Speaker Series 8
Recording
The eighth DevSCA Speaker Series presentation was live-streamed in May 2025. View the live stream recording via the video embedded above.
Abstract
This talk will review empirical evidence linking climate change to rising mental health challenges among children and adults globally. It will then examine current conceptual models that seek to explain the pathways and mechanisms underlying these effects, and explore how these models might be improved to support better measurement and adaptation planning.
Speaker
Francis Vergunst
Francis Vergunst is an Associate Professor at the University of Oslo. His research bridges developmental psychopathology, mental health, and climate change with a focus on how climate change is affecting the healthy psychological development of children. His current activities include developing better conceptual models to explain how climate change impacts mental health and empirically testing the effects of specific climate-related hazards, such as heat exposure. The broader aim is to clarify causal pathways and underlying mechanisms to inform the development of effective adaptation and prevention strategies.