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Americas Conference on Solar Radiation Modification to be held at The UWI Regional Headquarters

For Release Upon Receipt - August 23, 2022

UWI


The UWI Regional Headquarters, Jamaica W.I. Tuesday, August 23, 2022—Vice Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Dr. Thelma Krug is among speakers slated for the 2022 Americas Conference on Solar Radiation Modification to be hosted at The University of the West Indies (The UWI) Regional Headquarters in Jamaica on August 24 and 25, 2022. 

The conference, organised by the Inter-American Institute (IAI) for Global Change Research is themed Science, Governance, and Implications for the Region. It will focus on the science of Solar Radiation Modification (SRM), how it could be used to address climate change and how its use if any, should be governed. 

Presentations will be made on current work and research as well as future possibilities in the Americas and across the globe. The speakers’ line-up also includes Professor of Physics and Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology, The UWI, Mona Campus, Professor Michael Taylor; Chief Executive Officer, National Disaster Risk Management Fund in Pakistan, Mr. Bilal Anwar; Science and Technology Development Planner, Planning Institute of Jamaica, Mrs. Farrah Hansel Murray, and Senior Research Fellow, Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University, Dr. Doug McMartin. 

The two-day conference which is expected to discuss issues surrounding international governance for SRM is also a follow-up to a workshop held in Jamaica in 2016, hosted by Solar Radiation Management Governance Initiative (SRMGI), the Caribbean Academy of Sciences Jamaica Chapter (CAS-J), Build Better Jamaica, the Government of Jamaica, and The UWI—the first open discussion of SRM in Jamaica and which positioned further discourse on SRM in the region. 

With the level and nature of climate threats faced by Small Island States of the Caribbean, SRM is a proposed response to some of the risks of climate change. However, at the 2016 Workshop, Mr. Andy Parker, now CEO of The Degrees Initiative noted, “SRM cannot be an alternative to emissions reductions or adaptation, but modelling studies have indicated that it might be able to reduce some of the risks of climate change”. 

Since 2010, the Degrees Initiative has led the world in building developing countries’ capacity to evaluate SRM and to play a central role in the global conversation around this controversial technology.  Some participants at the 2016 workshop noted that the 2015 Paris Agreement Treaty on Climate Change, seeking as a global target to hold the increase of temperatures below 1.5 degrees puts SRM on the table to achieve this milestone. The UWI currently has a team of researchers on its Mona campus investigating the potential impact on the Caribbean of using SRM to achieve the 1.5-degree global target. 

The 2022 conference is a collaborative effort by the Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative of the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs (C2G); the Degrees Initiative (formerly the SRM Governance Initiative); the Inter-American Institute (IAI) for Global Change Research and the University of the West Indies (The UWI), with support from the United States National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NAS). 

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About The University of the West Indies

The UWI has been and continues to be a pivotal force in every aspect of Caribbean development; residing at the centre of all efforts to improve the well-being of people across the region.

From a university college of London in Jamaica with 33 medical students in 1948, The UWI is today an internationally respected, global university with near 50,000 students and five campuses: Mona in Jamaica, St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago, Cave Hill in Barbados, Five Islands in Antigua and Barbuda and its Open Campus, and 10 global centres in partnership with universities in North America, Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe.

The UWI offers over 800 certificate, diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Culture, Creative and Performing Arts, Food and Agriculture, Engineering, Humanities and Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science and Technology, Social Sciences, and Sport. As the Caribbean’s leading university, it possesses the largest pool of Caribbean intellect and expertise committed to confronting the critical issues of our region and wider world.

The UWI has been consistently ranked among the top universities globally by the most reputable ranking agency, Times Higher Education (THE). In the latest World University Rankings 2022, released in September 2021, The UWI moved up an impressive 94 places from last year. In the current global field of some 30,000 universities and elite research institutes, The UWI stands among the top 1.5%.

The UWI is the only Caribbean-based university to make the prestigious lists since its debut in the rankings in 2018. In addition to its leading position in the Caribbean, it is also in the top 25 for Latin America and the Caribbean and the top 100 global Golden Age universities (between 50 and 80 years old).  The UWI is also featured among the leading universities on THE’s Impact Rankings for its response to the world’s biggest concerns, outlined in the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including Good Health and Wellbeing; Gender Equality and Climate Action.

For more, visit www.uwi.edu.

 

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