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The value of the social sciences to climate change research is well recognized, but notable gaps remain in the literature on adaptation in agriculture. Contributions focus on farmer behaviour, with important research regarding gender, social networks and institutions remaining under-represented.
Expert judgement is often used to assess uncertainties in model-based climate change projections. This Perspective describes a statistical approach to formalizing the role of expert judgement, using Antarctic ice loss as an illustrative example.
A review of climatic changes reported by subsistence-oriented communities around the world highlights the contribution that such local observations can make to our understanding of the impact of climate change on ecosystems and societies.
The unprecedented recent intensification of the Pacific trade winds cannot simply be explained by natural variability alone. Now research finds that the more local influence of sulfate aerosols of human and volcanic origin play a significant role, in addition to the Pacific's coupling to the Atlantic Ocean via the 'atmospheric bridge'.
Satellite records combined with global ecosystem models show a persistent and widespread greening over 25–50% of the global vegetated area; less than 4% of the globe is browning. CO2 fertilization explains 70% of the observed greening trend.
Previous research suggests knowledge about climate change has only a limited impact on concern about the issue. A multinational survey shows this negative result largely depends on how knowledge is defined.
The Pacific trade winds have been strengthening over the past two decades, but until now the cause of this has not been known. Now research shows that sulfate aerosols caused the western North Pacific Ocean to warm, leading to the trade-wind intensification.
Increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations are expected to enhance photosynthesis and reduce plant water use. Research now reveals regional disparities in this effect on crops, with potential implications for food production and water consumption.
Detection and attribution of sea-level rise is hampered by the lack of historical model estimates for the individual components. Now research bridges this gap and uncovers an accelerating anthropogenic contribution over recent decades.
An IPCC Special Report on 1.5 °C should focus on resolving fundamental scientific and political uncertainties, not fixate on developing unachievable mitigation pathways.
Analysis of anthropogenic and natural contributions to twentieth-century sea-level rise shows natural contributions dominated in the early years. After 1970, anthropogenic forcing becomes the dominant contributor to sea-level rise.
Changes in the terrestrial water balance are expected in many regions, but small islands remain difficult to assess. Research now reveals a tendency towards increased aridity in over 73% of island groups (home to around 16 million people) by mid-century.
After the global financial crisis, regulators turned their attention to non-traditional threats to financial assets, including the impacts of climate change. A new study estimates the magnitude of that threat, and shows investors should take it seriously.
The application of a new metric of seasonal onset over Europe to existing observational data sets indicates that the start of summer has advanced significantly over recent decades, a trend expected to continue under global warming.
An analysis of climate change mitigation policies in an idealized integrated assessment framework highlights the importance of economic growth, and investment in technologies such as large-scale carbon dioxide removal, to limit peak warming.
Modelling shows that twenty-first-century climate change could significantly affect the market value of global financial assets, and suggests that limiting warming to no more than 2 °C would make financial sense to many investors.
An analysis of preliminary official statistics shows that, rather than falling as claimed, coal-derived energy consumption in China stayed flat in 2014, while fossil CO2 emissions probably increased slightly, with a decrease expected for 2015.
