“Those on the frontlines of the climate crisis do not have the luxury of losing hope.”  
- Shiva Gounden, head of Pacific, Greenpeace Australia Pacific 

As climate change has defined our world, there has been a growing number of activists who talk about the issues of climate change, through a variety of perspectives and mediums. From throwing paint on Vincent van Gogh’s paintings at the National Gallery, London, in 2024, as a sign of protest against government handling of oil and gas policies, to school strikes for climate awareness, people from across the world are taking action in the face of accelerating climate change. Young activists have become increasingly active in the fight to slow down climate change, many of whom demand accountability from world leaders, and concrete, actionable mitigation strategies.  

This was evidenced even at the global forum, COP (United Nations’ annual Conference of Parties, discussing climate change), in 2024, where climate activists, disappointed by the limited funds raised for climate initiatives in developing countries, called for stricter standards, and more effective financial aid strategies for the countries of the global South. From a reluctance to fully phase out fossil fuels, to “hollow promise(s)” being delivered by the global North, activists spoke of the inefficient handling of climate finance by world leaders, and are now signalling that COP in Brazil, in 2025, will be a marker in tracking leaders’ response to climate change.  

The growing prevalence and impact of activism and advocacy on climate change is clear: how can we better understand the role of advocacy in creating and sustaining change? How do different forms of activism play diverse, yet equally critical roles in the fight against climate change? Through this panel, we will explore a few examples of climate advocacy in action, and understand the impact it can have on both the layperson and those working in the sector. Our panelists are Gunjan Menon, co-founder, Beyond Premieres, Sharbendu De, contemporary lens-based artist, and Saba Imtiaz, freelance journalist, researcher and author, who will be moderating the conversation.

This is the second session of Wide World: Climate in South Asia, this year's edition of our annual summer learning series, taking place virtually over June and July. Over four sessions and with panels of experts, we will explore the ways in which climate change affects South Asia, and the steps being taken to mitigate its effects. The programs look at climate justice; climate advocacy; climate finance; and wildlife conservation.  

SPEAKERS

Saba Imtiaz is a freelance journalist, researcher, and author. She writes about culture, urban life, human rights, religion, and food. Her work has appeared in the Guardian, SAVEUR, Roads & Kingdoms, and Vittles, and she has reported features from Pakistan, Jordan, and Lebanon. She is the co-author of a non-fiction book called Society Girl — A Tale of Sex, Lies, and Scandal (Roli Books) and the co-host and co-producer of the related Notes on a Scandal podcast. Her first novel Karachi, You're Killing Me! (Penguin Random House India, 2014), was adapted into an Indian feature film called Noor. She is currently based in The Netherlands. 

Gunjan Menon is a Producer-Director, National Geographic Explorer, NEWF Fellow and Mentor. She is the co-founder of Beyond Premieres, a Vancouver-based creative studio dedicated to impact-driven films at the intersection of biodiversity conservation, climate resilience, and Indigenous stewardship. Her work brings global attention to human-wildlife relationships, with a strong focus on ecofeminism.
 

Selected titles she has worked on include Underdogs (Nat Geo Wild), Sentient (Disney+), The Letter (PBS), The Firefox Guardian (Seeker/ShortsTV), and On the Brink (Discovery/Animal Planet). Beyond her role as a Field Director, she has created independent films that have earned over 50 laurels across 20 countries. She received the prestigious Jackson Wild Rising Star Award in 2020, is a Re:Generation Climate Leader, supported by Prince Albert II of Monaco, and was featured in the Rebel Girls: Animal Allies children's book. In 2025, she was named to The Explorers Club EC50 as one of the "50 People Changing the World”.
 

Gunjan is dedicated to making filmmaking more accessible by mentoring emerging creators and scientists and collaborating with organizations like NEWF in South Africa, the Green Hub in India, and Girls Who Click to lead workshops on photography, storytelling, and science communication. She holds a Master’s in Wildlife Filmmaking from UWE Bristol and BBC-NHU. Gunjan continues to push the boundaries of conservation storytelling, leveraging film to influence policy, amplify scientific impact, and foster deeper public empathy for the natural world.

Sharbendu De is a contemporary lens-based artist, educator and a writer, deeply invested in the climate and ecological discourse, indigenous narratives as well multi-species ecologies. His conceptual approach to photography has been called ‘cinematic stills’ and ‘tableaux’s’ for their emblematic style. For ‘Earth Day 2025’ Aesthetica featured him in the list of ’10 landmark artists’ working on climate and sustainability.

He was a Visiting Artist Fellow at the Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute, Harvard University (2022), and an artist-in-residence at the Hampi Art Labs (2024). He has received grants from the National Geographic Society, KHOJ, Lucie Foundation, India Foundation for the Arts and MurthyNAYAK Foundation.

De has been on the Jury of Serendipity Arts Foundation’s Artist Residency program (2025) and Indian Photography Festival (2023), and remains an Artistic Advisor to SaLadakh Biennale, India’s first land art festival.

He has widely exhibited across Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Forecast Platform, Harvard University, Griffin Museum, Guangdong Times Museum, Gabrovo Biennial, Museum of Humor and Satire, Asian Art Biennale, Rencontres d'Arles, Photoville, India Art Fair, Vadehra Art Gallery, Shrine Empire Gallery, Art & Charlie, PhEST, FORMAT, Serendipity Arts Festival and MOPLA among others. His artworks reside in several private and public collections.

Premised on climate futurism, his series An Elegy for Ecology (2016-21) is a speculation on the human condition where estrangement from nature has amplified loneliness, solastalgia and eco-anxiety—turning the climate and ecological discourse domestic. Imagined Homeland (2013-19) explores the indigenous Tibeto-Burman Lisu community’s philosophies and multispecies relationships with nature, and Between Grief and Nothing (2015-16) is a portrayal of the psychological violence and trauma caused by the 2015 Nepal earthquakes. He is currently working on the sequel to An Elegy for Ecology as well as Man is not an Island (2020-ongoing) exploring anthropogenic entanglements, kinship making philosophies, eco-horrors and the positionality of the artist as self. Imagined Homeland (2013-19) has been theorized in Framing Portraits, Binding Albums, eds. Shilpi Goswami & Suryanandini Narain, Zubaan Books (2025). He has further contributed to several boo k publications including 108 Portraits of Indian Photography, ed. Dr. Alka Pande, Arthshila (2024), Multispecies Speculations, ed. Ravi Agarwal (2022), and Folk Costumes, Indo-Pacific Air, eds. Urtzi Grau & Guillermo Fernández-Abascal, Art Paper Editions (2022). He is currently working on his first book Man is Not an Island.

He has an MA in Photojournalism from the University of Westminster, London (2010).

Over the last 14 years, De has taught photography and visual communications across universities and cultural institutions in India including Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi University, Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Visva Bharati University and Sri Aurobindo Center for Art & Communication. In 2023, he founded an online climate educational program titled Decoding Anthropocene: Tackling Climate Crisis to support South Asian visual storytellers working on climate and ecological storytelling (supported by PhotoSouthAsia). After living in Delhi for two decades, in 2023, he relocated to Sikkim in the Eastern Himalayas.

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