Presidential Blog: Introducing our new presidents

Energy & Climate Change, Management & Regulation, Natural Environment

CIWEM are delighted to welcome Hannah Burgess and Peter Rook as our new president and junior president respectively for 2024/2025.

Their chosen theme this year will be ‘scaling up resilience towards and adapting at pace to climate change’, which engages with vital concepts across the diverse sectors in which our members work, including the water industry, flood risk management and environmental management. CIWEM’s president has an ambassadorial role representing all CIWEM members, with the junior president specifically advocating for early career professionals. They are supported by the immediate past and future presidents, providing continuity.

The Environment Editor Jo Caird spoke to Hannah and Peter on their hopes and ambitions for their term and discusses their chosen theme.

What do we mean by 'resilience'?

Many of us frequently encounter the term ‘resilience’ in our professional lives, but what does it actually mean? At its most basic level, ‘resilience’ is the ability of a system to absorb and recover from a shock, such as the challenges posed by the climate and ecological emergency. This is increasingly critical as the year from 2023 to 2024 marked the first time that global temperatures consistently exceeded the 1.5°C warming limit, according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service. Additionally, the fourth State of Nature Report presents bleak statistics, noting that since 1970, UK species have declined by 19 per cent on average.