Description

9^th Annual Law Goes Green Conference 2022

12 May 2022

(From top left: Selene Tanne, Ryan Ma, Ananta Wazir, Ishan Jayasundara
From middle left: Dr. Jolene Lin, Isuri Rodrigo, Lim Shin-Yi,
Vikum Sirisena
From bottom left: Dr. Kokila Konasinghe, Tharushi Fernando)

Law Goes Green is an annual conference inaugurated by the University of Colombo’s Centre for Environmental Law and Policy (CELP) in 2014 to raise environmental awareness among undergraduate law students and spur them to take action and advance environmental protection. This year, the 9^th annual Law Goes Green conference was jointly organised by CELP and the National University of Singapore’s Asia-Pacific Centre of Environmental Law (APCEL). It focused on the topical issue of face mask pollution. This theme was timely as the use of disposable masks, gloves and other protective equipment has been soaring throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the fight against plastic pollution has suffered significant setbacks. There is an urgent need to put effective measures in place to reduce face mask pollution.

During the webinar, the environmental law student associations of University of Colombo (UoC) and the National University of Singapore (NUS) shared about their research on the legal and regulatory solutions that various countries have introduced to tackle this problem. We were especially grateful to the dignitaries and students from UoC, who had taken the time to pre-record their conference presentations so that their messages could be shared despite the difficult situation in Sri Lanka at that time.

Following the student presentations, we concluded the event with a live Q&A session between our panellists and the audience. In particular, the student panellists and Professor Kokila Konasinghe (UoC) had provided unique insights and recommendations on the design, implementation and harmonisation of pollution regulations at national and regional levels.