ICSI at Climate Week NYC 2025: Advancing Resilient, Sustainable, and Nature-Positive Infrastructure

Climate Week NYC once again brought together global leaders, innovators, and practitioners to drive urgent action on climate resilience and sustainability. For ICSI, it was an important opportunity to highlight the role of engineers as catalysts for resilient futures and to showcase how nature-positive infrastructure can help tackle the climate and biodiversity crises.

Across multiple high-profile sessions, ICSI placed engineering leadership at the centre of the conversation on nature and resilience in infrastructure. We launched a landmark foresight review on nature-positive engineering at the COP Resilience Hub’s Resilience Day, represented engineers at Nature4Climate’s Nature Hub, and convened a dialogue with infrastructure sector leaders on global implementation of resilience. These engagements support ICSI’s mission to connect technical expertise with policy, finance, and community priorities, so that the infrastructure decisions we make today shape a safer, more sustainable world for tomorrow.

At the COP Resilience Hub’s Resilience Day, ICSI, Lloyd’s Register Foundation, and Conservation International co-hosted the session ‘Engineering Nature-Positive Futures: Solutions for People & Planet’. The session focused on the urgent need to confront the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution by reimagining how we design and build infrastructure.

During the event, the ‘Foresight review of nature-positive engineering’ was launched. Commissioned by Lloyd’s Register Foundation and authored by Savina Carluccio, the report was developed with the support of global partners from academia, industry, government, and civil society. It presents a framework and recommendations for embedding nature-positive approaches into adaptation and development pathways. The foresight review sets out a transformative vision for Nature-Positive Engineering (NPE), moving beyond simply “doing less harm” to actively restoring, protecting, and enhancing ecosystems while delivering safe, resilient infrastructure for people.

With 75% of the infrastructure of 2050 yet to be built, the foresight review highlights that the choices we make today will shape whether future development restores nature or accelerates its decline. By working alongside ecologists, local communities, and decision-makers, engineers can lead the way in designing solutions that are both nature- and people-positive, helping to build a safer, more resilient world for all.

At the Nature Hub session ‘Scaling Nature-Based Infrastructure for Coastal Adaptation’, hosted by Conservation International, Savina Carluccio joined a high-level panel. The session explored how coastal communities worldwide are facing escalating impacts from sea-level rise, storms, and erosion, and highlighted innovative approaches to scaling coastal nature-based solutions (NbS) that deliver both risk reduction and biodiversity benefits. Building on momentum from recent global dialogues, it also set out pathways for advancing ocean-climate action at COP30 and beyond.

Panellists emphasised several priorities: recognising coastal ecosystems such as mangroves, coral reefs, and tidal marshes as infrastructure that provides the most effective protection against climate risks; mobilising finance through innovative mechanisms; and showcasing examples of policy leadership. The conversation highlighted that advancing coastal NbS requires both political will and practical financial solutions.

Savina’s contribution brought an engineering perspective to the conversation. Drawing on ICSI’s Foresight review of nature-positive engineering, she emphasised the critical role of engineers in restoring, protecting, and enhancing ecosystems through NbS and hybrid infrastructure that integrate natural and built infrastructure, delivering solutions that strengthen climate adaptation and provide lasting community benefits.

The Global Infrastructure Resilience Roundtable convened senior leaders from the infrastructure sector to reflect on the current state of implementation of resilience globally and in the US context. Co-convened by ICSI, the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), and the Engineering Leadership Group (ELG), and kindly hosted by STV Inc, the dialogue reflected on key findings from the Global Infrastructure Resilience Survey (GIRS) 2025. The GIRS is the largest of its kind, capturing insights from over 3,000 infrastructure professionals and experts across 100+ countries in six languages. Complemented by 75+ expert interviews and five focus groups spanning 47 countries, it provides unprecedented global coverage and depth on resilience in infrastructure. 

The roundtable discussion centred on the GIRS key findings: persistent underinvestment in preventive measures such as maintenance and retrofitting, limited institutional and professional capacity to implement resilience, and the need for stronger policies, codes, and standards. Building on these findings, participants noted that risk assessments remain inconsistent in incorporating future climate scenarios and are often weakened by poor-quality or siloed data, but also saw potential for digital tools and AI to transform practice. They highlighted professional and industry barriers that keep NbS at the pilot stage, stressing the need for skills development and supportive standards. The conversation also emphasised the importance of reframing resilience as an opportunity through effective storytelling and of fostering cross-sector collaboration to build the economic case and align action across public and private stakeholders.

Insights from this roundtable will inform CDRI’s forthcoming Global Infrastructure Resilience Report (GIR2025), set for launch at COP30, and help shape a collective vision for resilient, sustainable, and people-centred infrastructure worldwide.

Thank you to all our collaborators and partners for making these engagements possible.

Read more:  Climate Week NYC