Most conversations about climate resilience in cities start in the wrong place. They begin with planning — land use, zoning, infrastructure design, flood modelling. These things matter. But treating resilience as primarily a planning problem misses where the real pressure is building.
The pressure is financial.
When insurers reprice flood risk in a postcode, that’s not a planning signal. It’s a capital markets signal. When infrastructure bonds face higher yields because of climate exposure, that’s not a design question. It’s a balance sheet question. When municipal assets become difficult to finance or maintain because risk assumptions have shifted, planning permission won’t fix it.
Cities are increasingly caught between two realities: the tools they have (planning frameworks, digital infrastructure, GIS systems) and the nature of the problem they’re actually facing (repricing, liability, long-term fiscal exposure). Digital Twins and AI can close some of that gap, but only if the questions being asked of them are the right ones.
I’m joining a live discussion on exactly this — how cities across EMEA are responding to climate pressure, what decision-making actually looks like on the ground, and where digital tools are genuinely helping versus where the hype is running ahead of the practice.
If you work in urban planning, infrastructure, city governance, or the finance behind any of those, this is the conversation.
Event details
Cities Under Pressure: Roundtable on Climate, Digital Twins & Resilience
Wednesday, May 6, 2026
Register for free here