Browse Articles

The energy used to heat or cool buildings does not only contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, but also to other direct forms of heat exchange between buildings and their environment. A study now quantifies the feedback between buildings and their surrounding temperatures, yielding more reliable estimates of the contribution of heating and cooling to local and global warming and better estimates of regional energy demands.

Climate change affects the energy demand for heating and cooling in cities, which in turn leads to additional urban warming. Here, the authors show that when including such two-way biophysical feedbacks, the cooling (heating) energy demand more than doubles (is halved) under high emissions.

Tropical aboveground biomass carbon is a crucial, yet complex, component of the terrestrial C budget. Here remote observations demonstrate that fire emissions and post-fire recovery in non-forested African biomes dominate the interannual variability of aboveground biomass carbon, which acts as a moderate net C sink.

The authors consider environmental niche models for the current and future distribution of fishing fleets and gear from 82 countries. Despite overall redistribution of fleets to the poles, they show that most nations—particularly tropical ones—may struggle to track expected fish stock shifts.

Existing studies show carbon footprint inequality between and within countries, but awareness of this inequality is unclear. This study finds widespread underestimation of carbon footprint inequality and its associations with climate policy support and perceived fairness.

Healthcare emissions negatively affect the environment and health, posing ethical questions between health and environmental impacts. A focus group study in US health systems revealed a willingness to make environmentally informed health decisions and identified barriers to making such decisions.

Biogas is promoted as an alternative fuel with the potential to lower net CO₂ emissions. However, here the authors calculate that growing biogas feedstock crops on drained peatlands may produce three times more CO₂ than burning natural gas.

Participating in or spectating at sporting events is a favourite pastime for many, but climate change could alter the sporting landscape. Yet, sports are unifying to be part of the solution.

Night-time activities substantially impact climate change yet remain widely overlooked in climate research and action. We advocate for incorporating night studies into discussions surrounding climate socio-ecological dynamics to develop equitable and effective adaptation and mitigation strategies, especially in cities.

Increases in crop and timber production are necessary to meet rising needs. Here the authors predict how current forestry land is likely to face increased competition from agriculture as climate change shifts land-use suitability.

Machine learning methods allow for advances in many aspects of climate research. In this Perspective, the authors give an overview of recent progress and remaining challenges to harvest the full potential of machine learning methods.

The decarbonization of energy systems needs to be integrated with electric grid infrastructure, yet combined climate–grid studies are lacking. This Perspective discusses electric grid research that should be prioritized, and how researchers from different communities could better collaborate.

The authors link a recent collapse of a commercially valuable snow crab stock to borealization of the Bering Sea that is >98% likely to have been human induced.

Large animal conservation and rewilding are increasingly considered to be viable climate mitigation strategies. We argue that overstating animal roles in carbon capture may hinder, rather than facilitate, effective climate mitigation and conservation efforts.