What's New in Knowledge | July 2026

A couple of big-ticket reports have been released this month. The fourth edition of the Lloyd’s Register Foundation’s World Risk Poll for 2026 explores public perceptions of the threat of climate change. It finds that 3 in 4 adults globally are personally concerned by climate change, the highest ever recorded by the Poll. It also finds that high-income countries have the widest gaps between personal views and perceptions of what the rest of society thinks. 

This month also saw the release of UNICEF’s Children’s Climate Risk Report for 2026. This report reveals that children’s exposure to hazards varies widely between and within countries. More children are exposed to air pollution than any other climate related hazard (2.3 billion). Globally, around 1.1 billion children are now exposed to at least 3 climate hazards, with the combination of drought, extreme heat and heatwaves topping the list (296 million children exposed).   

In understanding consequences and recovery, a new report from the Net Zero Commission finds that climate change has already imposed material economic costs on NSW. An accompanying Conversation Australia article highlights that the modelling shows climate change has also already caused median losses of around 18% in the NSW economy (probability range 4–33%), largely due to changing global weather affecting cost of living. This translates into an average loss per person per year of $21,288. An independent evaluation of the Queensland Resilient Homes Fund has assessed the extent to which the fund supported intended recovery and resilience objectives through its design and delivery. It concludes that the fund was ‘an effective recovery program that delivered valued resilience outcomes to many homeowners’. 

Turning to Aceh, Indonesia, this study [paywalled] investigates the factors associated with housing beneficiaries’ perceived long-term recovery after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. It highlights ‘the importance of balanced beneficiary involvement in housing reconstruction, contextually appropriate and disaster-resilient livelihood support, and the preservation of social networks in enabling long-term economic recovery’. 

This paper outlines the MERGE Initiative, which is a public good project that brings together data holders and subject matter experts to curate, align and integrate trustworthy data on climate disaster impacts and human vulnerability. MERGE has created a publicly available pilot data set in its proof-of-concept phase.   

Focusing on systemic risk, here is an interesting journal article that uses counterfactual scenarios (of enhanced preparedness and worst case, cascading-failure pathways) of 5 real world disasters to derive general community resilience principles. It derives 6 evidence-based principles that emphasise cross-sectoral governance coordination, institutional trust-building, deliberate infrastructure redundancy, cultural knowledge preservation, compound-scenario planning, and inclusive preparedness.  

Looking to Australia, researchers modelled future fire regimes under climate change in the Central Highlands of Victoria to examine the effectiveness of prescribed burning and initial attack fire suppression under future climates. Prescribed burning on its own had only a small effect on reducing risk to people and the environment. When suppression efforts were included in the modelling, risks were reduced for agriculture and infrastructure assets, carbon emissions and people and property, but not for biodiversity and erosion potential.  

In disaster risk reduction, researchers from Monash University present the Community Capacity Co-design Process (C3P), which links ‘emergent, collaborative community initiatives with formal, directed agency systems’ by bringing the Integrated Community-Based Disaster Management model together with trauma-informed co-design principles.  Testing across 7 communities shows the feasibility of C3P as a participatory preparedness tool.  

A forthcoming open access book, The psychological foundations of climate solutions from individual minds to collective climate action, brings together leading scholars in psychology to answer two questions: Why do people support or resist climate solutions? What moves societies from concern to action? The book focuses on solutions to ‘increase public support for effective policy, counter polarization and conspiracy beliefs, leverage social norms, mobilize social movements, and design interventions that bridge individual behaviours and systemic change’. 

In looking at First Nations knowledge, this Nature journal article explores adaptive capacity to arid heat in remote First Nations communities in Central Australia. Findings indicate that investments in local infrastructure, reinforcement of adaptive knowledge, and co-produced knowledge strategies are essential for climate-resilient remote communities.  

An impact evaluation of the Australia Women-in-Fire Prescribed Fire Training Exchange (AUS WTREX) program was recently released by Natural Hazards Research Australia and Monash University. The findings have implications for prescribed burning and other land management agencies to better engage, recruit and support Indigenous women as fire practitioners. Meanwhile, the 'Operationalising Aboriginal land and sea management' project has released new resources. They include a literature and policy review, which is accompanied by a summary report, and a final project report. The project designed and conducted preliminary testing of a tool for policy barrier identification and remediation to support government, institutions, land managers and partner organisations identify and resolve barriers to caring for Country. Together the project’s insights, recommendations, communication and support tools lay the foundation for a transformative shift toward Aboriginal-led, culturally grounded caring for Country across NSW, guided by deep biocultural knowledge systems and enduring partnerships. 

Focusing on animals and disaster, the Animal Collaboration Guide has been published by the Accelerator for Systemic Risk Assessment (ASRA) and the University of the West of England (UWE). It is a practical resource for exploring systemic risk through the perspectives of non-human species. The guide is a living document and will be updated as practice develops. 

Turning to children in disasters, the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) Global Network has created a guidance note to support education ministries and education actors to engage effectively throughout the NAP process, support the adaptation of the education sector, and strengthen the education system’s climate resilience. The NAP process is a country-led and driven process through which countries identify and address their medium- and long-term priorities for adapting to climate change. Education sector adaptation requires coordination, collaboration, and action among education and climate change actors. 

Research on equity and inequity in disasters was strong this month. In Australia, Gender and Disaster Australia have released a scoping review of gender and drought. Drought is a recurring feature of the Australian climate that affects livelihoods, health and wellbeing across rural and regional communities. It is not gender neutral. Existing inequalities in agriculture, including land ownership, decision-making and farm succession, shape how people experience risk, responsibility and access to support. Gender-responsive approaches are essential for fair and effective drought policy and response.  Also in Australia, reports are coming in and research is being conducted into multicultural communities and their struggles with emergency messaging in times of crisis, read the full ABC news story here.  

In news from around the world, extreme heat is costing informal women workers over $57 billion in earnings each year, read the full report here. A new report from GIZ, an international cooperation enterprise of the German government, explores how climate mobility programmes can move beyond gender-responsive approaches towards more gender-transformative change. It highlights key lessons on strengthening women’s influence in decision-making, using mobility data to inform policy and planning, translating policy commitments into implementation, and addressing the structural inequalities that shape mobility outcomes. 

On the theme of weather and climate change, here is an informative article on successfully navigating climate change adaption practice, that draws from interviews with leading experts to give advice to adaptation practitioners. This Conversation Australia article suggests that this winter could be Australia’s warmest winter ever recorded, read more about it here. Meanwhile, a guide/practical framework from Canada supports insurers to understand and address the links between climate change, mental health and social resilience. 

Focusing on extreme heat, record heat is being felt across the Northern Hemispheres summer, including in Europe where they are battling a record-breaking heatwave, this article shares what is making the European heatwave so severe. 

In health, the FIFA World Cup and health have been the topic of many an article this month. Mass gatherings create opportunities for amplified risk of both endemic and imported communicable diseases. This article outlines communicable disease risk and advice for visitors to Canada, the United States and Mexico. A new health operations support centre is being used as a disaster aware platform to help with decision making and to be a key data source for any health-related events surrounding the World Cup.  

Looking at governance, leadership, and capacity building, here is an interesting piece on paradigm evolution and tension dynamics in disaster recovery research. It outlines three coexisting but temporally differentiated paradigms: Return to Normalcy (1980-2000), Sustainable Recovery (2001-2015), and Transformative Recovery (2016–present). Findings suggest that ‘effective recovery governance requires paradigm-aware policy design combined with adaptive mechanisms for managing persistent tensions’. 

A new open-access book, Natural Hazards and Public Management, examines how policymakers respond to natural hazards in the wake of global climate change. It argues that ‘when it comes to the containment and mitigation of natural hazards as the consequence of climate change, effective prevention requires accurate anticipation of impacts, appropriate policy settings, and the mobilization of administrative skill’.  

Looking at knowledge development and translation, this article [paywalled] asks that we rethink the language around research impact. It argues that impact planning, ‘evidencing’, and theories of change can oversimply the relationship between research and society. It proposes an alternative language and frameworks to clarify that impact is not a product to be delivered, but a possibility to be cultivated. 

In WNIK TV, watch this video about the AUS WTREX program. 

For WNIK Radio this month, we’d like to share the latest episode of the Doing Disasters Differently podcast, which discusses connecting research, communication and human behaviour to disasters with Dr Barbara Ryan.