Climate Week NYC 2026
25 September 2026, 16:00-17:30 CEST | 10:00-11:30 AM EDT, online
Join the webinar and register
Images can change the climate conversation. International experts explore how photography, data design, and visualisation reshape our view of the climate crisis, inspire action, and change how we make sense of climate’s impact on society and the environment.
Capturing attention, communicating complexity, raising awareness: visual communication can profoundly shape how the public perceives the climate crisis. It can clarify how climate change affects people’s lives, reveal how our choices define the planet’s future, and make the case for science-based decision-making.
In the framework of the Climate Week NYC 2026, the webinar “At first glance: How visualising climate can change the game“ organized by CMCC, brings together a panel of international experts who will explore photographs that tell the human story of the climate crisis, unpack the infographics that have become iconic examples of climate science communication, and share how one global event brought images and imagination together to reshape the way we make sense of climate’s impact on society and the environment.
Speakers:
Arlene Birt, Information Designer and Graphics Officer – IPCC
Tom Gabriel Johansen, Information designer – CoFounder of Infodesignlab
Anna Lombardi, Climate Data Visualiser – ECMWF
Saffron O’Neill, University of Exeter and Author of “The Visual Life of Climate Change”
Moderator:
Mauro Buonocore, Head of Communications and Science Outreach – CMCC
Our Speakers
Arlene Birt
Visual storyteller – IPCC
An information designer, Arlene Birt creates visuals that explain the complexities of science and social topics to non-expert audiences –to help individuals connect emotionally to abstract topics. She is Information Designer and Graphics Officer with the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group I. As graphics officer with the IPCC’s 2023 Synthesis Report (AR6), Birt co-created figures with 60+ climate scientists – including several that landed on the front page of global news media. As a professor for 11 years in the US, she taught courses on data visualization and visual communication. Birt was visiting fellow at Seoul National University, adjunct faculty of Wuhan University of Technology (China), a Fulbright fellow in the Netherlands. Birt is also founder and creative director of design consultancy, Background Stories. Her work has been featured across global media and she has published chapters in several books.
Mauro Buonocore
Head of Communications and Science Outreach – CMCC
Mauro Buonocore is the head of Communications and Science Outreach at the CMCC Foundation, where he works at the intersection of climate science and public opinion. A journalist by background, he focuses on improving interaction and collaboration between scientists and journalists, disseminating timely and appropriate climate communication and data, and developing the languages and tools that make climate research matter to a wide audience. He also oversees the magazine Foresight and the CMCC Climate Change Communication Award “Rebecca Ballestra”.
Tom Gabriel Johansen
Information designer – CoFounder of Infodesignlab
Tom Gabriel Johansen is an award-winning information designer, design leader, lecturer and co-founder of InfoDesignLab. With 20+ years across journalism, editorial design and data visualisation, he uses participatory and systemic design to transform how scientific organisations work with complex knowledge, from co-design and collaboration to communication and decision-making. His work has helped pioneer new approaches to integrating design into scientific processes. He has worked with organisations including the IPCC, WMO, EEA, UNEP, Scientific American and CICERO.
Anna Lombardi
Climate Data Visualiser – ECMWF
Anna Lombardi has an interdisciplinary background spanning physics, science communication and information design. She holds a PhD in experimental physics from the University of Lyon and spent three years as a researcher at the University of Cambridge. After completing a Master in Science Communication at SISSA (Italy), she joined The Times and The Sunday Times in London as a visual and data journalist. Since 2023, she has been a Climate Data Visualiser at ECMWF’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Saffron O’Neill
University of Exeter and author of “The Visual Life of Climate Change”
Saffron O’Neill is Professor in Climate and Society in the Geography Department, and Co-Director of the Centre for Climate Communication and Data Science (C3DS), both at Exeter University, UK. Her research explores the social science dimensions of climate change, particularly focusing on communication and public engagement. Her research specialism is the visual communication of climate change. Saffron’s book ‘The Visual Life of Climate Change‘ (Bristol University Press) was published in 2025.