This Gordon Research Conference (GRC) was originally called "Solar Radiation and Climate". At the last conference, its name was changed to "Radiation and Climate" and the theme of the next installment is "radiation transfer, clouds, and climate". This GRC recognizes explicitly that much of what makes Earth's climate so complex, difficult to predict, and worthy of study arises from the four-dimensional interaction between radiation and the three phases of water. It is acknowledged generally that the most elusive of these interactions involve clouds, and so discussion of clouds and radiative transfer for cloudy atmospheres form the core of the conference. This GRC represents a slight return to our original GRC held in 1998 in that issues regarding radiation and radiative transfer are discussed at a fairly fundamental level. At the same time, we have tried to achieve a balanced mix of talks that center on both modelling and observation.