In July, I visited Cornell University’s Tata Innovation Center in New York City for a six-day workshop hosted by the Cornell Program in Infrastructure Policy, the Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure & Construction, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the National Science Foundation.

The outcome of the workshop will be an evolving document, a report that focuses the engineering, policy and finance communities on mitigating and adapting the built and natural worlds for climate change. The “living” report will help fund and finance research and emerging technologies to improve resilience, sustainability and universal access to infrastructure.

A sense of urgency was palpable at the workshop, but so was the feeling that business as usual may persist and, like years past, the next climate milestone set for 2030 could be the next one not to be met.

It was not a surprise, then, to hear some nervous discussion about how to get count