Reducing methane emissions from fossil fuels, agriculture and waste is key to achieving climate goals. Technological advances and scientifically grounded feasibility assessments of mitigation initiatives may illuminate the path to success.

The authors conduct a national inventory on individual tree carbon stocks in Rwanda using aerial imagery and deep learning. Most mapped trees are located in farmlands; new methods allow partitioning to any landscape categories, effective planning and optimization of carbon sequestration and the economic benefits of trees.

Teleconnections between tipping elements in the Earth system are unclear. Here the authors use a climate network approach to link the Amazon Rainforest Area and the Tibetan Plateau, and show that current snow cover loss on the Tibetan Plateau is an early warning signal for an approaching tipping point.

Temporarily exceeding temperature targets could increase risk of crossing tipping-element thresholds. This study considers a range of overshoot scenarios in a stylized network model and shows that overshoots increase tipping risks by up to 72% compared with remaining within targets.

Oceanic eastern boundary currents are regions with strong upwelling, which is expected to intensify with global warming through enhanced winds. Here the authors show that geostrophic flow dominates over wind effects on long-term upwelling changes for the major eastern boundary upwelling systems.

The authors demonstrate the interacting impacts of warming on erosion and soil organic carbon (SOC) cycling. Under warming, they project increased replacement of SOC lost by erosion but lower preservation of deposited SOC, with an overall increase in the global C sink by erosion.

The authors estimate genomic vulnerability for closely related species of rainbowfish. They find that narrow endemic species that have hybridized with a warm-adapted generalist show reduced vulnerability to climate change and that hybridization may facilitate evolutionary rescue for such species.

Melt ponding is an important process for the stability of ice shelves. Here the authors estimate the temperature thresholds at which melt ponding emerges over Antarctic ice shelves and find that cold and dry ice shelves are more vulnerable to melt ponding than expected.

National climate institutions could greatly impact the process of policy design and implementation. This analysis identifies four models of climate governance for major emitters, estimates their policy ambitions and performance, then shows how they are related to macro features.

The authors reveal complex drought recovery responses to phenology shifts, in that early spring can shorten or lengthen recovery, while delayed spring following drought events delays it. These effects suggest a need to incorporate phenology aspects into resilience models.

The transition to net-zero emissions will be contested and could lead to political polarization and social unrest. To contribute to a transition that is accepted as legitimate while remaining effective, research on public support must evolve rapidly along several dimensions.

Reducing methane emissions from fossil fuels, agriculture and waste is key to achieving climate goals. Technological advances and scientifically grounded feasibility assessments of mitigation initiatives may illuminate the path to success.