Making infrastructure more sustainable: applying policy tools to create impact

Prof Jim Hall

Prof Jim Hall is a trustee of the ICE and until recently, held the carbon and climate portfolio.

He’s a professor of climate and environmental risks at the University of Oxford.

His research specialises on risk analysis for water resource systems, flooding and coastal engineering, infrastructure systems and adaptation to climate change.

Prof Hall is a member of the UK prime minister's Council for Science and Technology and is a commissioner of the National Infrastructure Commission.

He was a member of the UK independent Committee on Climate Change Adaptation from 2009 to 2019.

He led the development of the National Infrastructure Systems Model (NISMOD), which was used for the ICE’s influential National Needs Assessment and for the UK’s first National Infrastructure Assessment.

Prof Hall invented, and now chairs, the UK Data and Analytics Facility for National Infrastructure (DAFNI).

Among various distinctions, Hall was awarded the ICE’s George Stephenson Medal in 2001 and the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water in 2018.

He was a contributing author to the Nobel Prize-winning Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Jagoda Egeland

Rowan Palmer

John Seed CEng FICE

John is the Partner Lead for the ERM Northern Europe Mergers & Acquisitions Advisory team. John has over 35 years’ experience of infrastructure delivery the last 20 of which have mainly involved private finance transaction advisory services. Advisory teams that John has built globally provide transaction due diligence and project preparation advisory services in the infrastructure and energy sectors.   

Prior to joining ERM, John worked for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development as the head of the Sustainable Infrastructure Group Policy and Project Preparation Units. His team there provided upstream, mid-stream and downstream technical, procurement and advisory support for both public and private sector programmes and projects aligned to the banks sustainable infrastructure business. This involved support for over 100 project investments annually, worth in the order of EUR 4 billion.  

Before EBRD, John was Advisory Global Sector Leader at Mott MacDonald with responsibility for global infrastructure advisory business strategy and growth. He was also responsible for the drafting of several UK and international standard private finance and sustainability procedures and guidelines and was a board member of the International Project Finance Association (IPFA) for six years. 

Richard Threlfall

Richard Threlfall is the global head of Infrastructure, Government and Healthcare at KPMG International. He is also an Enabling Better Infrastructure (EBI) Steering Group Member as well as IMPACT, which brings together expertise from across the globe focused on the issues that go to the heart of our planet's sustainability and our quality of life: Environment, Social and Governance (ESG), economic and social development, sustainable finance, climate change and decarbonisation, and the associated measurement, reporting and assurance.

He is also the global head of KPMG’s global infrastructure network which helps to connect the world, build prosperity, reduce poverty and create a sustainable quality of life. We advise stakeholders in every stage of the infrastructure lifecycle, from planning, strategy, procurement, finance and construction to asset management, operations, and divestment.

He cares deeply about these issues. As a leader of these networks, his aim is to support clients and communities in realising the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and thereby enable a better future for everyone, everywhere.

With more than 25-years of experience in infrastructure and transport, Richard has advised private and public sector clients on some of the world’s largest and most complex infrastructure projects. He is passionate about the benefits of the growing role of technology in infrastructure and in particular future mobility including electric and autonomous vehicles and mobility as a service.

Richard is a Fellow, Vice-President and Trustee of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Chair of the International Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure, a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Urban Mobility, a member of the Infrastructure Board of the Confederation of British Industry and KPMG’s representative on the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. In addition, as Chair of the UK Infrastructure Forum Advisory Council, he helps bring together individuals with multiple perspectives to engage openly in sharing experiences and understanding how we can work together to drive better outcomes for society.

Javed Yunas Uppal

Dr. Engr. Javed Yunas Uppal is a BSc Engr., PhD (London), CEng, MICE (UK), and MASCE (USA). His name appears in Who’s Who in the World, Chicago, USA. He is a practicing civil structural engineer, chairing Engineering Project Development Consultants. He has served as the President of the Institution of Engineers, Pakistan, a Member of the Governing Body of the Pakistan Engineering Council, and a Consultant for Planning and Development for the Government of the Punjab. He is the author of over 40 publications and conference presentations at both national and international levels. He is also a trainer and motivator, delivering workshops at the grassroots, middle, and top management levels.

Dr. Uppal has been promoting the image of ICE in Pakistan by collaborating with and inviting ICE visiting teams. A couple of instances include being a speaker at the UNEP-ICE Sustainable Infrastructure Event on 31 May 2023, where he discussed case studies on the application of SDGs in the Pakistan Spatial Strategic Program, and conducting a three-week workshop in May 2021 on the Application of the Prince’s Foundation Commonwealth Association London Toolkit for Rapid Urban Development, in collaboration with the ASCE Planning Committee on Global Sustainability and the Asian Civil Engineering Coordination Council (ACECC) Committee on Sustainable Infrastructure, Washington, DC.

Mark Radka

Mark has over 30 years of professional experience in the field of environmental policy and management, most of it with UNEP.  He has served as the Acting Deputy, as well as previously having fulfilled the functions of multiple management positions, in parallel, in the Division, over the past years, ad interim.   

Prior to that he served for several years in UNEP’s Asia and the Pacific Office, where he managed industrial environmental management projects throughout Asia.  Mark is particularly interested in technology transfer and the technology needs of developing countries and was a coordinating lead author of the IPCC Special Report on Methodological and Technological Issues in Technology Transfer.