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A meta-analysis reveals greater variation in heat tolerance within marine than terrestrial taxa. This variation corresponds to the spatial patterns in the maximum temperature populations of marine species experience. Although populations at the equatorward range edges of species’ distributions are particularly vulnerable to warming, standing genetic variation within species might promote an adaptive response elsewhere.
The authors quantify the thermal tolerance of 305 populations from 61 taxa by meta-analysis. They reveal strong population-level differentiation in marine and intertidal taxa, but not terrestrial or freshwater taxa, and highlight the need to consider such variation in climate vulnerability predictions.
Accurately assessing emissions reductions for various greenhouse gases to stay within temperature targets is important. Here, an adaptive approach, based solely on observations and not on model projections, allows quantification of emissions reductions required to achieve any temperature target.
The authors analyse the impacts of drought on tree growth for various species of various ages to assess the influences of forest demographic shift on future drought responses. The increasing proportion of young trees showing greater growth reduction to drought raises concern on future carbon storage.
In this Perspective, the authors argue that radical, rather than conventional, interventions are necessary to address climate change. They discuss the definitions and interpretations of the term ‘radical’, and present a typology of radical intervention that addresses the root drivers of climate change.
Climate change is expected to intensify the hydrological cycle, but how this translates into changes in river floods is not clear. Here, the authors show that changes in river flood discharge differ between flood types, with increases in rainfall-induced floods and decreases in snow-related floods.
Analysis of tweets relating to the Conference of the Parties (COP) climate summits reveals greater polarization during COP26 than during previous summits. This increase in polarization is associated with growing right-wing engagement and emerged following the global climate strikes in 2019. Surprisingly, one topic unites pro-climate and climate-sceptic groups — ‘political hypocrisy’ — accusations of which have increased since 2019.
Investigating the unprecedented 2021 heatwave in the North American Pacific Northwest revealed that a complex interaction between atmospheric dynamics, soil moisture and temperature nonlinearly amplified the event beyond a five-sigma anomaly. These findings may contribute to a better understanding of the physical drivers of future heat extremes.
The adoption of some climate policies can facilitate the subsequent adoption of other policies, which is referred to as policy sequencing. Across sectors and countries, policy sequences often play an important role in the adoption and stringency of carbon pricing.
Polarization and the resulting political deadlock have become key barriers to more ambitious climate action. Using Twitter data between Conferences of the Parties, this research identifies a trend of increasing polarization driven by growing right-wing activity alongside accusations of political hypocrisy.
The North American Pacific Northwest experienced an unprecedented heatwave in summer 2021. This study shows that atmospheric circulation features and regional soil dryness both amplified the event’s severity; future warming increases the chance of an equivalent or stronger event.
Behaviour change is essential for effective solutions to climate threats. Thus, policy-relevant behavioural science studies are needed for a shift towards human-centred climate actions.
For effective climate policy, we need both classic and behavioural policies. Green nudges facilitate the effectiveness of a carbon tax by increasing the salience of the tax, harnessing pro-climate concerns, extending the reach of a tax by targeting behaviours directly and, importantly, increasing public acceptance of carbon taxes.
As regulatory attention on scope 3 emissions mounts, the ‘double-counting’ concern cited by companies can be addressed by allocating shared responsibility across the supply chain. Measurement and data collection present more substantial challenges in reaching an effective allocation.
