Brief Communications in 2022

The adoption of some climate policies can facilitate the subsequent adoption of other policies, which is referred to as policy sequencing. Across sectors and countries, policy sequences often play an important role in the adoption and stringency of carbon pricing.

The degree to which aerosols influence surface temperatures is not well understood. Here, the authors argue that reducing the uncertainties in the climate response to aerosol forcing is one of the key challenges to reduce overall uncertainties of warming projections.

A reliable and consistent inventory is important for the international community to track and promote the progress of climate finance. A machine learning classifier reveals that the current framework may overestimate the actual number of bilateral climate finance projects.

Young people around the world have joined the school climate strikes and shared belief of the unfair climate threat or proper future actions. However, different adolescents still have divergent opinions on the image, effectiveness or motivation of the protest activities.

The current ambition for hydrofluorocarbon emissions reduction by the Kigali Amendment is not sufficient to meet the 1.5 °C Paris Agreement goal. The authors show that a more ambitious Kigali Amendment target could still help in achieving the Paris goal if more countries act early.

Southwestern North America has been experiencing lower than average precipitation and higher temperatures since 2000. This emerging megadrought, spanning 2000–2021, has been the driest 22-year period since the year 800 and 19% of the drought severity in 2021 can be attributed to climate change.

Sea surface temperature variability of the equatorial Pacific Ocean dictates the strength of El Niño–Southern Oscillation events. CMIP6 models under four IPCC emission scenarios show increased variability in the 21st century from the 20th century.