Members of the Forum planning team from the Geography and Environmental Management Research Unit and the School of Environment at Cheltenham & Gloucester College of Higher Education, January 2001 (l to r):

Top row: Mark Dempsey, Phil Johnson, Andrew Charlesworth, Dr John Daniell, Professor Frank Chambers.

Bottom row: Garry Bosworth, Ed Kennerley, Michele Hills, Dr Lindsey McEwen, Dr John Hunt, Dr Phil Gravestock, Dr Tim Hall.

In July 2000, a working party from the Geography and Environmental Management Research Unit of Cheltenham & Gloucester College of Higher Education chaired by Dr John Hunt, met to discuss raising the profile of the Climate Change agenda in the South West. The group decided to arrange a Climate Change Conference with a regional emphasis in partnership with the United Kingdom Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP), with the following objectives:

- to inform and fuel the climate change impact debate on mitigation and adaptation

- to identify key climate change issues affecting relevant sectors within the region

- to generate information exchange between key stakeholders in those sectors for which climate change will become a significant issue

- to enable dissemination of economically and environmentally significant examples of best practice in relation to climate change mitigation or adaptation

- to act as a launch pad for further studies.

The Cheltenham Climate Change Forum Steering Group was subsequently set up to oversee the organisation of the conference, which was scheduled for January 2001. It comprised senior representatives from private and public industry and other organisations across the region, including:

The conference was held at Park Campus of Cheltenham & Gloucester College of Higher Education on 31 January, and proved to be a highly successful event in focusing concern for climate change issues within the South West, attracting over 200 delegates from across the region. Full details, including speaker presentation material and workshop reports are available on this website - see Conference Report.

The conference attracted generous sponsorship from the following organisations: British Energy, the Environment Agency, the Government Office for the South West, Out of this World, Severnprint and Severn Trent Water.

The Forum, in partnership with C-CLIF, is now taking this work forward by way of a regional study entitled 'Potential Impacts of Climate Change in the South West Region, including a scoping study and detailed follow-up studies. See Future Developments in the Region.

In addition, the Forum is actively seeking partnerships with funding bodies to promote further research. Information on this will be posted on the website shortly under "Future developments in the region".