WILDFIRE2026 KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Matthew Jones

Physical geographer at University of East Anglia,
Co-founder of State of Wildfires Project

Presentation Overview

Matthew Jones will present the latest edition of the State of Wildfires Report (2025-26), which is an international effort to monitor the extreme wildfires of the past, explain why the most extreme and impactful events occurred, fingerprint the role of climate change in creating the conditions for fire, and predict how the risk of similar events will evolve in future climate scenarios.

State of Wildfires Report and the Drivers of Extreme Fire Events

Meet Matthew Jones

Matthew Jones is a physical geographer specialising in climate-wildfire interactions. His work examines how changing fire regimes affect society and the global carbon cycle, highlighting increasing fire extent and severity worldwide and improving representation of fire in climate models. He integrates field and modelling perspectives using machine learning to uncover patterns in large datasets and translate these into process-based insights for global applications.

At UEA, Matt leads research on predicting and mitigating high-impact wildfires, co-leads the State of Wildfires Project, and contributes to the Global Carbon Project’s assessments of the global carbon budget.

Visit Matt's website

Publication list

Elsa Pastor