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The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) latest report ‘Climate Change 2021 The Physical Science Basis’ signalled ‘code red for humanity’ and states that ‘Climate change is already affecting every inhabited region across the globe …’.

We know that mitigation of climate change through reducing carbon emissions is urgent. More urgency also needs to be placed on adaptation in order to protect our communities and habitats from the impacts already occurring, while we strive toward net zero. This was the key message of The Climate Change Committee’s (CCC) report ‘Progress in adapting to climate change: 2021 Report to Parliament’ which noted that ‘…additional changes in the UK’s climate to 2050 are largely insensitive to the pathway of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions over coming decades’ and that ‘The gap between future levels of risk and planned adaptation has widened in the last 5 years’. Blue-green infrastructure was credited as being a key adaptation measure to generate a range of benefits both for human health and wildlife.

Our 2020 conference ‘Delivering and monitoring blue-green infrastructure’ emphasised the need to mainstream the implementation of blue-green infrastructure. This year the urgency of this message is never more apparent. The impacts of COVID-19 have demonstrated how major threats can disrupt lives, and the messages from the IPCC and CCC emphasise the need to act now to be prepared for further change: goal 2 of COP26 is to ‘urgently adapt to protect communities and natural habitats’.

This CIRIA conference will explore how engagement, evaluation, management implementation and connecting blue-green infrastructure can unlock its multiple benefits as we strive to urgently adapt to the impacts of climate change on our communities and habitats.