next event will showcase the work of the centre and our themes and work package projects. We’re looking forward to sharing our final research findings and policy recommendations that outline how South Yorkshire could achieve an accelerated, just transition to net-zero.
