Baxter live on Radio 5Live

IEMA's Martin Baxter was invited to speak on Shelagh Fogerty's Radio 5Live show to discuss how environment and sustainability practitioners can help deal with flood risk

Following the publication of a joint letter from 17 professional bodies, including IEMA, urging David Cameron to utilise their collective experience and expertise to help prevent future flooding crises in the UK, Martin Baxter – executive director of policy at IEMA and the Institute’s signatory to the letter – was invited to provide comment on BBC Radio 5Live.

The letter, which was published in the Daily Telegraph on 21 February, begins: “As landscape architects, architects, engineers, hydrologists, ecologists and other specialists with the experience necessary to tackle flooding, we would like the government to be aware that the expertise of our professions is available and, we believe, urgently required.”

Several media channels covered the call from the professions to the government, with Baxter providing clarity and comment on the content of the letter and the need for a “coordinated response” to mitigate climate challenges, including flooding – which continues to have significant impacts in parts of the UK, the US and Europe.

Baxter was interviewed on Shelagh Fogerty’s afternoon show on Radio 5Live. “[Environment and sustainability professionals] are the ones who understand the issues and have the technical knowledge to apply the right measures,” he told Fogerty.

Closing the discussion, Baxter, who was joined on the show by George Adams, president of Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers and another signatory to the letter, advised that closer, more inclusive working will aid prevention and protection against future threats: “Government agencies and parties really must work much closer together, along with ourselves and other organisations, because we need a consensus for action and we need to provide communities with the necessary protection,” he said.

BBC 5Live also included Baxter’s comment in a subsequent news bulletin, demonstrating how IEMA’s comment and leadership on environment and sustainability issues is increasingly sought by the media.

To view the letter to David Cameron in full, click here.