Effectively modelling how people might respond to challenges such as climate change is very difficult. In dealing with how people might respond to environmental change issues, such as climate change, different disciplines have developed and built on specific bodies of theory and implemented specific modelling approaches and methods with varying degrees of success and usefulness. In this panel we seek to explore novel approaches to modelling human - environment interactions, in a climate change context, that are being tested in disciplines such as physics, social psychology, complexity and economics. The panel will seek to identify complimentarities and opportunities for synergies and cross-comparative learning in how to more effectively model the social dimensions of climate change. Contributions describing novel approaches which aim to push the boundaries of current state-of-the-art methods are particularly welcome.