Briefing: Should engineers be allowing for a potential 4°C rise by 2040 and how?

At the Twenty-first Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP21), in Paris in December 2015, an agreement was reached on a long-term goal for world governments to limit global warming to well below 2°C. However, scientific assessments indicate that the global average temperature is already at or exceeding 1°C and by the end of the century could be in excess of 4°C. With evidence that global temperatures are increasing at an alarming rate, there are therefore still doubts that keeping the rise below 2°C can be achieved. The UK government has established through the UK Climate Change Risk Assessment 2017 that more needs to be achieved in implementing effort over and above that already planned during the next 5 years. However, the implication of financial support reductions on government agencies and local government required to act on such climate change implications means that local agencies are now unable to provide the necessary resources. Climate change represents one of the most serious threats to the well-being of global society. It is considered that there is now an opportunity and duty for the civil engineering profession to take a lead in promoting the message to policy creators and decision makers. The goal of the COP21 agreement should represent an urgent priority for action and funding.