Commentary

A new kind of climate politics is emerging, as national actions prove insufficient to address the changing climate. Subnational actors — ranging from provinces and cities, to civil sector organizations and private companies — are acting alongside nation states, making up for lost ground and missed opportunities.

Methods of removing CO₂ from the atmosphere add vital flexibility to efforts to tackle climate change. They must be brought into mainstream climate policy as soon as possible to open up the landscape for innovation and development, and to discover which approaches work at scale.

Accelerated oxygen loss in both coastal and open oceans is generating complex biological responses; future understanding and management will require holistic integration of currently fragmented oxygen observation and research programmes.

The hiatus in warming has led to questions about the reliability of long-term projections, yet here we show they are statistically unchanged when considering only ensemble members that capture the recent hiatus. This demonstrates the robust nature of twenty-first century warming projections.

The models used by the IPCC are yet to provide realistic predictions for nitrogen emissions from the land to the air and water. Natural isotopic benchmarks offer a simple solution to this emerging global imperative.

The decline of the Great Barrier Reef can be reversed by improvements to governance and management: current policies that promote fossil fuels and economic development of the Reef region need to be reformed to prioritize long-term protection from climate change and other stressors.

Adaptation and geoengineering responses to climate change should be taken into account when estimating the social cost of carbon.

Fingers are often pointed directly at the news media for their powerful influence and ineffective reporting of climate change. But is that the best place to point? And are there more effective ways to conceptualize the power of the media and to consider whom they serve?

The shipping industry expects ongoing growth in CO₂ emissions to 2050, despite an apparent recent decline. Opportunities for decarbonizing the sector in line with international commitments on climate change need to be re-evaluated.

IPCC assessments present an unparalleled opportunity for climate science to speak directly to power. Re-thinking the summaries written for policymakers would enable scientists to communicate far more effectively with political leaders and the public.

In the light of its potential benefits, some scientists have been using the concept of risk to frame their discussions of climate change. At the moment, the media hardly pick up on risk language, so can anything be done to encourage them?

Current climate engineering proposals do not come close to addressing the complex and contested nature of conceivable 'climate emergencies' resulting from unabated greenhouse-gas emissions.

The scarcity of robust scientific evidence supporting the attribution of observed impacts to climate change in some vulnerable regions does not indicate that no such impacts have occurred.

State implementation of new Environmental Protection Agency climate regulation may shift behavioural strategies from sidelines to forefront of US climate policy.

To reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in the short term, and catalyse longer-term cuts, countries should reduce the carbon intensity of electricity generation to below a universal target of 600 tCO₂e GWh⁻¹ by 2020.

Adaptive development mitigates climate change risks without negatively influencing the well-being of human subjects and ecosystems by using incentives, institutions, and information-based policy interventions to address different components of climate risks.

The IPCC's global mean sea-level rise scenarios do not necessarily provide the right information for coastal decision-making and risk management.

How should the IPCC communicate its findings, not just to policymakers, but to a wider audience? In today's online environment, readers demand an open and transparent interaction, but the responses must be both rapid and authoritative. As the IPCC debates its future, it must be bold in engaging with social media.

Investors are increasingly aware of climate risk to their investments, but can science drive a broader shift to green investments? Green bonds are an example of a financial market that could be better informed by climate science.

Knowledge could represent both a powerful determinant and indicator of adaptive capacity.