Comment | Climate change is everyone's business

By Zoe Robinson, Professor of Sustainability in Higher Education, Keele University. This article first appeared as a Personally Speaking column in the Stoke Sentinel in November 2026.

I have found myself saying 'The weather’s a bit mad, isn't it?' quite a lot recently. But we shouldn't be surprised. Climate modellers have been telling us for years to expect hotter, drier summers, and warmer, wetter winters, with more frequent and intense extremes. That is certainly what we have been experiencing this year, and with most of the autumn and winter still to come.

In my early career teaching physical geography at Keele University, I would ask students to think about the impacts of climate change. 'Sea level rise' would be one of the first answers to be shouted back.  But the impacts of sea level rise feel a long way away when you’re sitting in a university classroom on a hill in North Staffordshire! However, this summer has started to make the impacts of climate change feel much closer to home for many, particularly when we think about all of the different impacts experienced by individuals and organisations.

Back in November 2021, Keele University held an event for Staffordshire sustainability leaders, to bring together conversations about climate change across different organisations. Five years on, that has turned into the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Climate and Nature Commission, a group of about 30 organisations covering fire and police, health, farming, education, housing, community groups and community support, business, local authority and nature sectors, among others. We regularly come together to share work on climate and nature recovery, two deeply interconnected areas.

The last time we met, at the end of the summer, we heard how this summer's heatwaves had affected organisations across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent.

For example, overheating in housing schemes for older people is leading to people needing to be temporarily rehoused. Cancellations of community events and markets. Trains are being cancelled or delayed because of extreme temperatures.

We heard concerns about changes in suicide patterns being connected to the heatwaves and concerns about how heat and dehydration can lead to vulnerable people becoming confused and going missing. Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service described the summer as 'exceptionally demanding,' having dealt with wildfires from Cannock to Stoke-on-Trent.

We all saw the stories of overheating in our hospitals, and many felt the impacts of school closures on children and their families. Of course, the impacts aren't just immediate. The impacts on crops and feed for livestock will play out in food prices in the months to come.

But it's not enough just to talk about the problems. Members of the Climate and Nature Commission also shared different solutions to increase our resilience to these impacts that are happening across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent. For example, along the River Trent, projects are already showing how working with nature and restoring wetlands can help tackle flooding. Local communities are coming together to tackle issues in their local areas - forming flood action groups, creating community gardens with water storage solutions, and watering newly planted street trees throughout the dry weather.

But more also needs to be done to be resilient in the face of extreme weather. New housing developments will have to be built to soak up rain, not direct it elsewhere. The county’s farmers need to be able to store water directly on their land. Houses and public buildings, and our lifestyles, will have to be built or altered to cope with excess heat.

What's clear is that we need to stop thinking and talking about climate change as simply an environmental issue. We have seen this summer the impacts on health, jobs, and the services we rely on. The Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Climate and Nature Commission demonstrates the importance of working together to understand the challenges we face and find solutions by working together.

Whether you work in an organisation or are an individual wanting to explore what you can do to tackle and adapt to climate change impacts, find others to work with, widening perspectives and increasing impact - there are certainly many great organisations and individuals in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent working on action for climate and nature recovery to connect with.