Workshop on

the Psychology of Climate Risk Communication

Hosted by the Centre for Decision Research

Funded by IAREP

September 8, 2025, University of Leeds, UK

The Centre for Decision Research at the University of Leeds is hosting the Workshop on the psychology of climate risk communication, to be held at the University of Leeds, UK, on September 8, 2025. The Workshop is kindly funded by the International Association for Economic Psychology (IAREP).

This Workshop will explore how researchers and policymakers leverage psychological and economic insights to enhance climate change communication. Participants will also examine emerging approaches for developing and delivering effective climate risk information and how these impact decision-making with respect to climate and the environment. Given the current increase in climate change uncertainty, it is essential to create a validated and concise toolkit to communicate climate risks. Our target audience includes both researchers and policymakers interested in broad topics related to climate risk communication for non-academics.

Submit your abstract here!

Keynote speaker

Wändi Bruine de Bruin

Wändi Bruine de Bruin is a Provost Professor of Public Policy, Psychology, and Behavioral Science at the University of Southern California's Sol Price School of Public Policy, where she also leads the USC Behavioral Science and Well-Being Policy initiative. Her research focuses on understanding and improving decision-making processes in areas such as personal health, environmental sustainability, and household finances. With over 150 peer-reviewed publications to her name, she has made significant contributions to these fields. Her recent work explores risk perceptions and protective behaviors, food insecurity, age-related differences in mental health, and political polarization during the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis. She has also investigated public understanding of climate change terminology, the influence of social networks on voting and vaccination behaviors, and global risk perceptions using data from the Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll.

Panel on climate risk communication

Sarah Taylor (Natural England)

Sarah is a Senior Specialist Climate Change Adaptation. Her tasks involve leading on a number of specific projects, including developing and maintaining a national scale biodiversity climate change vulnerability assessment, working with spatial datasets to assess and design ecological networks, providing specialist advice to colleagues and partners, and collaborating on cross-cutting projects at a national level. Sarah has also established and is running an organisation-wide climate change network and a group of local climate change representatives who share climate change work with their teams to better include it in the wider work they carry out.

Joseph Daron (Met Office and University of Bristol)

Joe is a Science Manager in the Climate Services Development team within International Applied Science & Services at the Met Office. The team works with partners and organisations from across the world to co-develop and deliver climate services, helping to address the risks associated with climate variability and change. Joe’s focus is on the development of climate services in Africa and Asia. He holds a joint position as a Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Science at the University of Bristol, through the Met Office Academic Partnership (MOAP).

Susanne Lorenz (University of Leeds)

Susanne is a Lecturer in Climate Change Adaptation at the Sustainability Research has been working in the field of climate change adaptation, both in research and in practice, for 15 years. Her prior work focused on providing comprehensive climate risk and vulnerability assessments and adaptation plans. Susanne also focuses on how to help Local Authorities more climate resilient. She is also particularly interested in examining how climate services are used to inform adaptation decision-making and how climate adaptation planning can be particularly supported and enhanced across different levels of governance.