Istanbul, Türkiye, 6-7 June 2026
The Zero Waste Forum brought together policymakers, practitioners, and civil society in Istanbul to advance systemic approaches to waste reduction. As the climate community looks ahead to COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye, the Forum provided an important moment to connect circular economy ambition with the infrastructure and climate agendas, and to strengthen partnerships ahead of next year’s climate negotiations. Our Executive Director, Savina Carluccio, joined a panel on shared access and low-waste urban living, a meeting with COP30 High-Level Climate Champion, Dan Ioschpe, and the Marrakesh Partnership Global Climate Action Agenda meeting.
Marrakesh Partnership Global Climate Action Agenda meeting
Savina attended the Marrakesh Partnership Global Climate Action Agenda meeting at the Forum, jointly convened by the COP30 and COP31 High-Level Climate Champions alongside UNFCCC and Marrakesh Partnership stakeholders. For ICSI, the opportunity to engage directly with the High-Level Climate Champions is an important part of ensuring that engineering and infrastructure perspectives are present in the conversations that shape the Global Climate Action Agenda. The session focused on strengthening delivery and coordination ahead of COP31, with discussions centred on the proposed Zero Waste Package for Climate Action, an umbrella framework intended to bring together existing initiatives on zero waste and circular economy solutions.
Dialogue with COP30 High-Level Climate Champion on the role of the private sector to unlock climate action
Savina joined a meeting with Dan Ioschpe, COP30 High-Level Climate Champion, and Bruna Cerqueira, lead of the COP30 Action Agenda, alongside representatives from other key organisations. The discussion focused on the role of the private sector in mobilising climate action, a conversation where ICSI presented its role as a connector between the technical community and policymakers and investors, and highlighted the Engineering Leadership Group as a unified voice capable of sending a market signal on resilience and sustainability standards. Savina also drew attention to the Plan to Accelerate Solutions: Resilient and Adaptive Transport Infrastructure (PAS), highlighting the critical role private sector engineering must play in delivering climate-resilient transport systems at scale.
| What is the ‘Plan to Accelerate Solutions: Resilient and Adaptive Transport Infrastructure (PAS)’? The Plan to Accelerate Solutions: Resilient and Adaptive Transport Infrastructure (PAS) is a collaborative initiative under the Global Climate Action Agenda. Led by ICSI, and co-led with Brazil’s Ministry of Transport and the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), the PAS brings together key global stakeholders to accelerate the development and implementation of climate-resilient transport systems. Launched at COP30, the PAS provides a structured platform to coordinate action, share knowledge, track progress, and scale up practical, evidence-based solutions for more resilient transport infrastructure. It will run through to the 2028 Global Stocktake, helping sustain momentum and align efforts over time. Its first key milestone will be COP31, where concrete outcomes, partnerships, and initial progress will be presented. |
Shared Access in Cities: Building the Infrastructure for Low-Waste Urban Living
Savina joined this panel as a speaker, bringing an engineering perspective to conversations that often focus primarily on behaviour change and business models. Her contribution centred on a core argument: that waste in infrastructure begins long before demolition. Assets designed for a single function, serving one user group at a time, represent a fundamental underuse of embedded carbon, capital, and land. The transition to low-waste cities is, in large part, a question of how infrastructure is designed and procured and whether governments are willing to make whole-life carbon and utilisation a genuine condition of approval, not a reporting requirement.
Drawing on examples including the Cheonggyecheon Stream restoration in Seoul, which transformed a car-only elevated highway into a shared urban asset delivering flood protection, urban cooling, and active travel, and the reuse of retired steel wire rope from shipping ports as the main structural cable for pedestrian trail bridges in East Africa by FIKA, she illustrated how circular logic is already an engineering practice, not just a policy aspiration.
ICSI looks forward to continuing these conversations as the community builds momentum towards COP31 in Antalya.
