The Rest is Climate Podcast

This Rest is Climate podcast introduces the concept of adaptation literacy as a vital evolution beyond basic climate awareness, focusing on the practical ability to navigate and respond to localized environmental risks. It presents a five-pillar framework that encompasses understanding impacts, risk perception, adaptation skills, reflexive capabilities, and ethical engagement to bridge the gap bet...

This podcast examines the devastating global impacts of compound climate events throughout 2025, categorising them into specific typologies such as spatial, temporal, and preconditioned interactions. We highlight how overlapping hazards, such as wildfires in Canada and catastrophic flooding in Mexico, resulted in damage that far exceeded the effects of isolated weather incidents. Key case studies...

This Rest is Climate Podcast discusses the formal adoption of the Belém Adaptation Indicators at COP30, which establish a framework for protecting global cultural heritage from climate change. This initiative aims to operationalise the Global Goal on Adaptation by creating measurable targets for preserving both physical sites and intangible traditions. The authors advocate for an ambitious approac...

This Rest is Climate podcast discusses how extreme heat negatively affects educational outcomes for children in low- and middle-income countries. The research highlights that rising temperatures disrupt learning through direct physiological and cognitive stress, while also indirectly hindering school access by damaging agricultural livelihoods and household income. While the evidence consistently...

  这项由气候风险实验室和中国研究人员共同开展的研究，对中国39处世界文化遗产进行了全面的气候风险评估，涵盖148处具体遗址及其保护缓冲区。该研究结合专家见解和未来气候预测，揭示了到21世纪末，几乎所有被评估的遗址都将面临中度至极度风险，原因是气温上升和降水强度增加。数据尤其凸显了古代建筑结构的脆弱性，例如五台山，它们极易受到极端降雨和冻融循环的影响而发生物质退化。除了这些标志性地标之外，作者还强调，数以...

This research from the Climate Risk Lab and researchers in China provides a comprehensive climate risk assessment for 39 of China’s Cultural World Heritage properties, encompassing 148 specific sites and their protective buffer zones. By integrating expert insights with future climate projections, the study reveals that nearly all examined locations will face moderate to extreme risk by the late 2...

The Global Adaptation Mapping Initiative (GAMI) serves as a pioneering framework for synthesising worldwide climate change adaptation data, originally established to support major international assessments like the IPCC 6th Assessment Report. Through a reflective survey of 59 participating researchers, this source evaluates the project's impact, reliability, and procedural feasibility, noting sign...

This podcast highlights the necessity of advancing the science and practice of climate risk management (CRM) in response to escalating global climate risks and insufficient current adaptation efforts. Extreme weather and "new climate normals" demonstrate the inadequacy of traditional responses, forcing a critical reflection on how CRM has evolved since its origins in the late 1990s. To prepare for...

Hierdie Rest is Climate-podsending dek Suid-Afrika se Tweede Nasionaal Bepaalde Bydrae (NDC), 'n formele dokument wat in Oktober 2025 ingevolge die Paryse Ooreenkoms gekommunikeer is. Hierdie Suid-Afrika se NDC skets die land se verbintenisse rakende versagting, aanpassing en ondersteuning vir die tydperk 2031-2035, wat die vordering vanaf sy eerste NDC demonstreer. Sleutelkomponente sluit in 'n v...

This Rest is Climate podcast covers South Africa’s Second Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), a formal document communicated in October 2025 under the Paris Agreement. This South Africa’s NDC outlines the country’s commitments regarding mitigation, adaptation, and support for the period 2031-2035, demonstrating progression from its first NDC. Key components include a mitigation target range ...

This podcast highlights how both the impacts of climate change and our responses to climate change affect climate change risk of structural economic transformation. examines Structural Economic Transformation (SET) in a world impacted by climate change, asserting its continued importance for poverty reduction and resilience. It highlights how climate change necessitates adaptations in development...

This Rest is Climate podcast examines the critical role of Indigenous and Local Knowledge (ILK) in climate change adaptation in Africa. They highlight how ILK, encompassing traditional wisdom, practices, and observations, is crucial for African communities, particularly smallholder farmers, in forecasting weather patterns, managing natural resources, and ensuring food security. The texts also ackn...

This podcast focuses on recent advances in complex climate change risk assessment for adaptation and discusses how to better assess and manage the intricate and interconnected risks posed by climate change. It highlights promising opportunities for action in areas like cities, coastal zones, and finance, advocating for the implementation of new methodologies. These methods, such as participatory m...

This podcast discusses the financial landscape of climate change research concerning Africa. It analyses a substantial database of research grants from 1990 to 2020, revealing that a disproportionately small fraction of global climate research funding targets Africa, despite the continent's high vulnerability to climate change. Most of this funding originates from and is received by institutions i...

This podcast discusses climate change impacts, vulnerabilities, and adaptation strategies across Africa, categorising findings by sub-regions and various sectors. It highlights how socio-economic, political, and environmental factors intersect to create multi-dimensional climate change exposure and vulnerability, particularly for those in informal settlements, women, children, and the elderly. It...

This podcast gives a a comprehensive overview of research on human adaptation to climate change, primarily drawing from the Global Adaptation Mapping Initiative (GAMI). We examine where, how, and to what extent adaptation responses are being implemented globally, covering various geographical regions, sectors, and the types of climate hazards addressed. A significant focus is placed on the involve...

This podcast examines the multifaceted concept of climate security through the lens of various nations and international bodies, particularly the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). It discusses how countries like South Africa, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Indonesia, Niger, Russia, the UK, and Vietnam perceive and address climate change as a risk and a security is...

This podcast discusses the idea of Climate Resilient Development (CRD), a concept that integrates adaptation and mitigation with sustainable development to achieve a liveable future. It emphasise that a narrowing window of opportunity necessitates urgent and fundamental shifts in current development approaches, moving beyond traditional economic growth models towards inclusive, just, and equitable...

This podcast outlines how we can better assess and respond to complex climate change risks. It highlights how multiple drivers of risk interact and how various risks can compound or cascade. Existing assessment frameworks often fail to fully account for these interactions. Three categories of increasing complexity are discussed: interactions among single drivers, interactions of multiple drivers w...

This podcast outlines the latest understanding on complex climate change risk, included how our responses to climate change can increase current and future risks. It covers the escalating climate change risks, the current state and limitations of adaptation efforts, the complex nature of transboundary impacts, and the implications for global sustainable development and climate response. It is base...

This podcast discuss impact of climate change on cultural and natural heritage, and the evolving strategies for adaptation, with a particular focus on Africa. Content is drawn form the following research from the Climate Risk Lab: African Heritage Sites threatened as sea-level rise accelerates. Nature Climate Change. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01280-1 Curating transformation can strengthen...

What does the latest research on public understanding of climate change in Africa tell us about how it relates to adaptation options on the continent like migration? This podcast showcases new research that shows: Climate change literacy in Africa, defined as awareness of climate change and understanding its anthropogenic cause, is highly variable across the continent and strongly influenced by so...