What will Hong Kong become in 2050? Will everybody wear masks on the street? Will 1.1 million acres of coastal land in China be submerged in water? Will famine be widespread in the world? And is that all because of something we failed to do in 2015?

“Esrever” ("reverse" in reverse, 〈逆變〉in Chinese), the Grand Award-winning video in Climate x Innovation Design Award (CIDA) produced by Kojima Rika, Yeung Tsz Ngo and Yeung Hoi Shan, portrays the future of mankind in a science fiction style yet realistic enough to tell a true story of the present day. Ms Ruby Yang, on behalf of our distinguished judging panel, praised the 2-minute clip for its professional skills and holistic and targeted message. Team member Yeung Tsz Ngo explained that the team’s inspiration came from people’s concern on everyday diet and its relation to climate change. Like many people, she tended to think that the industrial sector was the major source of carbon emissions before joining the competition. She changed her views, however, during the research and preparation process, “Beef production poses a heavy burden to our planet’s water resources, and incurs large amounts of carbon emissions. We hope that this video can encourage people to change their meat choice habits.” CarbonCare InnoLab (CCIL) will sponsor two members of the Grand Award team to participate in the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) to be held at the end of this year in Paris.

The CIDA award presentation ceremony was held on 18 Sept. The judging panel comprised veteran film producer Ms Ruby Yang, Ms Ada Wong and CCIL board chairman Ir CM Lee. Apart from winning the Grand Award, the video “Esrever”, together with “Climate Adaptation: A Day in the Life” and “Seasonal Fish Calendar” have attained the Best Topic Award.

Our special guest, Ms Chloe Lai, chief editor of the “Urban Diary” project, spoke on the concept of sustainable development and relevant tasks of her project and shared with the audience her documentary “Grown in Hong Kong”. During panel discussion, Chloe elaborated on the interactive relationship between innovative media and sustainability related issues. She hoped to make local stories of Hong Kong more three-dimensional, using both text and images. Another point she raised was that carbon reduction and conservation did not conflict, but synergize with economic development, resulting in a co-social goods effect. With her experience in the media for nearly 20 years, Chloe believed that with the advancement and popularity of digital technology, visual productions would deliver messages in a far more powerful way than plain text, as the audience could have a deeper feeling and understanding on the subject matter through sounds, colours and images. She supported activities like CIDA, which encouraged participants to dig deep into the topic of their concern and come back with a strong message for the public at large.

CIDA’s participants were mainly students of tertiary institutions in Hong Kong, or young people aged below 35. Participants were required to produce a video clip of no more than 2 minutes focusing on the “Three Challenges, Six Questions” pre-set by CarbonCare InnoLab. The entries should aim to highlight the importance and urgency of climate change issues facing Hong Kong.

List of Award