On March 17th, our department head professor Yang organized a special lecture with professol Saleemul Huq for her students from the Disaster Resilience and Community Participation class and for the general public.

Following our focus in climate action, professor Huq gave an insightful presentation on climate justice and global governance. Taking from his 27 years-long experience working in the COPs as one of the main advocates for Loss and Damages, he recounted the history of our planet＇s most important high-level climate forum with clarity and engagement.

Professor Huq defended that we are living through the third era of climate action - the era of Losses and Damages. That is because while the intiial stages of high-level climate action engagement were focused on finding solutions to lessen GHG emissions (what we call climate mitigation), and, after that, global leaders attempted to minimize the effects of climate change amongst the affected communities (climate adaptation), we have now entered a stage that we cannot go back from the climate crisis. The Losses and Damages agenda does not call for less engagement on mitigation and adaptation, but to think with it the impacts that are already being felt by climate hazards.

Professor Saleemul Huq, OBE

Director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCD)

Officer of the Order of the British Empire

The topic of Loss and Damage is a very timely one - with the Loss and Damage Fund having been finally agreed on during COP 27, after many years of discussion. The exhaustive and throughout advisory work that professor Huq played during all these years should be acknowledged as part of the reason why this agenda finally moved forward. Looking forward, professor Huq is continuing his work focused on LDCs, the climate injustices faced by economically-vulnerable population, and on engaging with the role each one of us have on fighting back the climate crisis.

This special lecture was a great experience for all those students that want to specialize in disaster mitigation and climate action. Students and professors were able to engage and discuss with professor Huq, who recounted important experiences in which he was a part of. As a student in professor Yang＇s Disaster Resilience and Community Participation class, and as someone who envisions a career with climarte action, it is always refreshing and inspiring when we are able to share experiences with those with more experiences, and professor＇s Huq passion and hard work was incredibly inspirational for our future.

This post is a testimony from International Development GSIAS master student Isabela Costa Bandeira Coêlho