Climate Change: Impacts & Responses Research Network

The Climate Change: Impacts & Responses Research Network was founded in 2009 to connect research and policy around the emerging global climate emergency. The first conference at Bharati Vidyapeeth Institute of Environment Education and Research in Pune, India, brought together scientists, educators, and policymakers to look at “the knowns and unknowns” of climate disruption and its social and ecological consequences. Over time, this has grown into a member-based, scholar-led community focused on evidence, impacts, and practical responses.

The Network’s first Chair, Amareswar Galla (International Institute for the Inclusive Museum), emphasized cultural heritage, frontline communities, and the ethics of climate responsibility. Today, Victoria Hurth (University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership) serves as Chair and Editor, bringing together climate science, purpose-driven governance, and organizational strategy to support action-oriented research and practice.

The International Conference on Climate Change: Impacts & Responses has moved across regions and institutions, keeping the conversation grounded in local realities. Meetings have been hosted by the University of Queensland in Brisbane (Australia), the University of Washington in Seattle (USA), the University of Iceland in Reykjavík, Vietnam National University in Hanoi, Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge (UK), the University of California, Berkeley, The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (Italy), Éklore–Ed School of Management in Pau (France), and Florida International University in Miami (USA). Together, they have explored themes from evidence and ecosystems to adaptation, governance, and climate emergency framing.

The Network’s publishing program is anchored by The International Journal of Climate Change: Impacts and Responses, an interdisciplinary, hybrid Open Access journal. It examines how climate change affects ecosystems and vulnerable communities, and how societies can build adaptive, resilient futures—integrating science, economics, politics, sociology, and ethics. Each year, the Climate Change: Impacts & Responses International Award for Excellence is selected from the top-ranked peer-reviewed articles, with recipients invited as featured speakers at subsequent conferences. Recent award-winning work has addressed topics such as climate variability and undernutrition in rural Malawi, adaptive governance in disaster-prone regions of India, agricultural vulnerability in Turkey, climate-induced migration, and higher-education roles in climate literacy.

The Climate Change: Impacts & Responses Book Imprint complements the journal by supporting monographs and edited volumes on sustainability, adaptation, governance, and climate justice. It welcomes both broad and niche projects, is open to authors from all regions and career stages, and offers Open Access pathways so that research can circulate widely among scholars, practitioners, and communities.

Today, the Climate Change: Impacts & Responses Research Network connects scientists, policymakers, educators, and community leaders who are working to understand and respond to a rapidly changing climate. Through its rotating conferences, journal collection, book imprint, and online community spaces, it supports clear, shared inquiry into how evidence, policy, and local action can work together to meet the climate crisis.

• 2009 - The Knowns and Unknowns, Bharati Vidyapeeth Institute of Environment Education and Research, Pune, India
• 2010 - Adapting to Climate Change, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
• 2011 - Evidence, Ecosystems, and Responses, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
• 2012 - Climate Solutions and Sustainable Prosperity, University of Washington, Seattle, USA
• 2013 - Climate Change Adaptation and Development, Labourdonnais Waterfront Hotel, Port-Louis, Mauritius
• 2014 - Climate Change is a Symptom of a System in Crisis, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland
• 2015 - Whose Climate? Negotiating the Governance of Environmental Change, UBC Robson Square, Vancouver, Canada
• 2016 - Climate Change: A Knowledge and Resilience Community –
  Proactive Responses and Risk Management, NU University of Science (HUS), Vietnam National University (VNU), Hanoi, Vietnam
• 2017 - Communicating and Collaborating for Resilient Solutions to Climate Change, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK
• 2018 - Engaging with Policy on Climate Change, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, USA
• 2019 - Coastal Resilience, Pryzbyla Center, The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., USA
• 2020 - Adaptation: Lessons from Venice, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Venice, Italy (Virtual)
• 2021 - Responding to Climate Change as an Emergency, UBC Robson Square, Canada (Virtual)
  
• 2022 - Responding to the Climate Emergency: Governing the Climate Emergency, UBC Robson Square, Canada (Virtual)
  
• 2023 - Responding to the Climate Emergency: Scalable Solutions for the Climate-Nature Intersect, UBC Robson Square, Canada
  
• 2024 - Purpose Driven Organizations, Éklore-Ed School Of Management, Pau, France
  
• 2025 - Sustainable Development for a Dynamic Planet: Lessons, Priorities, and Solutions, Florida International University, Miami, USA