In the run-up to COP26 in Glasgow, climate change and its consequences have dominated the news agenda, underscoring that the debate is no longer only about policy but also about delivery on the ground. The ICE feature argues that civil engineers must step forward as leaders in this transition, tying practical infrastructure decisions to the broader goals of decarbonisation and resilience. The same week, city authorities warned that London faces mounting flood risk: a quarter of the capital’s rail stations, one in five schools and nearly half of its hospitals could be exposed to surface water flooding in future wetter years, with the city’s underground network at risk of becoming uncomfortably hot for extended periods if temperatures continue to rise. Taken together, these threads illustrate a single point with growing clarity: the time for engineers to act is now, not in some distant future.

The message from the prime minister’s UN address and the accompanying policy frame is stark, and the reference point for civil engineers is practical action, not rhetoric alone. In that speech, described by BBC coverage as a turning point for humanity, leaders were urged to pursue bold climate actions—such as ensuring zero-emission vehicles are on sale by 2040, ending coal power by 2040 in the developing world and 2030 in developed economies, and halting biodiversity loss by 2030—alongside a wider push to accelerate the clean-energy transition and rethink infrastructure investment. The ICE piece links that political urgency to the engineering profession’s remit, framing it through a set of actionable commitments designed to move from discussion to deliverable projects on the ground. At the same time, the ICE briefing on the six ways civil engineers can act on climate change provides a practical playbook: treat this as an emergency, bring carbon into every conversation, understand and influence end users, design and build for the right outcomes, pursue creative solutions, and take responsibility for resilience. The aim is to embed carbon considerations in procurement, fuel broader stakeholder engagement, and accelerate the pace of decarbonisation in the built environment.

Yet the road from aspiration to action is complicated by public pressure and partisan debates about permitting, funding and retrofit. Insulate Britain’s protests on the M25—gluing hands to the road to demand faster action on home insulation and fuel poverty—expose how political and social pressures can intersect with engineering challenges. Court injunctions and heightened public scrutiny have become part of the landscape, while city-level analyses of risk illustrate the scale of the task. In London, for example, the mayoral briefing warns that a substantial portion of critical infrastructure and public services could be exposed to flooding in the coming years, and that heat in the Underground could become an annual, multi-week hazard if adaptation measures lag. Against this backdrop, the ICE’s State of the Nation 2021 work emphasises the need for immediate, tangible progress—the six actions are not a theoretical framework but a call to translate climate ambitions into end-to-end projects that end users can see and benefit from. As the project leader and ICE president has put it in the ongoing Shaping Zero narrative, engineers must answer the question: what are you going to do?

In this context, COP26 appears less a single event and more a catalyst for a sustained shift in professional practice. The conference’s programme—covering finance, energy, nature, transport and the broad architecture of the climate economy—highlights the multi-disciplinary collaboration required to translate policy into project-level outcomes. Schedule highlights and side events emphasise how engineering decisions intersect with finance, regulation and community engagement, underscoring the need for civil engineers to articulate the end-user value of low-carbon design and to collaborate with policymakers and clients to accelerate delivery. For engineers, the path forward is concrete: embed carbon metrics in procurement choices, elevate public and end-user understanding of low-carbon solutions, and design infrastructure that performs under climate stress while supporting social and economic resilience.

In short, the profession faces a dual imperative: accelerate decarbonisation in the built environment while strengthening the resilience of critical infrastructure to climate risks. The evidence from city analyses, protest discourse, and policy discourse converges on a single conclusion. It is not enough to talk about climate action; engineers must lead with practical projects, improvements in planning and procurement, and clear communication with end users. The moment calls for leadership at every level of the supply chain—from the design studio to the operating theatre of public services—so that the ambitions announced at COP26 translate into safer, more sustainable, and better-prepared communities.

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Source: Noah Wire Services