Over 100 climate change experts from across the world are in Sri Lanka this week to deliberate to explore how policies in this regard can be integrated within a sustainable development strategy. 

Sri Lanka, hosting International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC) 2023, the seventh edition, brought several experts from over 25 countries on to one platform. 

Held under the theme ‘Climate Action and Emerging Challenges: Land and Ocean-based Solutions’, the two-day event, which concluded yesterday, provided a forum for the experts to share their latest research findings, knowledge, opinions and suggestions to tackling the biggest challenges faced by nations across the world today. 
Delivering the keynote address, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Vice Chair Prof. Mohan Munasinghe asserted that multiple threats are inter-related and synergistic but stakeholder interests are divergent.  

“As responses are uncoordinated and with weak leadership towards climate change, people must push leaders to take more decisive action, especially at mid-level,” he said, addressing the conference in Colombo.

The professor added that development can be made more sustainable by integrating climate change adaptation and mitigation policies into sustainable development strategy and implementing the Sustainable Development Goals. 

To move forward in addressing the mounting issues that are stemming from climate change, global sustainable development requires “good” alignment of all productive assets. 

“Sound financial markets and economic growth should be based on the true value of the productive economic asset base. In turn the value and use of economic assets should closely reflect the state of natural (bio-geo-physical) resources,” he said. ICCC 2023 also included 15 technical sessions that covered multiple topics, including Natural Resources and Biodiversity in a Warming World: Climate Change – Mitigation, Measurements, Modelling and Predictions; Climate Change Economics, Law and Policy: Impacts Hazards, Risks and Effective Adaptation To Climate Change; Climate Change, Awareness, Green Initiatives and Products; Global Warming, Agriculture and Food Security; Carbon Management and Climate Change Mitigation and Technology Transfer, Law and Innovative Solutions to Climate Change.