According to the United Nations, climate change refers to long-term changes in temperatures and climate patterns. These changes may be natural, such as those caused by fluctuations in the sun’s activity. But since the nineteenth century, human activities have been the main driving force behind climate change, mostly because of the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas. Many climate-change solutions may offer economic benefits while at the same time improving our lives and protecting the environment. And there can be no doubt that engineering and architecture have and will continue to have a key role to play in these solutions. We have a number of global frameworks and agreements to guide our progress, including the Sustainable Development Goals, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Accord, but we also need to act down at the project scale.

Indeed, even though we are striving to halt climate change and achieve the emissions-reduction targets set, it is essential for our projects to be adapted to the existing climate impact. First of all, by means of analysis, but also with ambitious solutions for infrastructure, to enable us to live with a world that is already changing.