Volume 6 Issue 7, July 2016

Indonesian peatlands need to be protected and restored to prevent fires and the health, environmental and economic impact that they have on the wider region.

The success of the Paris Agreement relies on a system of 'pledge and review', and the power of shaming laggards. This puts much of the burden for holding countries accountable on civil society.

An IPCC Special Report on 1.5 °C should focus on resolving fundamental scientific and political uncertainties, not fixate on developing unachievable mitigation pathways.

The Paris Agreement duly reflects the latest scientific understanding of systemic global warming risks. Limiting the anthropogenic temperature anomaly to 1.5–2 °C is possible, yet requires transformational change across the board of modernity.

Climate change could cost the world trillions of dollars every year. But at the moment, no one is required to pay for this damage, even if it is arguably their fault. That is where the world's courts come in.

After the global financial crisis, regulators turned their attention to non-traditional threats to financial assets, including the impacts of climate change. A new study estimates the magnitude of that threat, and shows investors should take it seriously.

Oil prices are notoriously tricky to predict. This uncertainty could slow climate mitigation unless policymakers implement stringent climate policy.

Detection and attribution of sea-level rise is hampered by the lack of historical model estimates for the individual components. Now research bridges this gap and uncovers an accelerating anthropogenic contribution over recent decades.

A long-term goal for climate policy can only be agreed through political processes, but science can inform these through mapping policy choices and the risks they create. Recommendations for the practical use of the IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report are provided.

Modelling shows that twenty-first-century climate change could significantly affect the market value of global financial assets, and suggests that limiting warming to no more than 2 °C would make financial sense to many investors.

New surveys show strategies to garner public support based on the traditional justification of reducing the risks of climate change remain the most effective. This contrasts with recent studies that suggest emphasizing co-benefits is more fruitful.

An analysis of climate change mitigation policies in an idealized integrated assessment framework highlights the importance of economic growth, and investment in technologies such as large-scale carbon dioxide removal, to limit peak warming.

An analysis of preliminary official statistics shows that, rather than falling as claimed, coal-derived energy consumption in China stayed flat in 2014, while fossil CO₂ emissions probably increased slightly, with a decrease expected for 2015.

Ongoing population growth could greatly exacerbate the human impact of sea-level rise in coastal areas of the continental US this century, with the potential to induce mass population movements unless protective measures are taken.

A model that evaluates the likelihood of coastal inundation (flooding) and dynamical response (adaptation) as sea levels rise shows that, for the northeastern US, about 70% of the coast has some capacity to respond dynamically and alter inundation risk.

Analysis of anthropogenic and natural contributions to twentieth-century sea-level rise shows natural contributions dominated in the early years. After 1970, anthropogenic forcing becomes the dominant contributor to sea-level rise.

The contribution of urbanization to warming in China has been difficult to quantify owing to the proximity of rural stations to urban areas. A novel detection and attribution analysis separates the contribution of all external forcings, and shows that urbanization accounts for about one-third (0.5 °C) of the total warming signal in China (1.4 °C).

The interacting effects of temperature and precipitation changes on grasslands remain hard to quantify. Research now indicates widespread and consistent increases in North American grassland productivity under climate change despite greater aridity.

Climate change has altered the climatic drivers of French wine grape harvests, with potential implications for management and wine quality. High summer temperatures that hasten fruit maturation are increasingly occurring without drought conditions.

Changes in the terrestrial water balance are expected in many regions, but small islands remain difficult to assess. Research now reveals a tendency towards increased aridity in over 73% of island groups (home to around 16 million people) by mid-century.