Future Investment Initiative

26 October, 2021

The 5th edition of the Future Investment Initiative was held in Riyadh from 26th to 28th October. During the event, PhD student Natalia Odnoletkova participated in a panel discussion session on "Preparing cities for a warmer climate". KAUST Professor S. Mani Sarathy chaired the impact session.  The session, in partnership with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), looked at the unique quantifiable threats faced by cities and how this understanding can be used to develop strategies to optimize the planning and design of future cities.

"Climate warming will exacerbate challenges of liveability already faced by the world’s major cities today. Extreme events such as floods, sea-level rise, and heatwaves are certain to challenge infrastructure planning and maintenance, energy supply, and property insurability."

 


The list of speakers from left to right:

Hon. Maimunah Mohd Sharif, Executive Director, UN-Habitat
Jim Barry, CIO of BlackRock Alternatives Investors (BAI)
H.H. Princess Noura T Al-Saud, Founding Partner, AEON Strategy
Natalia Odnoletkova, PhD Student, ANPERC/KAUST

Alejandro Agag, Founder & Chairman, Extreme E

Natalia and Professor Tadeusz Patzek also recently published a paper, Data-driven analysis of climate change in Saudi Arabia: trends in temperature extremes and human comfort indicators. The authors analyze the long-term temperature trends and extreme temperature events in Saudi Arabia between 1979 and 2019.