Climate security & geostrategic competition in the Pacific
Mittwoch, 27.05.2026, 18:00 UhrVortrag, Wien
Lecture by Salā Dr George Carter (Australian National University), bitte hier anmelden: www.eventbrite.at/e/public-lecture-climate-security-geostrategic-competition-in-the-pacific-tickets-1989303492296?aff=oddtdtcreator
Salā Dr George Carter will examine how climate change is reshaping regional security through its intersection with international politics and strategic rivalry. He will explore how climate impacts—such as rising sea levels and intensified disasters—are not only humanitarian challenges but also drivers of competition, contrasting a traditional security narrative centred on great powers with a Pacific led, comprehensive climate security approach. As strategic tensions between China and the United States intensify, Dr Carter will highlight how Pacific island countries are navigating these dynamics, increasingly leveraging climate action as a tool to assert agency, protect sovereignty, and shape regional cooperation.
Salā Dr George Carter is the Head of the Department of Pacific Affairs, Director of the ANU Pacific Institute, and Cluster Lead on Climate Security and Indigenous and Traditional Knowledge at the Institute for Climate Change, Energy and Disaster – Senior Fellow at the Australian National University (ANU). In 2025 he was invited by the UN Secretary General to be a Leading Expert as part the of the fifteen member UN Independent Expert Group on the Multidimensional Vulnerability Index (MVI). He was part of the Presidential Scientific Council for UNFCCC COP29 in Baku Azerbaijan. George’s research examines the intersection of international politics and security with climate change and aerospace, focusing on diplomacy, finance, gender, democracy, and traditional knowledge, and the power and authority of Pacific states and Small Island Developing States. His work contributes to climate politics, foreign policy, multilateralism, Oceanic diplomacy, Pacific regionalism, geopolitics, and Indigenous philosophy and Pacific aerospace governance. He leads multiple trans and inter disciplinary research projects and supervises PhD and master research from Pacific and around the world all contributing to the advancement of Pacific focused knowledge in international politics. Grounded in the principle of tautua (service), his work on research brokerage and science diplomacy supports Pacific communities, regional organisations, and climate, ocean and space negotiations. George holds the high chief title of Sala from Lea’uva’a Samoa and proudly serves his communities through education inspired by his Samoan, Tuvaluan, i Kiribati, Chinese, and British heritage.
Ort: Climate Lab, Spittelauer Lände 45, 1090 Wien
