King’s Fellow Mirnal Mungra reflects on his time visiting Kingston, Jamaica as part of the inaugural KCFP Climate Resilience Fellowship residential.
Mirnal Mungra
When I arrived in Kingston on that Saturday night, Jamaica welcomed me rather dramatically: with heavy rain, thunder and flashes of lightning illuminating the sky. By the time I left, the clouds had cleared and Kingston was glowing under beautiful sunshine.
That contrast felt like a fitting reflection of my experience during the King’s Commonwealth Fellowship Programme Climate Resilience Fellowship residential: beginning with complex and sometimes overwhelming climate challenges, but leaving with greater clarity, optimism and confidence in the power of collaboration.
Climate challenges do not fit neatly into boxes
One of my strongest takeaways from the residential was the importance of systems thinking.
Climate-related challenges are often divided into separate categories such as energy, waste, water, infrastructure, finance and governance. In reality, these issues are deeply connected. A decision made in one part of the system can create consequences elsewhere, including some that may not be immediately visible.
This is particularly relevant to my work in Mauritius, a Small Island Developing State that is highly vulnerable to climate change and heavily dependent on imported resources. Mauritius is expanding its use of solar photovoltaic technology as part of its renewable-energy transition. This is encouraging, but it also raises an important question: what will happen to these solar panels when they reach the end of their useful lives?
Without appropriate planning, today’s clean-energy solution could become tomorrow’s waste-management challenge.
My workplace-based project, “Building a collaborative circular economy system for end-of-life solar PV panels in Mauritius,” explores how government institutions, importers, distributors, researchers, recyclers and consumers can work together to develop a more sustainable system.
The Kingston residential helped me view this challenge through a much wider lens. End-of-life solar panels are not only a waste issue. They are connected to climate policy, renewable-energy planning, financing, regulation, public awareness, institutional coordination and technological capacity.
In other words, the panels may be rectangular, but the problem certainly does not fit into a neat box!
Collaboration is a form of climate infrastructure
Another important lesson was that resilience depends as much on relationships as it does on physical infrastructure.
We often associate climate resilience with stronger buildings, renewable-energy systems, flood defences and improved technologies. However, effective collaboration between institutions and communities is equally important. Even the best technical solution can fail when responsibilities are unclear, information is not shared or organisations work in isolation.
Meeting fellows from different countries and professional backgrounds reinforced the value of listening to perspectives outside one’s usual field. Although our local contexts vary, many of us face similar challenges: limited resources, fragmented responsibilities, competing priorities and the need to translate ambitious policies into practical action.
The residential week also brought a wonderful and completely unexpected personal moment. During our visit to the Rio Cobre Flood Early Warning Station, I met my old friend Samuel from Jamaica. The last time we had seen each other was in China in 2015. More than a decade later, we crossed paths again, not at an airport, conference or planned reunion, but during a climate-resilience site visit in Jamaica. Of all the places in the world where we might have met again, neither of us could have predicted that one!
The reunion made the visit even more memorable. It also reflected something special about international programmes such as the KCFP. They do more than facilitate the exchange of knowledge. They create friendships, professional relationships and networks that connect people across countries and sometimes bring them together again many years later.
There was something energising about being surrounded by people who could discuss serious climate challenges while remaining optimistic, creative and occasionally very funny. Climate work can sometimes feel overwhelming, so this combination of determination, friendship and humour was refreshing.
From learning to action
The fellowship has encouraged me to be more ambitious about what my project can achieve. Rather than proposing an isolated technical solution, I want to help develop a collaborative framework that clearly identifies responsibilities, strengthens coordination and supports the long-term sustainability of Mauritius’ solar-energy transition.
The experience also reinforced the importance of designing solutions that reflect the realities of Small Island Developing States. Mauritius may not have the same recycling infrastructure, market size or financial resources as larger countries. Solutions must therefore be practical, locally relevant and built through cooperation.
Being a King’s Commonwealth Fellow means becoming part of a wider community of people committed to creating meaningful change. It provides not only knowledge, but also the confidence to challenge existing ways of working and the connections needed to explore new possibilities.
I left Kingston under a bright, sunny sky, carrying new ideas, new professional connections and a notebook containing far more arrows, circles and systems diagrams than when I arrived. Most importantly, I returned with a clearer conviction: climate resilience is not created by one person, institution or technology. It is built through collaboration. Just as Kingston’s stormy skies eventually gave way to sunshine, even the most complex climate challenges can become clearer when people come together with shared purpose, practical ideas and hope.
Learn more about the King's Commonwealth Fellowship Programme, including the King's Climate Resilience Fellows and their professional backgrounds and Fellowship projects.