Over the past years, countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have seen a range of developments around climate mitigation and environmental policy. Nature Climate Change asked a selection of scientists from the region to share their thoughts on research questions and responses to climate change in their area of study.

The authors analyse tree responses to an extreme heat and drought event across South America to understand long-term climate resistance. While no more sensitive to this than previous lesser events, forests in drier climates showed the greatest impacts and thus vulnerability to climate extremes.

The authors link the effects of pCO₂ on marine invertebrates to the localized pCO₂ conditions of their coastal habitats. They show that responses depend on the deviation from the locally experienced upper pCO₂ level, highlighting the importance of small-scale variability and adaptation.

Fire impacts soil organic carbon stocks, in addition to aboveground biomass, yet changes are not well constrained. This study shows that more soil carbon is lost from drier ecosystems than humid ones and that the carbon sink is increasing in savannah–grassland regions with declining burned area.

To test the reproducibility of ocean acidification research, the authors conducted a meta-analysis of 373 studies on calcification of marine calcifiers across 24 years. While the size of negative effects declined over time, the results remained reproducible and their limitations were then explored.

Changes in air temperature are usually considered for quantifying changes in temperature extremes such as heatwaves. This study shows that the incidence of heat extremes in soils is increasing faster than air temperature in some regions, with implications for hydrological and biogeochemical processes.

The decarbonization of the global iron and steel industry is important for energy systems mitigation. Using a facility-level database, this Article presents cost-effective, region-specific strategies targeting plants with a large age-to-capacity ratio and/or high emissions intensity.

Recent decades have seen the increasing frequency of multiyear La Niña events. Here the authors find that there are two different types of multiyear La Niña that are each linked to different mechanisms related to warming in the western equatorial Pacific.

The authors estimate the intensity, duration and number of global marine heatwaves from 1993 to 2019, from the surface to 2,000 m. They show generally higher intensity of marine heatwaves at 50–200 m, but increased duration with depth, and predict ocean regions of higher biodiversity exposure.

COP28 will see the conclusion of the first global stocktake, which assesses efforts towards long-term climate targets. In addition to the assessment process, the stocktake could also address current problems within climate governance and interact with other policy instruments.

The global stocktake (GST) could both enable and hamper the inclusion of equity. This Comment outlines why equity is central to the GST and the challenges faced in addressing it, as well as the utility of needs-based assessments for advancing equity within the GST and the climate action generally.