How Pam’s Story is helping to prepare us for the impacts of climate change

Meet Pam. She’s a sixty-something Yorkshirewoman living through tough times.

You might say she’s a community hero in many respects, although she’d balk at the idea of someone calling her that.

Through the cycle of floods, heatwaves and drought, Pam’s been looking out for her neighbours and doing her best to support the local authority and crisis response teams to keep everyone safe – though the seemingly relentless weather tests the limits of her resilience.

Over the past two years she’s been sharing her experiences with decision-makers in health, local authorities, educational institutions and government departments to help them plan for the extreme weather.  All in all, she’s a pretty good egg.

She’s also entirely fictional.

A practical tool for adaptive planning

More than ever, we have a good scientific understanding of the climate risks facing the UK. The tricky part is making it mean something to people and communities, and figuring out how to adapt to ensure a decent quality of life in the future.

That’s where Pam comes in.

Pam’s Story is a workshop toolkit, designed to support decision-makers in improving the resilience and adaptability of our places. Through Pam’s narration, we are transported to 2048, and hear about her experiences of living through flooding and drought in her home town in Yorkshire. And whilst she may be fictional, the situation that Pam describes is based on rigorous predictions of future climate.

The toolkit was developed by Steve Scott-Bottoms at Vesper Hill in partnership with Sam Herbert at the Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission (YHCC), supported by colleagues at the University of Leeds and the Met Office. It includes two recordings of Pam, voiced by Kat Rose-Martin, plus a facilitator guide, participant worksheet and a short editable presentation (including suggested workshop structure and discussion questions). Transcripts of the recordings are also available.

You can access the full toolkit on the Vesper Hill website and the YHCC website.

The good, the bad and the hopeful

Pam tells two versions of her story. Workshop participants listen to both, then discuss Pam’s experiences and how they relate to the way her area has been protected and prepared (or not) for the weather. Participants are encouraged to focus on the implications of decisions for people’s wellbeing, not just their streets, their homes and their possessions.

In the first version, Pam’s home town has not been well-prepared for the extreme weather and knock-on impacts. She talks about the tough conditions she and her neighbours have had to endure, and how it has created tensions in the community. You can hear the despair in her voice as she describes the isolation she’s experiencing and her frustrations with the lack of support.

The second version of Pam’s story is deliberately more utopian. She talks about the ways she feels supported and protected during extreme weather, and the sense of community and comradery that is reinforced by the response plans for heatwaves. She doesn’t even mention flood because the area is now so well protected that, despite the intense rainfall as in version one, flooding hasn’t impacted her directly.

Pam’s narrative is based on the real experiences of real people, which means her emotions feel very authentic, and her experiences relatable. All too many listeners nod along as they listen to Pam talk in version one. While fewer listeners nod in response to version two, it evokes many more smiles. Its job is to provide a sense of hope, ambition and motivation, and inspire decisions that get us closer to the outcome described.

Pam on tour

Whilst Pam is a character from Yorkshire, many of her experiences translate across the UK and beyond. The toolkit is open access, so that anyone can use it to help facilitate adaptive planning in any region. Many aspects of Pam’s character are open to interpretation, allowing participants to develop the narrative into areas particularly relevant to their geography, sector or industry.

To date, Pam’s Story has been used by health professionals, local and combined authorities, communities of practice, university research groups and college students. Bristol University are planning to use Pam’s Story to support their work on climate resilience in South Africa and there are rumours bubbling that a Devonshire version of Pam is in the works.

What do people say about Pam?

We receive anecdotal and formal feedback about Pam’s Story as she makes her way around the country. Here are some of the things people say…

“It makes it all more human. […] I’ve spent years working on climate adaptation but it’s always about the technical things […] the practical ways we can divert flood water away. This really brought home how people might experience it emotionally and helped us talk about how we plan for that too.”

“I’ve used Pam’s Story a couple of times at workshops now. It’s been really well received and is a great tool to start the adaptation conversation with.”

“There seems to be a lot to be gained from both acknowledging the scale of the problem and also helping people understand what’s in their power to change and how they can best do that. Stories like Pam’s can be powerful for that.”

“They both prompted deep and fascinating discussion. It felt relatable and visceral.”

“For the community groups – they began to recognise their role and developed agency they were previously lacking. For internal colleagues – it highlighted to them how climate change must be prioritised and is not simply for the ‘climate change team’ to deal with.”

What’s next?

Pam’s Story was developed as part of the Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission’s Weather Narratives project. We have received some great ideas for evolving Pam’s Story and other narratives for accelerating climate adaptation.

We’re currently reviewing the opportunities in collaboration with the team at Vesper Hill and hope to develop our next output in 2026.