Phl to host international climate change conference

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna, Philippines – A global conference on climate change will be held here on Nov. 21-23.

Billed as the International Conference on Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation for Food and Environmental Security, the scientific forum is being organized by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) and University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB).

It will be held at SEARCA, which is hosted by the Philippine government on the UPLB campus.

The conference will be supported by the Asia-Pacific Adaptation Network through the Institute for Global Environment Strategies in Japan; German Academic Exchange Service and Food Security Center of the University of Hohenheim in Germany; Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research; Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia; and Climate Change Commission under the Office of the President.

The World Bank, International Rice Research Institute, India-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), University of Tokyo (Japan), Manyang Technological University-Rajaratnam School of International Studies-Center for Non-Traditional Security Studies in Singapore, and Philippine Climate Change Adaptation Project have also signified their commitment to participate in the conference.

The forum aims to attract researchers, academics, policymakers and planners, development workers, and other professionals from international, government and non-government, and academic organizations from various parts of the world.

It will serve as a venue for the exchange of state-of-the-art knowledge on climate change science, adaptation strategies, disaster risk reduction, planning and management, and vulnerability and impact assessment tools among regional stakeholders, specifically in the agriculture and environment sectors.

It will also gather experiences and scientific information into an integrative body of knowledge to identify knowledge gaps and common, urgent and emergent issues related to food and environmental security.

Moreover, it will identify knowledge and adaptation strategies that may be upscaled to the other regions; and promote partnerships and linkages among different sectors for collaborative activities on climate change adaptation.

Speakers include Dr. William Dar, former Agriculture secretary and now director general of ICRISAT; Dr. Ademola Brainmoh of the World Bank, Dr. Paul Ten of Manyang University, Dr. Scishi Nimemiya of Tokyo University, Dr. Reinhold Muschler of the Center for Tropical Agriculture Research and Higher Education in Costa Rica, Dean John Pulhin of the UPLB College of Forestry and Natural Resources, and Director Marcial Amaro Jr. of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau.