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More than one billion people live in regions affected by the South Asian summer monsoon. This Review provides an overview of our understanding of summer monsoon rainfall variability and its causes, and considers how the monsoon will change as a consequence of global warming.

Scientists often expect fear of climate change and its impacts to motivate public support of climate policies. A study suggests that climate change deniers don't respond to this, but that positive appeals can change their views.

The promise of a scientifically sound policy approach to tackle greenhouse-gas emissions in Australia gives hope that the country's efforts to mitigate climate change can make an effective contribution to international objectives.

Australia's carbon pricing mechanism leads the way with innovative design in price management and revenue recycling but could fall victim to partisan politics.

Twenty-one coherent major initiatives could together stimulate sufficient reductions by 2020 to bridge the global greenhouse-gas emissions gap.

Public denial of anthropogenic climate change is significant in Western democracies. Experts assume that deniers would only act pro-environmentally if they were convinced that climate change is real, and therefore urge better communication of climate change risks. Research shows that focusing on the positive societal effects of climate change mitigation efforts can motivate deniers’ pro-environmental actions.

Arctic warming is expected to lead to the colonization of tundra by trees, increasing plant biomass and potentially helping to offset atmospheric carbon dioxide increases. However, this effect must be considered in the context of soil-carbon changes. Now research shows that enhanced plant growth in the European Arctic could result in an overall increase in carbon being released to the atmosphere.

The possibility of anthropogenic ocean warming has led to a range of concerns, from impacts on fisheries and ocean acidification to rising sea level and changes in tropical cyclone frequency and intensity. This study substantially strengthens the attribution of the recently observed global ocean warming to human activity.

Carbon dioxide enrichment can alter grassland ecosystem functioning directly and through indirect, soil-specific effects on moisture, nitrogen availability and species composition. Now research shows that change in aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) with carbon dioxide enrichment depends strongly on soil type; indicating that soils could cause spatial variation in carbon dioxide effects on ANPP and other ecosystem attributes.

Reliable statistics are important for both climate science and international negotiations about emission-reduction targets. However, China is often questioned in terms of its data transparency and accuracy. Now researchers have compiled the carbon dioxide emission inventories for China and its 30 provinces for the period 1997–2010, and found a 1.4 gigatonne discrepancy between national and provincial inventories in 2010.

Human stress on the environment has long been debated and different views about the human drivers of greenhouse-gas emissions have emerged. Now research synthesizes the debate by looking at empirical evidence and offers new insights on the role of human population, affluence, urbanization, trade, culture and institutions on greenhouse-gas emissions trends.

Thermoelectric power in Europe and the United States is vulnerable to climate change. Here research relates lower summer river flows and higher river water temperatures as a result of climate change to thermoelectric plant capacity. Summer average capacity can decrease by 6.3–19% in Europe and 4.4–16% in the United States, depending on the cooling system type and climate scenario for 2031–2060.

Increasing shrub cover on Arctic tundra is linked to climate warming, which is partially amplified by sea ice feedbacks, but the nature of these interactions remains poorly understood. Now research indicates that tundra plant productivity in late spring relates to sea-ice-driven temperature amplification but that the growing season peak is more closely associated with persistent large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns.

An international agreement on reducing greenhouse-gas emissions requires large financial flows from richer to poorer countries. However, the amount and justification for such transfers is still contested. Now research has developed an argument for transfer payments by estimating regional carbon prices versus a global price, and found that in the case of a global carbon price of US$35 per tonne of carbon dioxide, a flow of US$15–48 billion per year would be needed.

In northern ecosystems, vole and lemming densities vary between years in a regular pattern known as vole and lemming cycles. This study shows that the rodents drive corresponding cycles in vegetation that can be detected from space. The findings should help understand how climate warming will affect tundra ecosystems.

Using a comprehensive data set of thermal tolerance limits, latitudinal range boundaries and latitudinal range shifts of cold-blooded animals, this study explores the likely consequences of climate change for the geographical redistribution of terrestrial and marine species at a global scale.

Public apathy over climate change is often attributed to a deficit in comprehension and to limits on technical reasoning. However, evidence suggests that individuals with the highest degrees of science literacy and technical reasoning capacity are not the most concerned about climate change and are the most culturally polarized.

Increased summer heatwaves are a likely feature of future European climate. This study shows that wet previous seasons inhibit summer heat events, thus increasing seasonal predictability, but dry previous seasons do not, therefore decreasing seasonal predictability. Models suggest that a similar relation should hold in the future.