The Division of Environment (ENVR) organized a one-day Climathon Conference titled Extreme Heat, Extreme Density - Problems and Solutions on 29 October 2016 which is the first time Climathon has launched their activity in Hong Kong. More than 100 undergraduate and postgraduate students, guests and members from the general public and intelligentsia (think tank, environmental NGOs, research institutes etc.) have registered and participated.

Rapid urbanization and compact development, coupled with global warming, will induce local micro-climate, hot spots and heat stresses, affecting livability, health and exaggerating energy consumption. This is definitely a critical and potentially escalating environmental and health issue, if not managed well. The conference was divided into two segments: 1) Urbanization and Heat Stresses, Evidences and Sciences; and 2) Local Heat Stresses Mitigation & Adaptation. A cross section of speakers from the Government, leading academia and corporate executives were invited to contribute to an interdisciplinary discourse of the different facets of the environmental issues:

1. Mr. Sawaid Abbas, Post-Doc Fellow, Department of Land Surveying and Geo-informatics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

2. Mr. CY Cheng, Acting Deputy Director, Safety, Health, Environment and Quality of Power Systems Business Group, CLP Power

3. Ms. Emma Harvey, Group Sustainability and CSR Manager for Gammon Construction Limited

4. Dr. Eun-Soon Im, Assistant Professor, Division of Environment and Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, HKUST

5. Ms. Deborah Kuh, Head of the Greening, Landscape and Tree Management Section, Development Bureau

6. Prof. Alexis Lau, Director of the Atmospheric Research Center, and Associate Director, the Institute for the Environment, HKUST

7. Prof. Yuguo Li, Head of Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Hong Kong

8. Ms. Christine Loh, Under Secretary for the Environment, Environment Bureau

9. Mr. H Y Mok, Senior Scientific Officer, Hong Kong Observatory,

10. Prof. Edward Ng, Yao Ling Sun Professor of Architecture, School of Architecture, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

11. Dr. Paul Poon, Senior Medical & Health Officer, Department of Health

12. Prof. Xun Wu, Professor, Division of Environment, HKUST

The participants were highly engaged in both the lectures and the Q&A sessions and emerged as informed citizens.

Climathon is an initiative of the Climate Knowledge Innovation Communities (KIC) of the Europe Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) which is an independent body of the European Union set up in 2008. It brings together the climate challenges and the people who have the passion and ability to ideate, collaborate and solve those challenges and drive collective climate actions.

The year 2016 marked the first time Climathon has launched their activity in Hong Kong. The Division of Environment (ENVR) of Interdiscplinary Programs Office (IPO) at HKUST would continually work with the Climathon initiative in the coming years to mobilize and contribute local innovative solutions to the climate change and sustainability problem.

For more event details, please viist the Climathon website.