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The voluntary emission reductions pledged under the Copenhagen Accord are almost certainly insufficient to limit global warming to 2 °C. However, using the Copenhagen Green Climate Fund for mitigation efforts could achieve the reductions needed to fill the gap.

Managing climate risks to fresh waters has so far been approached by designing action plans. Now adaptation protocols are integrating knowledge of water-system vulnerabilities into more flexible strategies to keep taps running and ecosystems healthy.

The response to ocean acidification varies widely among, and even within, calcifying taxa. A study sheds light on this perplexing variability by quantifying the role of external organic layers in protecting calcified structures from corrosive sea water.

Climate impacts on biodiversity are usually assessed at the morphospecies level. An analysis of the distribution and mitochondrial DNA variability of nine montane aquatic insect species in Europe suggests range contractions will be accompanied by severe loss of genetic diversity. These results imply that morphospecies-scale assessments may greatly underestimate potential biodiversity losses from climate change.

Ocean acidification poses a threat to marine calcifiers, but their response varies widely. An analysis of Mediterranean corals and molluscs now shows that the ability to continue shell and skeleton growth in corrosive seawater is determined in part by the existence of outer organic protective layers. High temperatures, however, modify resistance to acidification.

When the price of oil jumps, logic dictates that people should rush to invest in renewables. But it's not so simple.

Moving freight over land is a dirty job, fraught with political complexities. Anna Petherick looks at the economic issues behind cleaning it up.

As atmospheric CO₂ increases, more plant litter is expected to enter the soil, stimulating turnover of organic matter and release of carbon. New field data show that this will intensify the terrestrial carbon cycle in the long term, and may counterbalance expected gains in carbon storage.

Enhanced tropical forest productivity, facilitated by increasing carbon dioxide concentrations, could act as a substantial carbon sink. However, a long-term field experiment shows that increased leaf-litter inputs to the soil as productivity rises could stimulate the release of significant amounts of soil carbon, partially offsetting predicted gains in carbon storage.

Helping to build the innovative capacity of developing countries is key to setting them on a path to low-carbon development, writes Sonja van Renssen.

It is often argued that saving energy helps the environment and saves money. An analysis of three energy-saving measures shows that decisions on how the saved money is spent affect the size of the environmental benefit.

Science historian and 2011 Climate Change Communicator of the Year award-winner Naomi Oreskes talks to Nicola Jones about her latest book Merchants of Doubt (co-authored with Erik Conway), which documents how scientists obscured the truth on global warming.

Patrick Huntjens, an expert in both complex systems and policy, worked with specialists in social science, ecology, hydrology and civil engineering to compare water-management practices across countries and to provide guidance for adaptation under climate variability.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change must incorporate expertise outside of traditional academia in assessing knowledge on climate change, but it must be transparent in its approach.

The United States looks set to slash its maize subsidies. This will be good for many reasons, including combating climate change — and it shouldn't even hurt the US ethanol industry that much, writes Anna Petherick.