Keynote Speaker

Speech Title: “Climate Science and Ambition to achieve sustainable development in the context of Paris Agreement”

Dr. Fahad Saeed is a climate scientist currently working at an international climate science and policy institute, Climate Analytics. He is also associated with King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia as an Adjunct Professor. He holds the Ph.D. degree in Earth Sciences from Max-Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-Met), Hamburg, Germany with a focus on Regional Climate Modelling, mainly working on the South Asian region.

Dr. Saeed has vast experience of dedicated work on diverse issues surrounding climate change. He has numerous international publications, scientific reports and policy briefs to his credit, on the topics of climatology, Hydrology/Glaciology, climate policy and communications. In addition, Dr. Saeed occasionally writes articles and also makes media appearances to create public awareness about current issues concerning climate change and its impacts.

Dr. Saeed has previously worked with Max-Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-Met) and Climate Service Center (GERICS) under Helmholtz-Zentrum-Geesthacht (HZG), in Hamburg, Germany. He was Climate Change Advisor and Head of Environment and Climate Change Unit at the top ranked policy think tank, Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) in Islamabad, Pakistan. During his early career at Global Change Impact Studies Center (GCISC) in Islamabad, Pakistan, he also led the research section on Water Resources.

Dr. Saeed has a background in Physics. He received his M.Phil. degree in Computational Physics and the M. Sc. in Physics, both from Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan.

Speech Title: “Soils for mitigating climate change and underpinning the sustainable development goals”

Pete Smith is Professor of Soils and Global Change at the Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of Aberdeen (Scotland, UK) and Science Director of the Scottish Climate Change Centre of Expertise (ClimateXChange).  His interests include climate change mitigation, soils, agriculture, food systems, ecosystem services and modelling. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, a Fellow of the Institute of Soil Scientists, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a Foreign Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, a Fellow of the European Science Academy, and a Fellow of the Royal Society (London).

Speech Title: “Climate change: Policies, business and finance”

Mr. Ranga Pallawala is the CEO of Janathakshan (GTE) Ltd, an organization established in 2011 to promote sustainable green development solutions in Sri Lanka.

Ranga is a member of the National Expert Committee on Climate Change Adaptation of Government of Sri Lanka since 2012. He is currently advising the Ministry of Environment and Renewable Energy of Sri Lanka on climate finance. He has been involved in UNFCC international climate negotiations in the capacity of an observer and a negotiator since 2008 and has been working closely with international, regional and national institutes on climate change issues.

An Expert Advisor for special assignments on Identifying and assessing potential National Implementing Entity (NIE) for the Adaptation Fund of Government of Sri Lanka under the UNEP/Ministry of Environment of Japan’s Adaptation Fund readiness programme and on Building Capacities of Ministry of Finance to accredit as the National Implementing Entity (NIE) of Tuvalu for the Adaptation Fund Under the UNEP/ Ministry of Environment of Japan’s Adaptation Fund readiness programme.

Email: ranga@janathakshan.lk

Speech Title: “Climate Change: strategies for biodiversity conservation”

Professor Dr. Ahmad Ismail is a retired professor in wildlife ecology and ecotoxicology at Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). He is currently the President of Malaysian Nature Society (MNS), Council Member of Academy Science Malaysia (ASM), Fellow of Malaysian Society of Applied Biology (MSAB), Fellow of Royal Society Biology London and Council member of Malaysian Academic Association Congress (MAAC). His fields of interest are wildlife ecology, ecotoxicology and environmental education.

He collaborated with many universities in Japan, Korea, UK, Poland, Indonesia, Thailand etc. as co-researcher as well as visiting professor. He is also members of editorial boards for several international and local journals. He is an active weekly columnist in one of the country’s mainstream newspapers. He has also written and appeared in many other publications, as well as on radio and television regarding science education and conservation of the environment.

Professor Ahmad is among the leading scientists in his field and has pioneered in many important researches in the country including the issues related to climate change.