To create awareness on the importance of sustainable consumption, Meatless Monday Sri Lanka attended the Asia-Pacific Carbon Forum (APCF) which was held at Sentosa Resort Convention Center in Singapore from 11th to 13th July 2018 as part of the Asia-Pacific Climate Week. Meatless Monday global campaign in Sri Lanka attended the forum and showcased our ideas and actions towards climate change mitigation and adaptation.
On the first day of the forum, the Meatless Monday Sri Lanka team did a presentation on ‘Addressing climate change through livestock and mindful consumption’. The presentation raised awareness on the livestock industry’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, which the current percentage is 14.5%. This is mainly due to enteric fermentation and manure management.
Ms. Buddhika Ranadheera from the Meatless Monday Sri Lanka team introduced the Meatless Monday global campaign and the work done by the Sri Lanka team. “The main ask of the campaign is to forgo consumption of meat and any animal based product at least one day per week in order to mitigate climate change and promote animal welfare and healthy living,” said Ms. Ranadheera.
Ms. Ranadheera ended her presentation by stating, that the campaign also engages with various stakeholders to reduce emissions by shifting to low emission products, or non-meat based products; as well as advocating for policy changes that cuts emissions through the livestock industry while spreading awareness of the negative contributions of the livestock industry to climate change.
The Meatless Monday Sri Lanka team also hosted an exhibition stall at the Knowledge Corner of the Asia-Pacific Climate Week. The exhibition space was used to raise awareness on the Meatless Monday campaign and its projects through various promotional materials such as leaflets, banners and posters.
The Asia-Pacific Carbon Forum was held for three days and it brought together 100 delegates from Asia-Pacific countries. The Forum provided a platform to share the different challenges countries face in addressing climate change and the solutions that they have come up to overcome them.