On Tuesday 26 November 2024, the CSC Alumni Team invited Commonwealth Alumnus Mahendra Kumar to deliver a webinar on ‘Climate change challenges for Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS)’.
This webinar addressed the CSC development theme of Strengthening resilience and response to crises.
The CSC’s Development in Action webinar series aims to highlight the work and research of Commonwealth Alumni across a range of development impact areas.
About the speaker
Dr Mahendra Kumar currently is a senior climate change specialist with wide experience in climate change, development, and energy and environment programmes mainly in the Pacific region. He serves as an Honorary Associate Professor at the Institute of Climate Change, Energy & Disaster Solutions (ICEDS), Australian National University, Canberra.
Dr Mahendra Kumar is a 1977 Commonwealth Scholar from Fiji. He completed a PhD in Environmental Physics from University of Nottingham.
Addressing the climate action needs for Pacific SIDS
In this webinar, Dr Kumar highlighted the Pacific region’s unique vulnerability to climate change and sea level rise which potentially impacts livelihoods and damages ecosystems.
Dr Kumar discussed the need for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the Pacific to prioritise climate change to address the climate risks challenges to development and security of the region. He also highlighted the outcome of the recent United Nations Climate Change Conference – the Conference of the Parties (COP29) and the need for international action to address the geopolitics and social impact of climate change threats in the Pacific SIDS
This webinar presentation was followed by an interactive Q&A session with Commonwealth Scholars and Alumni. A recording of this webinar is available to view on the CSC’s YouTube channel where you can also watch previous events in the series.
Post-webinar, attendees were invited to network with fellow attendees to further discuss the webinar topic, exchange ideas and knowledge, seek out collaborators for their own work, and promote their research.
Join future Development in Action webinars
The CSC’s Development in Action webinars take place each month and are open to all Commonwealth Scholars and Alumni.
To find out about upcoming webinars, please visit the CSC’s events webpage.
