UNSW Institute for Climate Risk & Response Industry Forum

Join us for the ICRR Conference 2025 - Industry Forum, where leaders and experts from academia, industry, and government will come together to explore solutions to critical climate risks and discuss emerging challenges and opportunities in Australia’s fast-changing climate landscape.

Building on the success of last year’s inaugural event—which featured over 150 participants from academia, government, and industry, and included a powerful keynote by the Hon. Matt Kean—the 2025 Industry Forum promises to be an even more impactful platform for advancing Australia’s climate resilience and opportunity agenda.

This year’s Forum will feature five panel sessions that span pressing climate-related issues affecting national resilience, economic wellbeing, and governance. The agenda includes:

• Australia, climate policy & global diplomacy
• Climate Risk, Insurance Affordability, and Homeowner Resilience

• Food Security Under Climate Risk
• Accounting for Climate Change
• The Future of Corporate Climate Accountability and Directors Duties

Attendees will have the opportunity to connect with leading climate risk and response experts, as well as industry peers, over catered morning and afternoon teas, lunch, and post-event drinks and light refreshments.

The Industry Forum is part of our two-day end-of-year conference. Day one will feature an Early Career Researcher-focused workshop, you can register and find more information on the ECR workshop here.

We look forward to welcoming you to this special event.

Info: Australia is in the box seat to host the COP31 UN climate talks in 2026. To be hosted in partnership with Pacific island nations, this will be the biggest diplomatic summit Australia has ever held, with tens of thousands of delegates expected to attend two weeks of talks in the host city Adelaide. Many will also attend satellite events around Australia and in the Pacific.
The COP31 talks will bring global attention – and heighten expectations for bold climate action. Playing host could cement Australia’s place in the emerging net-zero economy, galvanise the federal government’s green industry plans and rapidly build the trade and diplomatic ties needed to develop new markets for clean energy goods. The summit is also an opportunity to celebrate the climate leadership of Pacific island nations, and cement Australia’s place in the region. COP31 could be a catalyst for change, but Australia will need to step up if we’re to meet the moment.

Info: Climate risk has etched complexity into the already multifaceted problem of housing affordability in Australia. Floods, fires, and storms are driving up insurance costs and could render some areas uninsurable, potentially limiting the availability of affordable housing in the future. For banks and lenders, underinsurance poses a rising credit risk, threatening property values and mortgage security.
This panel will explore how insurers, lenders, governments, and communities can work together to quantify, manage, and reduce climate-related risks. It will focus on actionable strategies underpinned by climate science to ensure insurance affordability, support homeowner resilience, and maintain economic stability in the face of a changing climate.

Info: Australia may be a global food powerhouse, but climate change is forcing us to rethink how secure our food system really is. Severe droughts in the 2000s and 2010s revealed just how dependent our yields are on stable rainfall, while post-COVID price spikes showed that global market shocks quickly reach our supermarket shelves. This panel will share the latest evidence on those risks and explore ways to build resilience, from climate-smart farming and resource efficiency to stronger, more adaptive supply networks. 

Info: Accounting and reporting for climate change is no simple feat. Companies are expected to provide forward-looking information that depends on uncertain science, changing conditions, and systemic interdependencies. This makes it hard for organisations to explain their risks clearly, for auditors to check the information, and for investors to know how much trust to place in it.

The panel will look at how companies can assess climate risks in a way that supports strategy and decision-making and generate climate disclosures that are reliable and useful. It also considers how assurers can work to verify forward-looking, uncertain information, and how investors can interpret such information when assessing organisational and systemic risk.

Info: As climate litigation accelerates globally and regulators sharpen their focus on corporate accountability, Australian directors are entering a new era of legal, financial and reputational risk. The question is no longer if climate-related risk should be considered in boardrooms - but how, when, and to what extent. Legal opinions and international case law suggest that directors who fail to account for climate risks may be at risk of breaching their obligations under Australian corporation's law. Meanwhile, with regulators, shareholders and consumers cracking down on corporate ‘greenwashing’, directors face growing pressure to act with due diligence, transparency, and foresight. Directors’ duties now extend beyond traditional financial oversight to include managing climate-related risks, avoiding greenwashing, and ensuring that governance practices align with emerging legal and market expectations.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

The Calyx, Mrs Macquaries Road, Sydney, Australia