On July 30, 2021, the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) together with the Pathfinder Foundation (Sri Lanka) and Asian Confluence (India) hosted a trilateral expert dialogue titled “Impact of Climate Change on Marine and Fresh Water Resources and Combating Water Pollution”.
Gleb Ivashentsov, RIAC Vice President and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia; Bernard Goonetilleke, Chairman of the Pathfinder Foundation and retired Ambassador; and Rajiv Kumar Bhatia, Member of the Governing Council of the Asian Confluence and retired Ambassador, delivered welcoming remarks.
On July 30, 2021, the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) together with the Pathfinder Foundation (Sri Lanka) and Asian Confluence (India) hosted a trilateral expert dialogue titled “Impact of Climate Change on Marine and Fresh Water Resources and Combating Water Pollution”.
Gleb Ivashentsov, RIAC Vice President and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia; Bernard Goonetilleke, Chairman of the Pathfinder Foundation and retired Ambassador; and Rajiv Kumar Bhatia, Member of the Governing Council of the Asian Confluence and retired Ambassador, delivered welcoming remarks.
The first session, “Current status of climate change and its impact on water resources”, gathered Anastasia Likhacheva, Director of the Centre for Comprehensive European and International Studies, Higher School of Economics; B. V. R. Punyawardena, Chairman of the National Steering Committee on Climate Change Adaptation, Government of Sri Lanka; and Fraddry D'Souza, Area Convener and Fellow at the Coastal Ecology & Marine Resources Centre, TERI Goa, India.
The second session focused on finding the solutions to the existing challenges and identifying most valuable national practices. Sarath Premalal, Retired Director General of the Meteorology Department of Sri Lanka; Konstantin Zgurovsky, Senior Advisor to the Marine Programme, WWF Russia; and Vinay Kumar Dadhwal, Director of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology and Professor (Indira Gandhi Chair), National Institute of Advanced Studies, India, shared their perspectives.
The main sessions were followed by a Q&A and closing remarks. Sabyasachi Dutta, Executive Director of the Asian Confluence; Ksenia Kuzmina, RIAC Deputy Director of Programs; Sumit Nakandala, Director of the Centre for Indo-Lanka Initiativesб Pathfinder Foundation; and Kalanidhi Vairavamoorthy, Executive Director of the International Water Association, moderated the sessions.
Video
