Davide Stronati, global sustainability leader at Mott MacDonald, has been appointed to the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO) Executive Council. He chairs the organisation’s Committee on Engineering and the Environment (CEE), being the point of contact on climate change particularly with UN bodies such as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at their annual COP meetings.
WFEO is an international, non-governmental organisation based at UNESCO in Paris and representing the engineering profession worldwide, with 100 national engineering institution members and 30 million engineers. The CEE engages in a leading role among the WFEO community and external stakeholders on SDG13 Climate Action, providing guidelines and best practice on how the engineering communities can mitigate the causes and effects of climate change.
Following the WFEO’s latest General Assembly in Melbourne, the organisation launched during COP25 in Madrid its Declaration on Climate Emergency; a global communication campaign to raise awareness on the immediate and long-term consequences of climate change, and the need to support innovative technologies to build resilient infrastructures and communities. Among others, this has been signed by the Commonwealth, Philippines, France, Portugal, Peru, Zimbabwe, Italy, Kenya, Japan, Europe and most recently, China.
Commenting on the Declaration, Davide said: “Engineers have always stepped up to the challenge to find solutions to societal needs. Climate change is one of the biggest issues humanity and the environment are facing now and in the foreseeable future. WFEO will strive together with more than 30 million engineers we represent in finding solutions to combat climate change and to create resilient communities that will leave no one behind.”
This appointment and the Climate Emergency campaign are in the global context of the first World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development (WED), an initiative led by WFEO and leading to the official Day’s proclamation by UNESCO in November 2019. The first WED will be celebrated on March 4th, 2020, and every March 4th from there.
