Systemic Risks and Climate Extremes Conference and Workshop

The Climate Extremes Research Group organizes an international conference and workshop in September 2025 on the topic of Systemic Risks and Climate Extremes. The conference and workshop are co-organized and funded by the EU Project - The HuT and the Cluster of Excellence "Climate, Climatic Change, and Society" (CLICCS) and supported by WCRP (Safe Landing Climates), UNDRR and the Knowledge Action Network on Emergent Risks and Extreme Events - Reducing Disaster Risks under Environmental Change.

Photo: https://journals.plos.org/climate/article?id=10.1371/journal.pclm.0000564, Ciullo et al. 2025, figure 2

Find out more information in the journal article Climate-driven systemic risk to the sustainable development goals.

 

Scope:

Systemic risks are emerging as an important topic on the science and policy agendas. Systemic risk can arise from the interplay of climate change and natural hazards within a network of interdependent social, technical, ecological and economic systems. As a result, we are confronted with multiple, interlinked and intensifying crises in global systems. Systemic risks are characterized by cascading effects that spread within systems and sectors (e.g. finance, health, infrastructure, energy and agriculture) and across system boundaries. As such, systemic risks need to be considered in the design and implementation of climate adaptation and mitigation strategies. 

Existing risk assessments for individual climate-related hazards are not able to capture systemic risks. Common methods, data and tools we use today to assess and respond to risks are insufficient to effectively address the dynamic reality of interconnected risks. The workshop aims to address current challenges of systemic risks related to climate extremes and to scope ways forward to tackle those in science and practice. This workshop will bring together different disciplines to foster systemic thinking and systemic approaches to advance our knowledge and cross-sectoral opportunities related to systemic risks and climate extremes, to enable the development of climate adaptation and mitigation strategies that take the complexities of the real world into account.

Aims:

• bring together people from different disciplines working on systemic risks
• exchange of researchers and practitioners
• showcase the challenges in systemic risks related to climate extremes
• gain a better understanding of tools and data
• create new opportunities for cross-sectoral/cross-disciplinary collaboration on the topic of systemic risks related to climate extremes

Find out more information about Systemic Risk in the Briefing Note Systemic Risks: Review and Opportunities for Research, Policy and Practice from the Perspective of Climate, Environmental and Disaster Risk Science and Management.

Date: 24-26 September 2025

Confirmed keynote speakers:

1. Markus Reichstein (MPI BGC Jena, Risk KAN) - systemic risk and artificial intelligence
2. Nicole Ranger (University of Oxford) - systemic risks and finance
3. Alex Ruane (NASA) - systemic risks and food/agriculture
4. Sirkku Juhola (University of Helsinki, Future Earth) - systemic risks and social dynamics
5. Ajay Gambhir (ASRA) - systemic risk assessment tools
6. Sarah Hendel-Blackford (ASRA) - systemic risk responses
7. Alexandre Pereira Santos (LMU Munich) - systemic risk and adaptation
8. Joyeeta Gupta (Earth Commission) - climate change and existential risk
9. Zinta Zommers (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, IPCC) - systemic risk and governance

Location:

       24 September 2025 - Conference at HafenCity Universität Hamburg (HCU)

       25-26 September 2025 - Workshop: Haus des Sports Hamburg (By Invitation Only)

Conference Registration:

Please pre-register for the Systemic Risks Conference here: https://www.conferences.uni-hamburg.de/event/616/

The deadline for pre-registration and abstract submission is May 5th, 2025. Successful applicants will be notified in early June 2025.

The Organisation Committee:

UHH: Jana Sillmann, Benjamin Blanz, Leonard Borchert, Benjamin Poschlod, Nele Räther, Vidur Mithal, Aiswarya Thazhissery-Pavanan, Josipa Zupanic
GERICS: Jo-Ting Huang-Lachmann, Anke Schluensen-Rico
WCRP: Laura Suarez-Gutierrez

                                                                                                                                                                                                  Supported by:

                   

            

                                                                                                                                                                                                  Funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany's Excellence Strategy – EXC 2037 'CLICCS - Climate, Climatic Change, and Society' – Project Number: 390683824, contribution to the Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN) of Universität Hamburg.