Climate Conversations 2026

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On April 23, 2026, UBC Botanical Garden will host the second edition of Climate Conversations (first held in May 2025). This community-facing research forum provides a unique opportunity for concerned citizens and community leaders to learn from and engage with local climate researchers. The focus for this year’s conversations is the role of plants in helping us to both understand climate change, and develop new ways to care for each other and the ecosystems on which we depend. The multifaceted format of the event—which includes interdisciplinary panels of climate researchers, a keynote presentation, Garden tour and information session with local environmental organizations—is designed to be engaging and accessible for a wide variety of audience members. It will provide all participants with the opportunity to learn about climate change, become inspired to take action and make connections that will support them in doing so.  

2025 Climate Conversations guided garden tour

Plants and Climate Research 

As organisms that are crucial to human, ecological and planetary well-being, plants are at the centre of the climate crisis in a very concrete and material way. On the one hand, plants are often negatively affected by climate-related events such as heat waves, drought, wildfires and more severe storms. On the other, they are central to many climate solutions, from providing shade to sequestering carbon, absorbing floodwaters and improving soil health.  

Perhaps less appreciated is the extent to which plants have perceptual and educational importance in a changing climate. For example, one of the ways that climate change becomes visible—and in a way more real—is through changes in plant life: earlier blooming times, shrivelled or dropping leaves, increased incidences of fungus and other pathogens and so on. At the same time, seeing the way some plants can adapt to changing conditions—through migrations, acclimation and morphological changes—can help us to learn about future climate scenarios.  

Panelists from last year’s Climate Conversations

Of course, much of what happens to plants in a warming climate is not immediately visible to the human eye. More often than not, it is the techniques and technologies of scientific research that make new aspects of plant life visible and understandable. The interdisciplinary panels at the heart of Climate Conversations are meant to make these illuminating perspectives accessible to a broader audience. In each panel, three or four researchers from a mix of scientific, social-scientific and humanities-based disciplines will each make a short presentation about plants, or people-and-plants in a changing climate, followed by a group discussion driven by audience questions. Putting different types of researchers in conversation like this is a way of maximizing the clarity with which we can see their different viewpoints. Consequently, attendees of Climate Conversations II will have the opportunity to expand their view of the world of plants in a dramatic but also accessible way.  

Cultivating Relations of Care for the Climate Crisis 

Climate Conversations will also feature a keynote presentation from writer, director and theatre maker Kendra Fanconi. She will speak about her unique approach to place-based theatre, which brings plants to our attention in ways that are both different, and not entirely divorced from, the work of climate researchers. Kendra believes that artists have a crucial role to play in the climate movement—not only as activists who can inspire others to pay attention to the problem of climate change, but also as agents of imaginative experimentation. In works of what she calls “eco-restorative theatre” (e.g., 1000 Year Theatre), it is not only people but plants, animals and places that are given roles. The goal is not only to create experiences of beauty and meaning, but also to experiment with new forms of relationship between human audiences and ecosystems in need of care.   

Kendra’s keynote will provide something of a counterpoint to scientific viewpoints on plants, but it will also resonate with another theme among our invited presenters: the importance of questions of care in relation to the climate crisis. The limited mobility of plants makes them dependent on other organisms and the health of their environments in ways that remind us that care is at the heart of how climate change is experienced. For example, climate solutions such as tree-planting, regenerative agriculture and rain gardens only work to the extent that people are available to pay attention and care for plants. At the same time, healthy plants provide care for human beings in a myriad of ways, some of which are increasingly important in a climate crisis (e.g., shade, soil stabilization, mental restoration). Finally, thinking about what plants need and what they give, is also an opportunity to reflect on the adequacy of our care for the way human beings are affected by things like heat waves, flooding and rising food prices.

The juxtaposition of different perspectives such as I have described here, is one of the key organizing principles of Climate Conversations. It is a way to honour the complexity of the climate crisis, as well as the diversity of experiences that must be reflected in solutions designed to address it. But we also think that a variety of perspectives helps to create an event that is uniquely engaging—accessible and welcoming on the one hand, intellectually and socially stimulating on the other. We look forward to welcoming a variety of new voices to the conversations this year. 

Please take advantage of the early bird pricing and get your tickets soon! 

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Ticket prices are designed to accommodate a variety of situations and make the event as accessible as possible. An event access guide will be available soon. In the meantime we welcome confidential inquiries about access-related accommodations and requests for financial support at erin.despard@ubc.ca 

Written by:

Erin Despard

Writer and Science Communicator