Welcome Letter

Psychology for the ecological transition

facing, inhabiting, restoring

We are pleased to announce that the XVIII Conference on Environmental Psychology will take place in Bilbao, Basque Country (Spain), from 15 to 19 February 2027, organised by the University of the Basque Country EHU and PSICAMB, the Environmental Psychology Association.

The ecological transition is the great collective project of our time, and people are at its core: people who perceive, decide, mobilise, inhabit, and bond with places. The conference will be structured around three thematic axes — three verbs that are also three psychological challenges:

FACING the climate crisis: climate change perception, emotions and coping; psychological dimensions of climate mitigation and adaptation; pro-environmental attitudes and values; environmental activism and collective action; sustainable behaviours, habits and lifestyles; environmental risk perception and communication and psychological dimensions of disasters; climate migrations and displacement.

INHABITING the 21st-century city: urban environments and quality of life; institutional, organisational and virtual environments; place attachment, place identity and socio-spatial behaviour; psychosocial impacts of tourism and gentrification; inclusive design of public space; gender and intersectional perspectives on the city.

RESTORING nature, restoring ourselves: human–nature connection and wellbeing; restorative environments; childhood and nature; perception of biodiversity, landscape and animal species; environmental communication, education and intervention; social perception of ecosystem restoration and socio-environmental conflicts.

Throughout the conference, the PSICAMB Professional Days will offer dialogue sessions open to the public on the professional role of environmental psychology and its potential in the ecological transition, in cooperation with other disciplines and professions. The programme will feature leading international keynote speakers, pre-conference workshops, the Rocío Martín Award for young researchers, and a social programme culminating in a field trip to the Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve.

The venue will be the Bizkaia Aretoa, the landmark assembly hall of the EHU designed by Portuguese architect and Pritzker Prize laureate Álvaro Siza, opening its arms to the Bilbao estuary next to the Guggenheim Museum — in the heart of a city that is itself an international benchmark of urban transformation.

See you in Bilbao!