NeurIPS 2026 Workshop: Tackling Climate Change with Machine Learning

The workshop will take place on December 11, 2026 in Sydney, Australia.

About

Many in the ML community wish to take action on climate change, but are unsure how to have the most impact. This workshop will highlight work that demonstrates that, while ML is no silver bullet, it can be an invaluable tool in mitigation (reducing greenhouse gas emissions), adaptation (helping society respond to the effects of climate change), and climate science (improving understanding of climate change).

Climate change is a complex problem for which action takes many forms, from advancing theory to deploying new technology. Many of these actions represent high-impact opportunities for real-world change, and simultaneously pose interesting academic research problems.

This workshop is part of a series that aims to bring together those applying ML to climate change challenges and facilitate cross-pollination between ML researchers and experts in climate-relevant fields.

The theme of this workshop, “Fostering Ground-Up Innovation in AI and Climate,” invites submissions that explore the strengths of diverse machine learning approaches in climate-related contexts. We particularly encourage work that develops ground-up approaches to AI for climate action, including ML research driven by an application-specific need or constraints, community-led data initiatives, open source tools, and interdisciplinary collaborations. Our goal is to foster a discussion on an alternative path for how domain-specific ML innovation is conducted, which may involve smaller or hybrid models, community-generated datasets, and consider practical tensions around resources, evaluation, scalability, and impact.

The main workshop will take place on December 11, 2026.

About NeurIPS

This workshop is part of the fortieth annual conference on Neural Information Processing Systems, one of the premier conferences on machine learning, which will be held between December 6 and 12, 2026 in Sydney, Australia. For information on how to attend the NeurIPS conference, please see https://neurips.cc/.

Important Dates

Q&A

If you have further questions on how to participate in the workshop, you can also contact us via email at climatechangeai.neurips2026@gmail.com. For recordings of informational webinars of previous editions of our workshop, please see here.

Organizers

Utkarsha Agwan (Tyba Energy)
John Duncan (University of Western Australia)
Kim Bente (University of Tasmania)
Rajanie Prabha (Stanford University)
Jonathan Richetti (CSIRO)
Chen Chen (Centre for Climate Research Singapore)
Yuanyuan Shi (University of California, San Diego)
David Rolnick (McGill University and Mila - Quebec AI Institute)
Nadia Ahmed - Tutorials Chair

Sponsors

Contact us at climatechangeai.neurips2026@gmail.com to support this workshop.

Frequently Asked Questions

Mentorship Program FAQ

Q: Are mentors allowed to be authors on the paper for which they provided mentorship?
A: Yes, mentors can be co-authors but not reviewers.

Q: What happens if the mentor/mentee does not fulfill their duties, or if major issues come up?
A: Please email us at climatechangeai.neurips2026@gmail.com and we will do our best to help resolve the situation. Potential breaches of the Code of Conduct will be responded to promptly as detailed therein.

Q: What happens if I apply to be a mentee but do not get paired with a mentor?
A: While we will do our best, we cannot guarantee pairings for everyone. Even if you do not get paired with a mentor, we encourage you to submit a Paper or Proposal to the workshop, and our reviewers will provide you with guidance and feedback on how to improve it.

Q: What happens if my submission does not get accepted to the workshop?
A: While the mentorship program is meant to give early-career researchers and students the opportunity to improve the quality of their work, sometimes submissions will need further polishing and elaboration before being ready for presentation at a CCAI workshop. If this is the case, we invite you to take into account the comments made by the reviewers and to resubmit again to a subsequent CCAI workshop.

Q: I cannot guarantee that I can commit at least 4 hours to the program over the time period. Should I still apply as a mentor?
A: No. While the 4 hour time commitment is a suggestion, we do believe that it is necessary to ensure that all mentees receive the help and guidance they need.

Q: I do not have a background in machine learning; can I still apply to be a mentor/mentee?
A: Yes! We welcome applications from domains that are complementary to machine learning to solve the problems that we are targeting.

Q: What happens if my mentor/mentee wants to continue meeting after the workshop?
A: We welcome and encourage continued interactions after the official mentorship period. That said, neither the mentor nor the mentee should feel obligated to maintain contact.

Submission FAQ

Q: How can I keep up to date on this kind of stuff?
A: Sign up for our mailing list!

Q: I’m not in the field of machine learning. Can I still submit?
A: Yes, absolutely! We welcome submissions from many fields. Do bear in mind, however, that the majority of attendees of the workshop will have a machine learning background; therefore, other fields should be introduced sufficiently to provide context for the work.

Q: What if my submission is accepted but I can’t attend the workshop?
A: You may ask someone else to present your work in your stead.

Q: It’s hard for me to fit my submission on 3 or 4 pages. What should I do?
A: Feel free to include appendices with additional material (these should be part of the same PDF file as the main submission). Do not, however, put essential material in an appendix, as it will be read at the discretion of the reviewers.

Q: Can I send submissions directly by email?
A: No, please use the OpenReview website to make submissions.

Q: The submission website is asking for my name. Is this a problem for anonymization?
A: You should fill out your name and other info when asked on the submission website; OpenReview will keep your submission anonymous to reviewers.

Q: Do submissions for the Proposals track need to have experimental validation?
A: No, although some initial experiments or citation of published results would strengthen your submission.

Q: Can I submit previously published work to this workshop?
A: Yes, though under limited circumstances. In particular, work that has previously been published at non-machine learning venues may be eligible for submission; however, work that has been published in conferences on machine learning or related fields is likely not eligible. If your work was previously accepted to a Climate Change AI workshop, this work should have changed or matured substantively to be eligible for resubmission. Please contact climatechangeai.neurips2026@gmail.com with any questions.

Q: Can I submit work to this workshop if I am also submitting to another NeurIPS 2026 workshop?
A: Yes. We cannot, however, guarantee that you will not be expected to present the material at a time that conflicts with the other workshop.

Reciprocal Review FAQ

Q: Why is the workshop introducing reciprocal reviewing?
A: Our reviewer pool is supported by the community that submits to this workshop. Reciprocal reviewing helps ensure that all submissions receive timely, high-quality reviews from researchers who are familiar with the field, while distributing the reviewing load fairly across the community.

Q: How do I know whether my submission needs to nominate a reciprocal reviewer?
A: The requirement applies if one or more authors of your submission have previously had two or more papers accepted at Tackling Climate Change with Machine Learning workshops or a related venue (e.g., Climate Informatics, Environmental Data Science, ACM e-Energy, NeurIPS, ICLR, ICML). If every author on your submission has had at most one previous work accepted at these venues, the requirement does not apply.

Q: No author on our submission meets the eligibility criteria. Do we need to do anything?
A: No. In that case, the reciprocal review requirement does not apply to your submission, and it will be reviewed as usual.

Q: How do I nominate a reciprocal reviewer?
A: When applicable, nominate at least one eligible author using their OpenReview profile as part of the submission process. You may also nominate additional eligible co-authors.

Q: How many reviews will reciprocal reviewers be assigned, and when are they due?
A: Reciprocal reviewers will be assigned no more than 3 reviews, due September 15, 2026.

Q: What happens if we do not nominate a reciprocal reviewer, or if our nominated reviewer does not complete their reviews on time?
A: We reserve the right to desk-reject submissions if eligible authors are not nominated when required, or if nominated reciprocal reviewers do not complete their reviews on time.

Q: Will serving as a reciprocal reviewer affect the review of my own submission?
A: No. Reciprocal reviewers will not be assigned to review their own submissions, and all submissions go through the same double-blind review process.

Q: I have questions about my eligibility or the nomination process. Who should I contact?
A: Please reach out to the CCAI program chairs at climatechangeai.neurips2026@gmail.com.

Remote Participation FAQ

Q: My work was accepted. Can I present it remotely?
A: Accepted works are expected to be presented in person at the workshop. If you cannot attend in person, you may designate someone else — including a non-author — to present the work on your behalf. Remote presentations are allowed only in exceptional circumstances; if you believe this applies to you, please contact the organizers at climatechangeai.neurips2026@gmail.com after your work has been accepted.

Q: Can I attend the workshop remotely?
A: Yes. We will set up a live stream of the workshop, so you can follow the event remotely. Note, however, that remote presentations are allowed only in exceptional circumstances.