The Green Planet Club of Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) and the Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh (CCDB) jointly organized the Award Ceremony of the Climate Exhibition 2022 at the university campus on July 30.

Rakib Shahriar Rimen from Bangladesh University of Professionals won the top prize money of BDT 25,000 for his idea of a low-cost air filtration system for conventional vehicles. IUB's Rahdi Hossain Raahi won BDT 20,000 for his idea of setting up a climate hotline number to promote impact-based and locally-appropriate warning and information dissemination. Rana Projjal Sarkar, also from IUB, won BDT 20,000 for his idea of biofiltration. The winning ideas will be showcased at CCDB's Climate Technology Park in Gazipur near Dhaka.

Prof. Dr. Saleemul Huq OBE, Director of IUB's International Center for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD), attended the program as the guest of honour. Ms. Juliate Keya Malakar, Executive Director of CCDB, and IUB Pro-VC Professor Niaz Ahmed Khan, PhD, also spoke at the event.

In his speech, Dr. Huq highlighted the importance of the role that the youth needs to play in tackling climate change and thanked the Green Planet Club and CCDB for giving the dynamic youth leaders this platform. He also offered to support the winning ideas and cooperate with them to explore the possibilities of scaling them up to bring them to the doorsteps of the vulnerable communities.

In her speech, Ms. Juliate Keya Malakar, Executive Director of CCDB, applauded the spirit of volunteerism and talked about how climate change has been threatening people's livelihoods, especially those of women and children.

Initially, more than 350 participants from a number of public and private universities submitted their ideas for this competition, out of which, 80 were shortlisted and invited to demonstrate their ideas elaborately in front of a panel comprising experts from CCDB, ICCCAD, and IUB. 

Other ideas that won different awards and mentions include 'greening the desert', 'one-stop farmers hub' as a livelihood adaptation strategy, desalination and evaluating its efficacy in coastal regions, and so on.

Professor Shah M Faruque, Dean of IUB's School of Environment and Life Sciences; Dr. K. Ayaz Rabbani, Head of IUB's Environmental Science and Management Department; and Mr. Nawar Nasar Khan, President of the Green Planet Club, also spoke at the program.