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Type
Lecture

ICE Strategy Session: reflections on COP28

Event organised by ICE

Date
12 December 2023
Time

This event has now ended

Overview

The 28th United Nations Climate Change conference or Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, more commonly referred to as COP28, will be the held from 30 November until 12 December 2023 at the Expo City, Dubai.

COP28 will have a focus on the progress and conclusion of the first Global Stocktake of the implementation of the Paris Agreement, a two-year process with the aim of assessing the world’s collective progress towards achieving its climate goals.

This will help align the efforts on climate action, including measures that need to be put in place to bridge the gaps in progress. The COP28 UAE presidency will work to ensure that the world responds to the Global Stocktake with a clear action plan.

This strategy session will focus on COP28 activities and will aim to summarise the key takeaways of the conference and surrounding events for the civil engineering community, as well as highlighting observations from ICE’s expert community.

Speakers will be ICE representatives who will have attended COP28, and who can draw upon their experiences to deliver key messages and highlight outcomes.

Aside from the high-level negotiations, COP28 hosts a vast array of side events, including official Blue Zone events, and pavilion events such as those in the Resilience Hub. In this event, we will hear about some of these key moments from attendees themselves.

Our speakers and panellists represent a range of global organisations, including the International Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure (ICSI) and the World Federation of Engineers Organisation (WFEO) who will have hosted several events at COP28, and can summarise these for our participants.

Programme

09:00 - 09:15

Introduction and presentation from ICE President Prof. Anusha Shah

09:15 - 09:25

Presentation from Mark Hansford, director of Engineering Knowledge, Institution of Civil Engineers

09:25 - 09:35

Presentation from Savina Carluccio, executive director, International Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure (ICSI)

09:35 - 09:45

Presentation from Davide Stronati, chair – Climate Change Working Group, WFEO and director of sustainability, Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

09:45 - 09:55

Presentation from Priti Parikh, professor of infrastructure engineering and International Development and head of UCL’s Engineering for International Development Centre, UCL (joining online)

09:55 - 10:05

Presentation from Micheala Chan, civil engineer, Arcadis (joining online)

10:05 - 10:25

Q&A session

10:25 - 10:30

Closing remarks from Prof. Anusha Shah

10:30

Session close

Speakers

Prof. Anusha Shah

Prof. Anusha Shah

Institution of Civil Engineers

president 2023/24

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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.

Davide Stronati

Davide Stronati

World Federation of Engineering Organisations

Chair of the Committee of Engineering & Environment

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Davide Stronati

Corporate sustainability executive with more than 20 years’ experience of working alongside boards of directors and CEOs in the private and public sectors in the UK, Europe and Worldwide.

Past global head of Sustainability and climate change at Mott MacDonald, currently leading the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority Group in embedding sustainability in the organisation purpose, strategy and operations.

Board member of the UN Global Compact UK Network. He is the chair of the Committee on Engineering and the Environment at the World Federation of Engineering Organisations (WFEO) representing the engineering voice on climate change with United Nations agencies (UNFCC, UNESCO) and bringing my experience of international cooperation.

Recognised leader in sustainability, leadership and change management.

Prof Priti Parikh

Prof Priti Parikh

Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, UCL

director and professor of infrastructure engineering and international development

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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 Carluccio

International Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure

executive director

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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, multilateral 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 worked as an associate director and infrastructure advisor at Arup and she was the head of guidance and standards at the Resilience Shift. She also serves a member of Institution of Civil Engineers’ advisory board on sustainable and resilient infrastructure.

Micheala Chan

Micheala Chan

Arcadis

Civil Engineer

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Micheala Chan

Micheala Chan holds a BA and MEng in civil, structural, and environmental engineering from the University of Cambridge and is a civil engineer at Arcadis specialising in water and resilience.

Driven by a strong belief in the importance of meaningful youth engagement, Micheala served as a UK Youth Delegate to the G20 Indonesia 2022, advocating for policies to ensure a sustainable and liveable planet.

Currently, she leads the National Policy workstream for the Engineering Organization's Future Leaders/Young Engineers Working Group on Climate Action and co-leads the Commonwealth Sustainable Energy Transition Youth Action Group. Throughout this work, her objective is to empower young engineers to take climate action, building their capacity and influence.

Mark Hansford

Mark Hansford

Institution of Civil Engineers

director of engineering knowledge

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Mark Hansford

Mark Hansford is the director of engineering knowledge at the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE). He plays a crucial role in shaping the knowledge content for civil engineering professionals.

With over 20 years of experience in the civil engineering industry, Mark began his career as a practicing engineer with Atkins, where he worked on water supply and distribution projects both in the UK and internationally, including a major study in Ghana.

At ICE, Mark is actively involved in strategic initiatives like Project 13, which aims to promote collaborative and sustainable approaches to infrastructure delivery.

For more information please contact:

Paula Dinu

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