The 28th Conference of the Parties (COP) taking place in Dubai from 30 November to 12 December 2023 will focus heavily on the first of the Global Stocktakes that were agreed upon in the Paris Agreement. In this infographic, we explain what the Global Stocktake is, how it works and the different interests and sticking points that are expected to shape the debate at COP28.

Better integration of climate action and sustainable development can help enhance the ambition of the next nationally determined contributions, as well as implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Governments should use this year as an opportunity to emphasize the links between climate and sustainable development.

Non-state actors play an essential role in the fabric of global climate governance. Here we propose four tailored strategies that non-state actors can mobilize to advance climate action among states and harness the potential of the global stocktake.

A gap persists between the emissions reductions pledged by countries under the Paris Agreement and those resulting from their domestic policies. We argue that this gap in fact contains two parts: one in the policies that countries adopt, and the other in the outcomes that those policies achieve.

The authors use experimental data from 332 sites across all major global biomes to evaluate the drivers of soil microbial respiration response to warming. They demonstrate a key role of the soil microbiome, highlighting the need to account for this in assessments of soil respiration under change.

It has been suggested that Antarctic ice sheets can become unstable and undergo irreversible retreat, but so far observational evidence for this mechanism is missing. Here, the authors show evidence that such an irreversible retreat occurred at Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica in the 1970s.

Climate change is expected to strengthen atmospheric jet streams. Here the authors show that the fastest upper-level jet stream winds accelerate about 2.5 times faster under climate change than average winds, which could influence aviation and severe weather events.

Negative emissions technologies at scale are seen as essential for the overall decarbonization effort to achieve the Paris Agreement targets. However, private ownership of these technologies could largely increase regional or international inequality by financing them through carbon markets.

Recent criticisms have suggested that future emissions are unlikely to lead to the warmest climate scenario available (SSP5–8.5), which has resulted in the second highest scenario (SSP3–7.0) receiving increased attention. The distinctiveness of SSP3–7.0 has not been well recognized, but it is relevant for the proper interpretation of studies that use this scenario.

Microorganisms and their activities are as integrated in climate change science as they are in the world around us, playing key roles related to the causes, impacts and perhaps even some solutions of climate change.

If rapid and just transformations to low-carbon societies are to take place, citizens need to obtain the necessary knowledge and skills to critically examine and choose adequate climate policy options. An emphasis on critical climate education research and implementation is therefore required.

Extreme weather event attribution techniques quantify anthropogenic contributions to extreme weather disasters, but recently it was argued they are not yet ready to inform decisions on loss and damage funding. Here, we assert that they can substantially help formulate allocations to impacted vulnerable countries for the most damaging extreme events.

Societal transition to address climate change will require many changes. As society adapts and transforms, the labour market will be altered as some established areas of employment will disappear and new areas will emerge that will need workers.