Day 1.

Today, the International Olympiad on Climate Change and Environmental Issues (IOCE) has opened for the third time in the Sirius Federal Territory. This year, it brought together 80 young researchers and mentors from 14 countries around the world.

"Today, for the first time, this hall is hosting representatives of 14 countries from four continents — from the Caribbean and Africa to the Middle East and South and Southeast Asia. 80 young researchers and mentors have come to Sirius today, representing completely different climate zones and national scientific schools. This means that Sirius conducts the discussion about climate on the basis of genuine diversity — natural conditions, cultural contexts — rather than through the prism of a single country or the interests of one region," emphasized Elena Shmeleva, Chair of the Sirius Federal Territory Council and Head of the Talent and Success Educational Foundation, during the opening ceremony of the Olympiad.

The Olympiad includes a theoretical round with individual and team stages, as well as a practical round that will take place in the Sochi National Park. The teams will carry out field research, collect samples, and then analyze the data in the laboratory.

Immediately after the ceremonial opening, a festival of projects was held. Teams from different countries presented the results of the research they had conducted before the Olympiad began. These projects are not counted in the final score, but they reveal the teams' approach to environmental analysis: they show which problems concern them and why the topic of ecology is important and interesting to them.

The team from Algeria presented in Sirius a prototype device to contribute to agriculture.

"To explain the main idea of the project we need to go back to the main problem that it solves — pesticides. Modern agriculture relies mainly on chemical pesticides that are very harmful for the environment and our health. They increase the environmental pressure, soil degradation, and water contamination. We have invented BNH Pest-Guard, which is a smart device that monitors the environmental details and information and according to them generates controlled low-frequency stimulations. They create an uncomfortable environment for insects, repelling them. This low-cost solution could become an efficient replacement for harmful pesticides — farmers can buy it and use it in their own areas," said Mohamed Bennouh, one of the members of the Algerian team.

As their festival project, the team from Costa Rica presented an idea for recycling bioplastic.

"Our team investigated ways to recycle bioplastic with consideration for the carbon footprint — we studied how such materials can be converted into soil fertilizer. The topic seemed especially interesting to us because the problems of climate change manifest differently in different countries, and we wanted to understand how our solution could be clearly applied in various regions. After the Olympiad, we plan to continue working on the project as a team and scale it up: there are quite a few people in Costa Rica who might be interested in this, and we want as many people as possible to learn about our development," said team member Preciosa Montserrat Ceciliano Perez.

After the opening ceremony and the festival of projects, the teams toured the Educational Center and the Sirius University of Science and Technology, and visited Medal Square, one of Sirius’s main landmarks. This gave them an insight into how the country’s first federal territory lives and develops. Many of our foreign participants have come to Russia for the very first time.