Leading the world

Professor Deo Prasad has been named as the Chair of the United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) Global Civil Society Forum (GSCF) for the Asia Pacific region.

Elected at the ninth session of the GCSF in Monaco, Professor Prasad will run the forum for the next two years.

"The forum provides a vehicle for organisations in the Asia Pacific, registered with the UN, to engage in the process of fighting climate change," he explains. "The interest groups include scientists, women's groups, Indigenous groups, and labour movements to name just a few."

An internationally renowned expert in sustainable architecture, Professor Prasad has a long-standing involvement with the UNEP.

"The change at the UN following Australia's signing of the Kyoto Protocol is amazing," he says. "Before we weren't seen as playing but now we are. Perhaps naming someone from Australia as the chair is a recognition of that."

Professor Prasad is an academic in the Faculty of the Built Environment where he supervises the Masters in Built Environment (Sustainable Development).

As part of this role Professor Prasad will host an International Environmental Governance Workshop at UNSW later this year. This workshop is jointly funded by UNEP and the EU.