Sri Lankan Youth Climate Action Workshop is organizing a series of workshops on climate change and policy, of which the one targeting the professionals and journalists commenced, yesterday the 31st of August 2011.
It was attended by journalists of different local newspapers (hopefully some articles would be relevant to topics on climate change no this week’s papers) and professionals local and regional. The speakers for the day were Mr. Ashoka Abeygunawardena, adviser to the Minister of Energy, Mr. Malaka Rodrigo, Environmental Journalist of 2010, Mr. Jagath Gunawardena, Mr. Thilak Kariyawasam from Environmental Conservation Trust, Mr. Nugawelli Jayasima from Humane Society International, Mr. Micheal Chew – Concern Universal Bangladesh, and Mr. Ranga Pallawala from Practical Action.
The topics of discussion catered to topics such energy consumption and development, food security and animal agriculture, climate change and community based adaptation, and climate change and governance. In addition to this, there was also a session on the CEI process of Sri Lanka.
The youth summit to be held on the 2nd and 3rd of September will be held at British Council Colombo, and SLYCAN calls for those who would like to be part of it to be there to be part of a movement that is empowered by youth voices.
The agenda for the youth workshop is as follows.
2nd September 2011
9.30 – 10.00 Welcome and introduction
10.00 – 10.15 tea
10.15 – 11.15 Climate Change and Reproductive Health Rights – Mr. Hand Billimoria , Cosultant – Grassrooted Trust
11.15 – 12. 15 Climate Change and Food Security – Mr. Nugevelli Jayasimha, Humane Society International
12.15- 01.30 Lunch
01.30 – 02.00 Climate Change and Community Based Adaptation Mr. Michael Chew – Climate Change Expert ,
Concern Universal Bangladesh
02.00 – 03.00 Climate Change and its Impacts on Biodiversity Mr. Jagath Gunawardena Senior Lawyer
Mr. Thishya Weragoda Lawyer, Delegate – SLYCAN COP17
03.00 – 04.00 Energy Consumption and Development Mr. Ashoka Abeygunawardana – Adviser to Minister of Energy
Energy Forum Sri Lanka
4.00- 05.30 Photography and .multimedia workshop with Shinaz Mohammed (Photographer from Maldives), Thishya Weragoda (Photographer and Lawyer from Sri Lanka), Micheal Chew ( Climate Change Specialist, living and working in Bangladesh)
Attendants for photography workshop limited and priced at 750 LKR per person. The rest of the workshop sessions will be open to all, free of charge.
3rd September 2011
9.30 – 10.30 Climate change and South Asia
10.30 -10.45 Tea
10.45 – 12.00 Moving ahead despite climate change
12.00 – 12.30 Summary and closure of workshops
Those who are interested please contact Vositha on 0777 597 387
SLYCAN wishes to thank the sponsors, Humane Society International, Bank of Ceylon Sri Lanka and venue sponsor British Council
Vositha's Blog 
Hi Vositha,
I came across your TEDxColombo talk about climate change and youth, and was looking for a way to contact you. I work for an organization called Outward Bound Center for Peacebuilding (http://www.outwardboundpeace.org/) and we are hoping to run a program in Sri Lanka sometime next year. As we are still in the planning phases I was hoping we could exchange emails about the environmental movement, youth, and your perspective on Sri Lanka. If you would care to email me please write to tyler.hanes@outwardboundpeace.org. Thanks for your time.