The radiative energy fluxes absorbed, redistributed and transformed by the Earth system are the main drivers of climate variability, regulating global temperature, affecting oceanic and atmospheric circulations, and interacting with the hydrological and carbon cycles. This session concerns various aspects of Earth’s energy budget and the variability in its radiative and non-radiative components, as well as the processes yielding such changes and their implications on multiple time and spatial scales. In particular, we invite observational and modeling studies that aim at the improved understanding of the magnitude and the instantaneous to decadal variability in energy fluxes, radiative effects and feedbacks. The topic also includes assessments of Earth’s energy imbalance, heat uptake, and energy flows, such as transports of energy in the atmosphere, ocean, land, and across their boundaries. Implications of heat uptake and storage for sea level, the cryosphere, and the hydrological and carbon cycles are also welcome.