Engineering for Tomorrow’s Climate

Britain is preparing its infrastructure for yesterday’s weather, leaving essential services increasingly exposed to a changing climate.

The biggest threat may not be a single flood, heatwave or storm, but the cascading failures that can occur when one disruption triggers another. A heatwave could reduce power capacity just as demand for cooling rises, while a power failure could disrupt communications, digital services, transport and healthcare.

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the UK Infrastructure Operators Adaptation Forum are calling for climate adaptation to become a national security priority, with infrastructure stress-tested against future climate extremes rather than relying solely on historical weather patterns.

The report sets out priorities for building a more resilient UK: preparing for compound climate extremes, understanding critical dependencies between infrastructure systems, investing in resilience before disaster strikes, and designing infrastructure that can adapt as the climate changes.

Download the reports to explore the findings and recommendations:

Climate adaptation report
Extreme heat policy brief

For more information about the report:

Engineering Policy Unit 
Institution of Mechanical Engineers 
policy@imeche.org