Call for Papers
We invite you to join us for the Eighteenth International Conference on Climate Change: Impacts & Responses, the annual meeting of the Climate Change: Impacts & Responses Research Network, taking place 20–22 April 2026 in Rhodes, Greece and online, in partnership with the University of the Aegean. This year’s conference is held alongside the annual meeting of the On Sustainability Research Network, strengthening shared inquiry into ecological systems, global risks, social transitions, and sustainable futures. The Network brings together researchers, practitioners, policymakers, activists, educators, technologists, and community leaders committed to understanding climate science and the diverse ways societies respond to climate-related challenges.
In 2026, our special focus “Unseen Unsustainability: Addressing Hidden Risks to Long-Term Wellbeing for All” highlights the risks that remain obscured when climate discourse collapses into “carbon tunnel vision.” While greenhouse-gas mitigation remains urgent, many other systemic threats—biodiversity loss, freshwater depletion, soil degradation, ecosystem collapse, and social vulnerability—pose equally severe risks to long-term wellbeing, yet often remain marginal in policy and media narratives. This year’s focus invites a holistic understanding of unsustainability: one that incorporates the multiplicity of environmental and social systems that underpin planetary health.
We welcome contributions that examine how organizations, institutions, and communities identify hidden risks; how ecological harm is measured and communicated; how governance frameworks embed (or ignore) upstream environmental realities; and how communities mobilize to build resilience under intersecting pressures.
Alongside the Special Focus, proposals are invited across the Network’s annual themes:
The Nature of Evidence; Assessing Impacts in Diverse Ecosystems; Human Impacts & Responsibility; and Technical, Political & Social Responses.
Knowledge Experience and Format
The conference operates as a hybrid knowledge experience, with a unified schedule integrating in-person, live online, and asynchronous sessions. All accepted proposals become Presentation Pages on CGScholar Event
The joint convening with On Sustainability allows delegates to engage across two overlapping communities concerned with environmental systems, justice, resilience, and the design of sustainable futures.
Publication Pathways
Presenters are invited to develop their work for possible publication in the International Journal of Climate Change: Impacts & Responses or in the Climate Change Book Imprint, which publishes monographs and edited collections across climate science, governance, policy, adaptation, and social response. Both outlets offer options for traditional and Open Access publication.
Membership and Community
A Presenter Pass includes membership in the Climate Change: Impacts & Responses Research Network for the year, providing access to the online Knowledge Experience, where members engage in a full cycle of scholarly activity: preparation, presentation, reflection, and publication. Members may access conference archives, journals, books, and calls for papers, and share their own work through peer-facilitated community review.
Membership is also activated in our in-person gatherings, which support collaboration among researchers, policymakers, and practitioners dedicated to climate justice and ecological wellbeing. Membership sustains the Research Network and ensures continued access to journals, books, programs, and archives.
Join Us
We warmly invite you to submit a proposal and to join us—either in Rhodes or online—for the Eighteenth International Conference on Climate Change: Impacts & Responses, convened jointly with the On Sustainability Research Network. Together, we will explore how recognizing and addressing hidden risks can support a more just, resilient, and ecologically grounded future.
Sincerely,
Dr. Chryssi Vitsilaki, Conference Chair, University of the Aegean, Greece
Dr. Victoria Hurth, Research Network Chair, Institute for Sustainability Leadership, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Dr. Phillip Kalantzis-Cope, Chief Social Scientist, Common Ground Research Networks, United States of America