The HKIE Civil Division Conference 2009 - Engineers' responses to climate change was successfully held on 15 January 2009 at the Mira Hotel. The conference was attended by more than 150 members and covered a wide range of topics on climate change. This one-day event comprised one international keynote address and 13 paper presentations.

The conference was officially started by Ir Joseph Choi, Chairman of the organising committee, who delivered a welcoming remark. Ir Choi stressed that the objectives of the conference were to raise engineers' awareness of climate change challenges problems and to explore opportunities and strategies for tackling these challenges. The opening address was then delivered by Ir Mak Chai-kwong, JP, Permanent Secretary for Development (Works). Ir Mak stressed the importance to develop in a sustainable manner with the provision of suitable engineering measures in response to the climate change. Ir Mak noted that there were still many intangible issues with regards to climate change, but emphasised that there were tangible things that engineers could do to tackle the challenges of climate change. Followed by Ir Mak was the keynote address on urban heat island and mitigation technology presented by Dr Yasunobu Ashie from Building Research Institute of Japan. Other topics delivered by prominent speakers included trends in Hong Kong climate parameters relevant to engineering design; climatic considerations in the planning of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge; sustainable use of water resources in Hong Kong; engineering challenges in terms of storm water drainage; challenges of climate change to slope safety management; low carbon cities; climate change and ecology: deterioration and mitigation; and using risk assessment to manage climate change initiatives.

The conference provided an excellent platform for the participants to keep abreast of the challenges and problems to engineers arising from climate change. It also provided information on recent local and international practices in mitigating the problems. The speakers presented and suggested some mitigation measures to overcome the challenges. The conference was informative and it reminded fellow engineers that a collective effort from all the professionals together with the scholars and scientists would be required to cope with the challenges ahead as a result of climate change. Much effort, however, is still needed to understand the issues and problems so as to formulate the way forward.