What's New in Knowledge | December 2025

From 10-21 November this month, COP30, the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference took place in Belem, Brazil. Find here the COP30 outcomes report or the Global Climate Action Agenda that came from the COP30 meetings.

A major milestone in global disaster resilience standards was also reached this month with the release of ISO 22372: Guidelines for Resilient Infrastructure. The new international standard offers a clear, structured approach for governments, engineers and all infrastructure stakeholders to establish, maintain, monitor, and continually improve infrastructure resilience.

Closer to home, the 2025 Resilient Australia National Award winners and highly commended projects were announced this month. You can find out more about all the finalists here. This book includes research on disaster related experiences of LGBTIQA+ people from the team that received the National Research for Impact Award, Queering disasters - a new research, policy and practice paradigm.

In understanding consequences and recovery, here is an article that looks at how the term ‘community’ has been conceptualised by an affected community in Queensland and how this allowed roles to be enacted. This is an article that dives into how participatory grant making builds community resilience and how this worked for the Cobargo Community Bushfire Recovery Fund. This is an interesting article about transformative recovery and building back better and its enablers and barriers in case studies from across Europe.

In disaster risk reduction, a recent ABC news article looks at Disaster Relief Australia’s Big Map exercise in community planning, understanding and preparedness. Read more about the exercise here. The Resilience Canopy has released their community led resilience playbook which you can access here. 

Community-led innovation has been strengthening flood resilience in Brisbane’s West-end through the Resilient Kurilpa program, a community-led, volunteer-run initiative supported by the Queensland Government. Resilient Kurilpa was the worthy recipient of the Resilience Australia National Community Award. You can watch a short video about their work here.  

Focusing on First Nations knowledge, a new collective has been established, called the Indigenous Systems Knowledge Collective whose goal is to apply knowledge protocols to resolve systemic crises. This article from the international Start Network focuses on integrating local indigenous traditional knowledge into early warning systems for climate resilience.

For children and young people, Resilient Youth Australia has released their fourth Resilient Youth: State of the Nation report, available to download here. Here is a publication on the importance of supporting sustainable development into the future through early life learning of disaster risk reduction, with an insight into how this is playing out across the United Kingdom schooling system. This Conversation article considers how to empower both students and teachers to prepare for a sustainable future.

Recognising inequity, this article looks at gender and climate change and how environmental degradation can amplify women’s vulnerability in Pakistan. This briefing from the European Disability Forum provides key recommendations for disability inclusive climate-action.

On a more positive note, this article shares 5 ways that COP30 could advance gender and climate justice.

Looking at weather and climate change, Australian insurance company, YOUI, have released their severe weather preparedness report for its customers and the wider public to read, based on a survey of 2,006 people across Australia. Focusing on extreme heat, according to the World Meteorological Organization, 2025 so far has been one of the 3 warmest years on record globally. The United Nations for Disaster Risk Reduction have released a resource package on Urban Extreme Heat Risk Management. It brings together insights from over 30 global case studies as well as detailed analyses of five cities around the world.

This report looks at a 3-year study from Charles Sturt University and BaptistCare that reveals how heat is impacting and challenging the delivery of home care services in rural New South Wales. Meanwhile, this report from the Asia-Pacific region looks at recent and long-term trends to examine how rising heat levels is a rising risk for this region. It calls for a move from reactive to strategic approaches to heat risk management.

In health, here is a paper that reviews research conducted between 1990 and 2025 to synthesise evidence on the nexus between climate change, poverty, and mental health. This report provides guidance on applying the national health emergency alert and response framework developed for use by countries across the world by the World Health Organization.

This paper presents a systematic review of the impacts of extreme weather on health services and systems. Here is a COP30 special report on health and climate change that provides the evidence base for the Belém Health Action Plan, launched at COP30. This action plan presents a roadmap for building health system resilience and adaptation, moving from evidence to implementation.  

In governance, leadership and capacity building, a Bayesian predictive analysis of global flood impacts from 2000-18 evaluates the impact of political development on flood mortality. It finds that democracy, institutional quality, and peace reduce the predicted human cost of flooding.

Looking at knowledge development and translation, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Annual Code for Earth programme drives open-source innovation in weather, climate and atmospheric science. In 2025, one standout project, ‘Weather-Energy Analysis and Visualisation for Extremes’, demonstrated how climate data can help Europe’s energy sector better adapt and plan for a more resilient and climate-smart future.

Examining the frontiers in technology,  techAU has created a list of essential technology and their uses for an Australian summer emergency, see the article here. This research article highlighs the importance of digital devices and the role they have been playing in boosting urban flood response by mobilising citizens to participate in preparation for and in response to flooding events. Here is an amazing book on green technologies – Green Technology Book: Solutions for confronting climate disasters.

WNIK Radio

Here is a new podcast episode in the State of Disaster podcast series hosted by Matt Green, with special guest Dr Kate Starbird. The discussion covers the changing communications landscape where people are becoming more reliant on unverified and often unqualified digital sources for information rather than trusted and known sources.