Theme: Countdown - We can change the climate change

TED has always been about ideas worth spreading but this time - it's more. Presenting the first ever edition of TEDxMAHE - Countdown, one of 300 events across 70 countries. Countdown 2020 is the first edition of a global initiative by TED, to champion and accelerate solutions to the climate crisis, turning ideas into action.

The GOAL - To build a better future by cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 in the race to a zero-carbon world – a world that is safer, cleaner and fairer for everyone.

The ongoing health and economic crises are reminding us of an important fact: We’re all part of the same fragile system, dependent on nature and one another. As we look to the future, we must build forward and emerge more sustainable and resilient than before.
We believe that change begins with each of us – thus TEDxMAHE is hosting a local chapter of the countdown. We want to bring together all people – student, administration, organizations, student run clubs, student projects for an environment friendly campus.

Online - Airmeet
Manipal Academy of Higher Education
Manipal, Karnataka, 576104
India

Alexander Verbeek

Dutch Environmentalist

Alexander Verbeek is a Dutch environmentalist, public speaker, diplomat, and former strategic policy advisor at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Over the past 30 years, he has worked on international security, humanitarian and geopolitical risk issues, and the linkage to the earth's accelerating environmental crisis. Currently, Alexander is Policy Director at the Environment & Development Resource Centre in Brussels. He also works internationally as an expert speaker and advisor on planetary change to academia, global NGO's, private firms, and international organisations. Alexander is a World Fellow at Yale University and has been an associate or fellow at a number of international think tanks, a Visiting Fellow in the Peace and Conflict Department of Uppsala University in Sweden, and he is on the board of advisors of several international environmental initiatives. He is also an Associate Fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy.

Chau Duncan

COO, Earthbanc

Chau Duncan is the COO of Earthbanc, an investment platform that leads, coordinates, and incentivizes climate-positive projects through innovation in deep tech and climate finance. As a former refugee from Vietnam, growing up in Australia, she calls the ‘global stage’ home. While her career began as a banker, Chau noted the rapidly growing interconnectedness of economic growth and sustainability issues. A former Trade Commissioner and Director for International Trade and Foreign Direct Investment, representing both the Governments of Australia and the United Kingdom, Chau also supported the work of several NGOs working on environmental & social diplomacy, economic resilience, and multicultural inclusion. Chau believes that we are living in a moment in history, where Digital Finance and Fintech, can bring systemic ways to fund climate change, to the masses in an easy and secure way, to help regenerate ecosystems in a way that is transformational.

Derrick Ian Joshua

Assistant Director - Environment Sustainability at Manipal Academy of Higher Education

Derrick Ian Joshua is presently the Assistant Director of Environmental Sustainability in the Department of General Services at Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE). He holds a brilliant experience of more than 18 years in the field of Environmental Sciences. He has addressed multiples issues in pollution control systems efficiently. He has been associated with both Government projects and private industry operations over the past years. Derrick also happens to be an ICRA qualified lead auditor and holds a post-graduation degree in Environmental Sciences. His expertise has been instrumental in bringing international recognition and rankings to Manipal, owing to his awards and accolades.

Georgios Kostakos

Co-Founder, Foundation for Global Governance and Sustainability

Georgios Kostakos is a co-founder of FOGGS and has almost thirty years of work experience in international affairs, both as a practitioner and as a researcher. This includes fourteen years with the United Nations, with assignments such as organizing the first ever high-level event on climate change in New York (2007), Acting Deputy Executive Secretary of the UN Global Sustainability Panel (GSP, 2010-2012), supporting the negotiations that resulted in the Paris Agreement on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP21, 2015). Georgios was until recently Climate Action Thematic Coordinator at NEEMO EEIG, where he coordinated the monitoring of climate change adaptation and mitigation projects co-financed by the European Union's LIFE Programme.

Keshav Gupta

Founder, The Dais

Based in Delhi, India, Keshav has been working with youth, community-based organizations, government bodies and international institutions towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals with a core emphasis on Climate Action, Quality Education and Gender Equality. He founded "The Dais" in December 2014 as an organization working towards youth empowerment through educational institutions. The Dais was awarded the Global Green Schools Award at the UNGA Climate Action Week, NYC 2017. To work on the localization of SDGs, Keshav also set up the International Centre for Sustainable Development in Uttarakhand, India and also worked as an Advisor on Business Development & Civil Society Support with the District Administration at Champawat. Keshav was awarded the REX Karmaveer Global Fellowship (#RKGF) and Karmaveer Chakra award instituted by iCONGO in Partnership with the United Nations for 2018-2019.

Rakshit Naidu

Undergrad Student at Manipal Institute of Technology

Rakshit Naidu is a final year undergraduate at MIT Manipal, pursuing his Bachelors in Computer Science and Engineering. He also works part-time as a Research Engineer at OpenMined (an Open Source community determined to democratize privacy-preserving technologies) where he works on Privacy-Preserving Machine Learning (PPML). His research interests hover around Cryptography and Machine Learning in particular. He is also interested in Secure MPCs (Multi-Party Computations) and Federated Learning. Rakshit will present an interesting correlation between Federated Learning and Climate Change.