From Risk Awareness to Action: Insights from the 2026 GARP Climate & Nature Risk Symposium

Recently, Climate Spheres Lead Climate Scientist, Dr. Rosalind Haskins, attended the 2026 GARP Climate & Nature Risk Symposium in London. The symposium offered a fascinating and interdisciplinary exploration of climate and nature risks and their current and projected impacts on businesses, economies, communities, food systems, and financial markets. Bringing together speakers and attendees from over 28 countries with expertise from the natural sciences, regulation, investment, and finance, the event provided realism and hope in equal measure, while highlighting the growing need for better risk communication, more informed decision-making, and greater collaboration in addressing our increasingly interconnected environmental challenges.

Dangerously overlooked tipping points 

The symposium opened with hard-hitting scientific presentations, which set the tone for having real conversations and acknowledged the scale of the challenges. This included not only the range of physically plausible scenarios, speakers also discussed the existence of climate tipping points, such as Amazon rainforest dieback, AMOC weakening, and coral reef collapse. These risks are increasing even at ~1.4°C warming, with observational data showing early warning signals of declining resilience in these systems. Speakers highlighted that these tipping points feed into each other and, for example, destabilisation of the northern ice sheets can lead to a collapse of Atlantic ocean downwelling, weakening the AMOC. This in turn changes atmospheric circulation and precipitation patterns that lead to die-back in the Amazon. Once they start to tip, they can act like dominos. 

The climate risk presentations were thoughtfully connected to the human impacts throughout the symposium. For example, one tipping point that could be crossed very soon is coral reef collapse, which at first can sound sad but not devastating to our daily lives. It was, however,  highlighted that not only do coral reefs support fisheries necessary for providing employment and desired protein in our food supply, but reefs also act as storm defences, protecting infrastructure and lives. Widespread action on climate change mitigation and adaptation will only come once these connections between environmental change and impacts on human life are better communicated and widely understood. 

Modernising our view of risk

Most of our understanding of risk is based on historical data, in which recent events can look like anomalies. However, by applying an understanding of climate change within risk we begin to see that many of these ‘anomalies’ are in fact the new normal, and will look moderate in the future. This backward looking view of risk often leads to an underestimate of risk and a failure to take proper precaution. A session during the symposium looked at ‘Black Swan’ events, such as the 2011 Bangkok floods which cost $40 billion and which surprised people looking at the historical record. These events were actually foreseeable by integrating climate change into risk assessment. 

A number of tech companies in attendance shared how they are now integrating climate scenarios into natural catastrophe modeling. The data used is often based on CMIP6 modeling which is widely available, global data that has been produced at considerable computational expense, and is often free to access. These modeling results are generally recognised as being conservative, which is positive for achieving complex international agreements (such as at COP), however when the results are used for understanding risk issues arise. For example, when simplifications occur, the model scenarios lack representation of the mechanisms necessary for capturing some of the natural feedbacks related to climate tipping points (i.e., without dynamic ice modelling, the freshwater input into the Atlantic expected to weaken downwelling will not occur). 

Psychological, communication, and economic barriers

A prominent theme throughout the symposium was the challenge of communicating climate risk in a way that effectively facilitates engagement and motivates action without causing negative reactions or rejection of facts. Much of society's response to climate change will be driven by how the risks are communicated and received. While the physical hazards continue to impact, the response in terms of policy, public opinion, and investment are strongly driven by the use of language. For example, it was highlighted that terms such as ‘ESG’ and ‘green’ are viewed negatively, especially in the U.S., whereas the term ‘resilience’ and talk of ‘energy and food security’ facilitate broader engagement. On the other hand, among some ‘climate positive’ groups, there is a tendency of championing achievements that overstate the degree of real-world impact being achieved through environmental schemes (a corporation boasting of their Net Zero ambitions may not have truly identified a practical path that combines Net Zero action and targets with profitability).

Hope for the future

Climate and nature risks are multidisciplinary and systemic, requiring coordinated and collaborative  responses. The conference evidenced  the increasing collaboration between professionals in different fields, and this needs to continue to grow with an open atmosphere of co-learning and co-development if we are to meet the hazards of climate change at the necessary pace. A panel of regulators outlined growing expectations for embedding climate and nature risks into core frameworks. The panel stressed that they understood that companies were being asked to engage in new thinking and practices, and welcomed more dialogue, encouraging businesses to reach out about uncertainty and discuss new approaches with their regulatory body. 

The GARP Climate & Nature Risk Symposium reinforced that climate and nature risks are fundamentally systemic challenges that cannot be addressed through scientific, financial, regulatory, or operational perspectives alone. While our understanding of climate and nature risks continues to advance, translating that knowledge into effective action remains a significant challenge. Success will depend largely on our ability to communicate risk and potential actions effectively, align incentives, improve decision-making, and strengthen collaboration across diverse stakeholders. 

This aligns closely with Climate Spheres' strategic focus on developing integrated information and intelligence solutions that connect environmental data, climate science, risk analysis, and stakeholder decision-making. Whether supporting climate risk assessments, measuring impact, climate-smart agriculture, or broader resilience planning, Climate Spheres is committed to helping organisations and collaborative groups move from understanding to action. As climate and nature challenges become increasingly interconnected, the ability to transform data into shared intelligence and collaborative solutions will be essential to building resilient businesses, communities, economies, and ecosystems.

Authored by: Rosalind Haskins, PhD, Climate Spheres Research Director LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rosalind-haskins