Fires play an important role in ecosystem dynamics. Long-term controls on global burnt area include fuel continuity and moisture, with ignitions and human activity becoming dominant in specific ecosystems. Changes in fuel continuity and moisture are the main drivers of changes of fire globally.

Climate models project an increase in summer weather persistence for the northern mid-latitudes. In a 2 °C world, two-week-long hot-and-dry conditions increase by up to 20% for eastern North America. The chance of a week of heavy rainfall increases by 26%, adding to the risk of extremes in the future.

The components of the ocean carbon cycle will respond differently to climate change, with anthropogenic impacts first seen on processes sensitive to chemical changes—the calcium carbonate pump and oceanic uptake of CO₂—with the soft-tissue pump (sensitive to the ocean’s physical state) emerging later.

There are large uncertainties in wind-wave climate projections that need to be resolved to allow adaptation planning. A multi-method ensemble of global wave climate projections shows robust changes in wave height, period and direction that put 50% of the global coast at risk.

Climate change will increase meltwater and iceberg discharge from Antarctica, with implications for future climate and sea levels. Iceberg melt will partly offset greenhouse warming in the Southern Ocean and dampen the positive feedback loop between ice-sheet melting and subsurface warming.

Additional electricity generation is required to compensate for losses from inefficient transmission and distribution infrastructure. In this study, emissions from compensatory generation and the potential for reductions are estimated for 142 countries.

Concern about the carbon footprint of Bitcoin is not holding back blockchain developers from leveraging the technology for action on climate change. Although blockchain technology is enabling individuals and businesses to manage their carbon emissions, the social and environmental costs and benefits of doing so remain unclear.

New research finds that global inefficiencies in power transmission and distribution infrastructure result in nearly a gigatonne of CO₂-equivalent annually. Countries can use this overlooked mitigation opportunity in their transition to a clean power sector.

Climate scientists cannot agree on what caused a recent spate of severe winters over North America and Eurasia. Now, a simple yet powerful physics-based approach makes it clear that record-low Arctic sea ice coverage was not the root cause.

Randomized control trials are a potentially useful research design for identifying the causal effects of capacity-building interventions in the context of environmental development. But new research suggests that short-term capacity-building projects do not increase the rate at which local water districts in Costa Rica adopt climate adaptation strategies.