The Center for Environmental Sciences of the College of Natural and Computational Sciences (NCS)of the AAU, in collaboration with the Embassy of Canada in Ethiopia, organized a forum themed ‘climate change leadership for sustainability’ at the Graduate Building on March 14, 2017.
The forum opened with a moment of silence for victims of the rubbish dump landslide in Addis Ababa last Saturday.
Climate change leadership for sustainability, African leadership in addressing climate change, environmental leadership on climate change in Ethiopia and climate change leadership: problems and prospects were issues under discussion.
In her keynote remarks Marie-Josee Charbonneau, Political/Economic Counselor of the Embassy of Canada in Ethiopia, noted that climate change is real; year after year our planet is getting warmer, and sea levels are rising due to climate change caused by the activities of humans.
”Ethiopia experienced its worst drought in decades due to back-to-back seasons of poor rainfall exacerbated by a strong El Nino phenomenon.In Canada we are seeing the effect of climate change: from ice roads melting to increased flooding and fires,” she went on to say.
Government officials and national and international experts attended the forum to deliberate on the impacts of climate change, the most important trends in sustainability and business responses to environmental and social change through leadership.
Shiberu Temesgen, Dean of the CNS, for his part stated that the College has been working on various environmental issues for the past several decades including biodiversity management, water resource management, pollution control and climate change, contributing immensely towards environmental sustainability in Ethiopia and beyond. “The Center for Environmental Sciences of the CNS of the AAU is in the forefront of these activities,” the dean said.
Dr. Satishkumar Belliethathan, Convener and Coordinator of the forum indicated that the forum has been organized to bring all relevant stakeholders to discuss and deliberate on various environmental issues. This year there will be six forum meetings conducted on various environmental themes.
The forum was held in memory of Mr. Maurice Frederick Strong, a Canadian diplomat, known for his unique role in globalizing the environmental movement.
