Perhaps the greatest of these has been his enthusiastic but sure-footed approach to ensuring that the RAF will be climate change resilient and carbon neutral (NetZero) by 2040 - ten years before the rest of Government and the public sector. During a speech to the Freeman Air and Space Institute at Kings College in London in late 2021, ACM Wigston said: "Some of you will have heard me acknowledge that I could be seen as crazy, as an air and space chief, to be talking about sustainability. Five years ago, I would probably have agreed. But now, the necessity for change could not be clearer: our politicians demand it of us, our public demands it of us and the young people in the Royal Air Force today - the Next Generation Royal Air Force - demand it of the leadership team and me." In embracing such an ambitious target, Wigston is ensuring that the RAF is tackling the problem identified in the Climate Change Committee's 2021 Independent Assessment of UK Climate Risk, which said that "the gap between the level of risk we face and the level of adaptation underway has widened." Wigston aims to do whatever he can to close that gap.
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