ClimateExistence Conference 2026

How can we stay with the trouble and dwell in the collapsing space between the urgent and the eternal?

The global landscape of 2026 is defined by a sense of fracture and eroding baselines. We see it in the stalling currents of the Atlantic and the geopolitical tensions stretching from the Arctic to the Middle East. As carbon budgets dwindle and the 2030 threshold looms, the distance between scientific projections and our lived reality has vanished. We inhabit a strange paradox where we are simultaneously running out of time and standing at the threshold of a new, long-lasting era of instability. In the face of tipping points and a shifting world order, we gather in Uppsala to search for meaning and community, feeling our way through the approaching darkness.

How do we maintain a sense of place and direction when the natural and political maps are being redrawn and discarded? In an age of extreme weather and ecological loss, how do we navigate the tension between immediate crisis and the slow, deep time of the earth? If the systems we relied upon are failing, what new bridges can we build between the practical needs of survival and the existential need for meaning? How can we stay with the trouble and dwell in the collapsing space between the urgent and the eternal?

CEMUS, Uppsala University invite you to join us for an engaging ClimateExistence conference! We aim to be a creative meeting place for artists, activists, academics, faith practitioners, and anyone interested in the existential and practical aspects of the climate emergency.