Jagannath Panda chaired a panel on “Unity in Indo-Pacific: Mounting Climate Crisis in Tibet” at the Forum 2000

October 15, 2025: Dr. Jagannath Panda, Head of the Stockholm Center for South Asian and Indo-Pacific Affairs (SCSA-IPA), chaired a panel on “Unity in Indo-Pacific: Mounting Climate Crisis in Tibet” at the Forum 2000 in Prague. This panel was a part of the SCSA-IPA’s research project ‘Climate Crisis in Tibet’, and featured Rayhan Asat (Senior Legal and Policy Advisor, Atlantic Council, USA), Shruti Kapil (International Centre for Sustainability, UK), and Penpa Tsering (Central Tibetan Administration). This panel discussed how the world community, including the Indo-Pacific community, must take a careful look at the deteriorating climate conditions in Tibet. The panel urged the UNFCCC to take a nuanced view of Tibet’s climate conditions and must include it in the COP30 agenda for discussion. The SCSA-IPA’s recently published Stockholm Paper titled “Whither Tibet in Climate Crisis Agenda?” was released during this panel discussion.

Dr. Panda also participated in another panel on “Reincarnation and Realpolitik: Global Security Implications of the Dalai Lama’s Succession.” This panel featured Miriam Lexmann (European Parliament, Quaestor), Cameron Warner (Aarhus University, Denmark), and Lobsang Sangay (Harvard Law School). This panel discussed Tibet-China-India security complexity and how the reincarnation issue of His Holiness is becoming a contentious matter in the Himalayan region.