Sydney Environment Institute
Newsletter
November 2025
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Dear SEI Community,
As I write this, world leaders are meeting in Belém, Brazil, for COP30. Ten years on from the Paris Agreement, this year’s COP comes at a crucial moment where the world needs to accelerate climate action and address the gaps in the scale and pace of implementation of policies to address climate change. We will be watching closely for the resolutions and commitments that arise from the COP, as well as an announcement on who will host next year’s summit: Australia has submitted a bid to host COP31 in partnership with the Pacific, which would bring the world’s most important climate discussions to our doorstep.
In related news, Australia released in September a number of long-awaited documents that paint a clearer picture of its response to climate change. Amongst those were the National Climate Risk Assessment and National Adaptation Plan, which provide an assessment of the compounding climate risks facing Australia and a framework and direction for adaptation, respectively. Each of these reports is shocking in its own way, and we spoke with several of our experts on their views, which you can read here. In that piece we also share insights from SEI’s presence at Adaptation Futures 2025: last month, more than a dozen of our members and staff were in New Zealand for the flagship event of the United Nations World Adaptation Science Programme (WASP) – and leading global conference on adaptation. We were proud to present a broad range of ongoing work of SEI teams, from justice in adaptation to community-based knowledges in response to disasters, and more. Dr Rebecca McNaught, who presented with us at Adaptation Futures, will deliver the 2026 Iain McCalman lecture. You can find more details below. We look forward to seeing you there.
A couple of special mentions: first to our member A/Prof Michele Barnes for being the sole Australian author on the landmark report Resilience Science Must-Knows, which distils decades of resilience research into nine essential must-knows for decision-makers; and to all our researchers awarded one of our collaborative grants for 2026. We received many high-quality applications and are very proud to support the selected projects.
This is the last newsletter of 2025; the next SEI newsletter will reach your inboxes early next year. It has been another busy and incredibly productive year for SEI and our members. We want to close the year by thanking each and every one of you for your work and contributions; we look forward to more engagement, more collaboration, more innovation, and more impact next year. Wishing you a safe and restful Summer.
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The 2026 Iain McCalman Lecture
The Iain McCalman Lecture celebrates SEI co-founder and former co-director Iain McCalman’s dedication to fostering and pioneering multidisciplinary environmental research. The lectures aim to highlight the work of early to mid-career researchers working across disciplinary boundaries to impact both scholarship and public discourse.
In 2026, Dr Rebecca McNaught will be presenting the Iain McCalman Lecture titled Communities in an era of compounding disasters: stories of hope from the Northern Rivers.
Date: Mon, 2 Mar 2026
Time: 6.00-8.00pm
Location: The Great Hall, University of Sydney
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 | SEI announces 2026 collaborative grant projects
This round of projects explores some of the key challenges in climate adaptation, biodiversity, conservation and culture, and at the intersection of climate and health.
| |  | Now open: SEI’s Iain McCalman Honours Research Award
Applications are now open for the 2026 Iain McCalman Honours Research Award. Eligible students can apply to receive a bursary of $2,000.
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 | New project explores more-than-human decision making
The University of Sydney and DemocracyNext are collaborating on a new project exploring how to include the more-than-human in decision making. Through global research, experiments, and building a community of practice, we aim to reimagine democratic participation.
| |  | How far should we go to bring back lost species?
A new SEI research project aims to advance our understanding of the many complex social, legal, ethical, and ecological dimensions of de-extinction projects, drawing on a broad range of approaches, including philosophy, ethics, law, anthropology, cultural studies, and ecology.
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In case you missed it
- SEI experts shared their views on Australia's National Climate Risk Assessment and National Adaptation Plan, as well as insights from the Adaptation Futures global conference. Read here.
- SEI members Prof Susan Park and Dr Oliver Summerfield-Ryan have released the Critical Minerals for a Sustainable Transition Report, with support from SEI, Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, and the Centre for Interational Security Studies. Read now (pdf, 6MB).
- SEI member A/Prof Christopher Pepin-Neff featured in a BBC article after a survey, part of an SEI-funded project, showed 85% of Australians agree that governments cannot make beaches "100% safe" from shark attacks. Learn more about the Human-shark relations project.
- The 2025 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change has been published online. The report is co-authored by 128 experts worldwide, including members Prof Ollie Jay, Dr Federico Tartarini, and A/Prof Ying Zhang.
- Read the World Bank's Handbook on Urban Heat Management in the Global South, a practical guide for city leaders to move from reactive measures to long-term resilience, safeguarding lives and economies from extreme urban heat.
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