How people perceive and respond to climate risk
Date
From: Wednesday June 24, 2026, 12:30 pm
To: Wednesday June 24, 2026, 1:30 pm
This talk examines how people perceive climate risk and why these perceptions often differ from expert assessments. Drawing on judgment and decision-making research, it highlights key factors shaping climate risk perception, including personal experience, emotions, beliefs about climate change, trust in institutions, and cognitive heuristics. These factors can lead individuals to overestimate some risks while underestimating others, creating a gap between subjective perceptions and objective, model-based risk estimates used by experts. The talk then considers how this gap influences behaviour and policy support, and discusses how climate risk can be communicated more effectively by making it clearer, more relatable, and more relevant to people’s decisions.
Join us from 12.30 - 1.30pm online via Microsoft Teams.
This is a free event for members and $10 for Non-Members
Registration and Joining this Webinar
To register please book online below. The link to join this event will be automatically generated and sent within your confirmation invoice.
Omid Ghasemi's research covers economics and finance, including energy economics and household finance. His publications have been in journals such as Energy Economics, Ecological Economics, Environmental and Resource Economics, Energy Policy, Applied Energy, the Energy Journal, the Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, the Economic Record, the Australian Journal of Public Administration, and the Journal of Cleaner Production. Prior to this research, he worked in the financial services sector and also has experience in the public sector.
Omid Ghasemi is a lecturer and behavioural science researcher at the UNSW Institute for Climate Risk & Response. His research focuses on judgment and decision making, with a particular emphasis on how people perceive and respond to climate risks. He uses experimental and survey methods to study risk perception, decision making, and the psychological factors that shape climate-related attitudes and behaviour. His work aims to understand human judgments and behaviours related to climate change and to improve communication, policy, and adaptation strategies.
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Venue
Macquarie University City Campus
Level 24, 123 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW 2000