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Climate change mitigation: Essential to build resilience into infrastructure

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Mr Yuen Sai Kuan has pointed out the Government”s efforts in sharing expertise with other countries in the mitigation of and adaptation to the impact of climate change (S”pore active in sharing know-how on climate issues; June 8).

For any country to deal with climate issues effectively, the sharing of engineering expertise and practical engineering innovations is required, to complement the Government”s efforts.

Engineers design, operate and maintain the infrastructure, housing and transport networks that we all depend on daily.

As cities continue to develop, new engineering solutions are needed to address constraints posed by the physical environment and the changing climate.

As a small city-state that has built itself to a world-class standing in less than 40 years and gained significant know-how in sustainable urban engineering solutions, Singapore is in a unique position to share tropical climate-friendly technologies with other countries for deployment.

The Institution of Engineers, Singapore (IES) online casino will host the World Engineers Summit (WES 2015) on Climate Change next month, where global thought leaders will gather to discuss sustainable urban development for global climate resilience, as it is absolutely essential to build resilience into our current infrastructural development for long-term benefits.

As part of WES 2015, corporate and industrial climate change champions will also showcase their latest green and sustainable technologies at Climate Change Expo 2015.

The pledge by the Group of Seven and the upcoming push at the Conference of the Parties in Paris in December to decarbonise the global power sector, as well as the recent call by Pope Francis to more than one billion people to do their part, are a clear message that climate change is at the top of the global agenda (Long, urgent to-do list for G-7; last Tuesday, and Pope urges action to save Earth from destruction; last Friday).

Climate change is an issue that is here to stay, so it is also our hope that WES 2015 will bring the reality and urgency of this issue to our engineers and to the attention of the younger generation worldwide, as we call for continual exchange of expertise and solutions for the long term.