Program

Climate change -related matters can evoke a wide range of emotions. In this opening lecture, experienced eco-emotion researcher Panu Pihkala will give an introduction to the scope of climate emotions and their manifold dynamics. Many climate emotions are 'difficult': it is not easy to feel them and engage with them. However, all kinds of emotions can include energy and information which serves climate mitigation and adaptation. Pihkala will discuss various models and visualizations of climate emotions, such as the Climate Emotions Wheel and the Inventory of Climate Emotions (Marczak et al.). It is pointed out that there are often trajectories between various climate emotions, which need attention both for psychological and ethical reasons. The importance and challenges of naming emotions are discussed, as well as the contributions of various languages for naming (climate) emotions.

The topic of climate anxiety has attracted a large amount of research as well as media coverage. This presentation will review formal and informal ways of understanding the concept, as well as what we about its incidence. I will also discuss predictors and consequences of climate anxiety, including recent research on the links to moral distress, and describe what we know about best practices for responding to climate anxiety, both at an individual and at a societal level. Finally, I will devote time to the question of future directions. What are the current trends in research on climate anxiety? What are some new questions that deserve investigation?

 

 

In this workshop, we will work in small groups and have joint discussions. Dr. Panu Pihkala will facilitate engagement with climate emotions with the help of his Process Model of Eco-anxiety and Grief (2022). Participants are invited to reflect on their journeys towards environmental awareness, as well as their methods of coping with difficult climate impacts and emotions. The balance between action, emotional engagement, and self-care is a key theme. We will discuss the relationship between individuals and larger social bodies, and a starting point is the inter-relationality which shapes all life on Earth. Additional information (not obligatory to pre-read): Pihkala P. Using the process model of eco-anxiety in group work.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 2025;1548(1):218-232. doi:10.1111/nyas.15344

 

Emotions such as fear, joy, anger, and empathy play a crucial role in shaping human perceptions and responses to crises, including climate change. Fear of extreme weather events, anger at political inaction, and hope for a greener future all influence how individuals and societies respond to environmental challenges. AI and associated technologies may shape climate emotions in several ways, thus influencing human behavior at scale. Social media platforms, for example, powered by AI-driven recommender systems, curate content based on emotional engagement, often prioritizing emotionally charged posts—whether hopeful, outraged, or fearful. Generative AI can be used to craft highly persuasive digital content, further influencing public opinion and activism in complex ways. In this lecture, I explore the various ways that “AI” may influence climate emotions at scale, the vast challenges of exploring these questions empirically, and the contested nature of AI emotion technologies.

 

This lecture will first introduce the growing field of emotions research in the legal discipline, with a particular focus on international law. Law is a tenaciously ‘rationalist’ discipline that tends to insist on the need to eliminate emotion from legal reasoning and decision-making. In parallel with turns to emotions across disciplines, there is burgeoning recognition that emotion cannot be eliminated from law and attention moves instead to how emotions influence law. The lecture will then zoom in on various ways in which emotions are relevant in the legal framework on climate change. International climate change law – as international environmental law more broadly – is informed primarily by climate/environmental science. Building on emotions research from other disciplines that demonstrates the influence of emotions on perceptions and behaviour in the context of climate change, I will canvass ways in which emotions also influence the making, interpretation, and application of climate law. Ultimately, I argue that emotions are paramount to giving meaning to the notion of climate justice.

 

In this workshop, we will examine how emotions are invoked in high-profile, or strategic, climate litigation. I will first offer an introduction to climate litigation and situate high-profile litigation as an extension of climate activism. I will then introduce ways in which emotions are shaping climate litigation, both explicitly through references to litigants’ emotions in legal proceedings and implicitly through more general language and imagery around these cases. During the workshop, participants will spend time exploring high-profile climate cases and considering which emotions are at play, how, and in whose interests.