COP27 Question Time: what are the takeaways for engineers?

Keith Howells

Keith Howells is the 158th President of the ICE.

Having graduated in civil engineering in 1974, Keith joined one of the founder members of the Mott MacDonald Group and spent the first 10 years of his career in infrastructure design and project management, mostly in the water and transport sectors. On completing an MBA in 1986, he became involved with the planning, feasibility, and financial and economic analysis of projects, principally in the water and environmental sectors. Over the next decade he worked on numerous projects funded by the international finance institutions as well as by UK government bodies.

Keith has built career long experience in the planning, study and design of hydraulic structures, hydropower, urban drainage, sewerage, water supply and river engineering schemes. He has worked in numerous countries as well as in the UK. He ran the firm’s Water and Environment business from 1997 to 2002, before becoming the Group Managing Director in 2004, directing the firm’s expansion in North America and Australasia. Keith became Chair of the Group’s Executive Board in 2011, responsible to shareholders for the performance of the company and its strategic direction – a role he continued until mid-2019.

Keith was on the board of the Association for Consultancy and Engineering from 2011 to 2015, and its Chair in 2013; he was a member of the CBI’s Construction Council from 2013 to 2019; and a member of the Cranfield School of Management Advisory Board from 2012 to 2020.  He is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, a Fellow of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Prof Priti Parikh

Priti Parikh is a professor in Engineering Infrastructure and International Development at director of UCL’s Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction.

She is the founder director of UCL’s Engineering for International Development Centre. This centre focuses on engineering solutions for human development and wellbeing; and researches locally acceptable water-sanitation-energy solutions in low-middle income countries.

She has over 15 years of engineering industry experience in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the UK with consultancies to include hands-on experience of designing infrastructure for slums in partnership with local communities. She was awarded the prestigious BBOXX/Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair fellowship that focuses on energy access in sub-Sahara Africa through smart solar solutions.

Priti was the editor-in-chief of ICE’s Engineering Sustainability journal for three years. She then went on to get elected to ICE Council and is a member of the Learned Society Committee. She also sits on the board of Happold Foundation and Engineers Against Poverty to influence strategy on engineering and development.

Priti was named as one of the 100 most influential academics in the UK Government for her work in climate and sustainability by Apolitical and as the top 50 women in engineering in 2022. Priti’s research has influenced policy and practice especially the work around evidencing links between infrastructure and Sustainable Development Goals with governments and charities.

Savina Carluccio

Savina is the executive director of the International Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure (ICSI) and a fervent advocate of the role of civil engineers in tackling our society’s biggest challenges. She is an experienced civil engineer and infrastructure practitioner with almost two decades of experience advising government, infrastructure owners and operators, multi-lateral development banks and NGOs to develop and implement inclusive, sustainable, and resilient infrastructure that is fit for the future. Prior to taking her role at ICSI, she served as associate director and infrastructure advisor at Arup as well as head of guidance and standards at the Resilience Shift.

Seth Schultz

Seth Schultz is CEO, The Resilience Shift. He has a long track record of building consensus and initiating change in the field of sustainable development, and of raising international awareness on the role of cities in tackling climate change. He is a passionate advocate for a safe, resilient, and sustainable future and the role that post-Covid-19 economic stimulus packages can play in contributing to long term resilience. With over 20 years of experience, Seth has worked with leading and innovative organisations in this space including the Louis Berger Group, the US Green Building Council, the Clinton Foundation, C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, the Global Covenant of Mayors, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), where he was Co-Chair of the Scientific Steering Committee for Cities IPCC and served as a lead author on the ground breaking IPCC Special Report on 1.5 Degrees.

Prof. Anusha Shah

Anusha Shah is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) and its president for the 2023-24 session. She’s the third woman and first person of colour to be elected as president in over 200 years of ICE history.

She’s a senior director for resilient cities and UK climate change adaptation lead at Arcadis, a global sustainability, design, engineering and management consulting firm.

She’s also a non-executive director at the Met Office, a trustee at the Green Alliance and a visiting professor at Edinburgh University. She was awarded honorary professorship by the University of Wolverhampton for knowledge transfer and an honorary doctorate of engineering by the University of East London for her services to address climate change.

Anusha specialises in water and environmental engineering and has over 22 years of experience in designing, managing and leading projects and programmes in the UK and internationally.

Anusha sits on various industry climate change groups. She represents Arcadis at the London Climate Change Partnership and the 50L Home Initiative of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. She’s a past chair of the Thames Estuary Partnership Board.

Anusha is the recipient of several awards, including the 2020 Top 50 UK Women Engineers Sustainability Award and the CECA Inspiring Change Award. She was recognised by Climate Reframe as one of the UK’s leading Black, Asian and minority ethnic voices on climate change.

Micheala Chan

Micheala Chan holds a BA and MEng in Civil, Structural, and Environmental Engineering from the University of Cambridge (Trinity Hall) and is a civil engineer at Arcadis working in the water sector.

She previously served as an Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) President’s Future Leader, promoting the Shaping Zero agenda to stimulate action within the industry for carbon net-zero. In this role, Micheala led the establishment of an international working group of young engineers through the World Federation of Engineering Organisations (WFEO) to advocate for the involvement of young engineers in policy making and to initiate and facilitate collaboration between countries to contribute to global and local sustainable development. As a member of the core team, she contributed to the production of a high-level joint statement on COP26, showcasing the unified voice of international youth organisations while providing comprehensive climate policy recommendations, and organised several events at COP27 focussing on youth participation. Further, she has represented and advocated for youth at the G20 Indonesia 2022 as a UK Youth Delegate for Sustainable and Liveable Planet.

She currently serves as a Trustee on the Boards of Cambridge Development Initiative and Equal Aqua Uganda which are UK-based charities and NGOs tackling poverty in East Africa by engaging young people and local actors in the design, development, and implementation of sustainable, community-driven projects especially in water, sanitation, and hygiene.