These briefing notes were prepared to accompany each session of the Critical Decade for Climate Action Conference, held in September 2025.
The briefing notes summarise the key discussion themes explored during the three-day Critical Decade for Climate Action Conference in 2025.
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Click on the titles to below to read or print the session write-up as a PDF. More will be added as they are published.
• Climate services for our critical decade for climate action
Session 5: The Director of the German Climate Service Center (GERICS) addressed the emergent and urgent transitions in the 2020s; what are the barriers and enablers to delivering climate action at scale; and what is needed for the transition to Climate Services?
Authors: Jack Heslop, University of East Anglia (Rapporteur); Daniela Jacob, Climate Service Center Germany; Rachel Warren, University of East Anglia (Chair)
• Unlocking climate action at scale
Session 6c: Progress on climate remains slower and less widespread than needed, despite a strong scientific foundation about the risks of inaction, increasing awareness of and access to solutions to climate change, and a growing understanding of human behaviour and psychology on how to stimulate action. This session explored how beliefs and practices at differing levels – the individual, community and government – could be brought together to deliver meaningful climate action.
Authors: Manasa Sharma (Rapporteur), Alfie Gaffney, University of East Anglia; Neil Adger, University of Exeter; Sandra Boegelein, UK Climate Change Committee; Mark Tebboth, Roland Smith (Co-Chairs), University of East Anglia
• Delivering multidimensional wellbeing: Integrating climate action and human health
Session 8c: Climate change exacerbates existing health inequalities and disproportionately affects vulnerable populations. This session explored the specific impacts of climate change on health and wellbeing to identify and address primary research questions in each area.
Authors: Rita Issa, University of East Anglia (Rapporteur); Matthew Loxham, University of Southampton; Davide Filingeri, University of Southampton; Mark Chapman, University of Southampton; Mary Barker, University of Southampton (Chair)
• Wildfires in the context of climate change
Session 11c: Wildfires are becoming more intense, severe, and widespread, increasingly impacting the world’s forests. This session explores cutting-edge research on wildfire trends, including shifts in extent and severity, as well as the key drivers behind these changes.
Authors: Natasha Hill (Rapporteur), University of East Anglia; Calum Cunningham, University of Tasmania; Douglas Kelley, UK CEH; Piyush Jain, Canadian Forest Service; Kerryn Little, University of Birmingham; Francesca di Giuseppe, ECMWF; Alice Hsu, Matthew Jones (Chair), University of East Anglia
• With hindsight and foresight, what needs to be done differently for climate action? Directors reflect on halfway through our critical decade for climate action
Session 12: The Tyndall Centre, founded in 2000, is the first interdisciplinary, multi-University, multi-Research Council Institution, as far as we know. In this session, some senior members discussed what they would have done differently in the context of climate research for policy and our critical decade for climate action, and they highlight some of their top tips for early and mid-career researchers – the people who are the research directors of the future.
Authors: Clara Kübler (Rapporteur); Mike Hulme, University of Cambridge; Corinne Le Quéré, University of East Anglia; Kevin Anderson, University of Manchester; Lorraine Whitmarsh, University of Bath; Robert Nicholls (Chair)
- See the full agenda and outputs of the Critical Decade for Climate Action Conference
- Find out more about who we are and what we do
- Keep an eye on other events from the Tyndall Centre
Conference photo by Mind Lin
