Climate Fact Checks at the International Conference on Climate Change

The Climate Fact Checks team had 5 abstracts published at the 7^th International Conference on Climate Change held at the Taj Samudra hotel on the 9^th and 10^th of February, organized by the International Institute of Knowledge Management, Sri Lanka. The event was organized with the partnership of 11 Academic partners from across continents and the participation of presenters from different parts of the world.

In addition to the Conference, the organizers also opened up an opportunity for Green inventors to showcase their novel inventions in the global arena.

This year’s conference was held under the theme “Climate action and emerging challenges: Land and Ocean-based Solutions.” Chaired by Prof Erandathie Lokupitiya from the Department of Zoology and Environment Science at the University of Colombo.

The Climate Fact Checks team submitted abstracts under the topics,

1. Legalizing Cannabis Cultivation in Sri Lanka – An implication to combat Climate Change – by K R Gunasekera and Dr. W S Weliange
2. Debunking and Prebunking Climate Change related misinformation and disinformation through a standard scientific method – by M Borkotoky and Dr. P J Das
3. A SWOT Analysis of Climate Change education at the school levels in South Asia – By K R Gunasekera and Prof E P Kudavidanage
4. Importance of Climate Resilient health system in Sri Lanka – by S S Bulathsinhala, H Nair, B Dineshkanth, and Dr. P J Das
5. Debunking myths and misconceptions related to the renewable energy sector – by S S Bulathsinhala, K K Hettiarachchi, and Dr. P J Das

Areas of focus at the ICCC ‘23

The Research areas at the Conference were under 14 tracks, including

• Assessing Impacts on Diverse Ecosystems
• Technical, economic, and Social Responses to climate change
• Climate Change and Health
• Global Warming, Agriculture, and food security
• Climate change and energy
• Climate change: measurements, modeling, and predictions
• ICT and Weather Information Management
• Technology transfer and innovative solutions to climate change
• Climate change, Green initiatives, and products
• Migration, poverty, and gender issues in the face of climate change
• Natural resources and Biodiversity in a warming world
• Carbon management and climate change mitigation
• Impacts, Hazards, risks, and effective adaptation to climate change
• Climate Change economics, law, and policy

The authors had the opportunity to present their abstracts under the themes mentioned above through an oral presentation, which was 20 mins of presenting time and 5 minutes of questions, or a poster presentation which was 5 minutes of presenting time and 5 minutes of questions.  The above could be completed once the abstract has been accepted live at the venue or virtually via zoom.

The event had 3 main halls to conduct all the technical sessions, and 100+ authors from around the world were given the opportunity to present their findings on Climate Change.

ICCC Greenventor ’23

The ICCC Greenventor Challenge was organized by the Association for Environment Management & Sustainability (AEMS) to eliminate the adverse impacts of climate change and the conservation of natural resources. This included key thematic areas, including

• Achieving carbon neutrality
• Recyclable and biodegradable solutions
• Solutions to combat pollution of rivers and oceans
• Conservation of natural/ man-made resources, Green/ renewable energy solutions
• Residual energy solutions, Solutions for preserving healthy ecosystems
• Sustainable industry and adapting to climate change
• Other (Innovations not limited by the above tracks)

These were tracks under the 3-angle approach: Water, Air, and Land) and had motivated young scientists to find innovative solutions to mitigate and adapt to Climate Change in the critical years to come.

The Scientific Committee at the Conference

The Scientific Committee comprises field experts from many countries who evaluated the abstracts. It included scientists from countries including Sri Lanka, Japan, Hong Kong, India, Thailand, Turkey, the Philippines, Nigeria, and Pakistan.

The Climate Fact Checks team was fortunate to interact and get feedback from many of these experts in the Climate Change arena, which allowed us to improve our work and grow as an organization.

Keynote Speech, Plenary Speeches, and Workshops

The event also included keynote speakers and workshops in addition to technical sessions.

The Keynote Speaker was Prof Mohan Munasinghe, Founder Chairman of the Munasinghe Inst. of Development (MIND) and MIND Group, Colombo; the 2021 Blue Planet Prize Laureate (also called ‘Environmental Nobel Prize’); and Vice Chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC-AR4), who shared the 2007 Nobel Prize for Peace. The Heads of five countries have presented the highest national awards to him. He is also Chairman of the Presidential Expert Commission on Sustainable Sri Lanka 2030 Vision; a Distinguished Guest Professor at Peking University, China; and an honorary Senior Advisor to the Government of Sri Lanka. He presented the multiple factors and a holistic approach to development, prioritizing sustainability.

Among the Plenary speakers were,

Asst. Prof. Chutapa Kunsook – presented the findings from her research on “Blue carbon in seagrass ecosystem in the eastern Gulf of Thailand: the indirect contributors to climate change mitigation.”

Senior Prof Sarath Kotagama – presented his valuable knowledge and experience in zoology with great relevance to Climate Change.

Wiwik Harjanti – presented her research findings on the key areas of Work Creation Law on Regional Authorities and Sustainable Planting Regulations and seeing Indonesia from East Kalimantan:  Reflection on Coal Extractivism, Social Vulnerability and Ecological Justice in Indonesia.

There were 3 workshops on scholarly publications.

Dr. Prof. Eduardo S. Brondizio initiated the workshop session, sharing his experience with scholarly publications. Followed by Dr. Stacey Archfield conducting a workshop on “Tips for getting published in international journals: experience as an Editor and Associate Editor.” Prof. Harini Nagendra also conducted a workshop on “Communicating your research – publishing in journals and beyond.”

A panel discussion was also held on a very timely topic: “Can we achieve the goal of climate action and net zero targets, as planned, with the ongoing climate and economic crisis?” with the esteemed panelists Prof. Amal S. Kumarage, University of Moratuwa, Prof. Buddhi Marambe, University of Peradeniya and Mr. H. K. Wickramasinghe, Deputy Director General (Demand Side Management) Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority. The panel discussion was moderated by Dr. Athula Senaratne, Senior Agriculture Specialist World Bank, Sri Lanka.

Event Takeaways

The Climate Fact Checks team created great networks, interviewed experts in the field, and learned much from everyone participating in the International Conference on Climate Change. We also interviewed several experts on specialized topics and got the opinions of scholars regarding the attention given to climate change in Sri Lanka. You can look forward to content on these matters in the future. We are grateful for the opportunity given to us. We also realized the importance of journalists participating in events like these to expand their knowledge and presence in the academic arena.