Editorials in 2012

Policymakers struggle to agree on new binding climate commitments and science warns time is already short if we are to avoid dangerous global warming.

Nations will eventually reach a robust and long-lasting compromise on climate, but any agreement reached must be fair on the world's poorest people.

A web focus spotlights some of the potential impacts of climate change on the world's water resources.

Meeting global, national and regional targets for greenhouse-gas emissions reduction requires concerted action on several fronts.

The burgeoning of public databases is benefiting climate change research, and the archiving of data in accessible, permanent repositories will soon become the norm.

Research scientists and other concerned academics should be more willing to join the climate change debate.

Paucity of information on the potentially complex responses of individuals and societies to climate change policies is a barrier to effective action.

Australia — one of the largest per capita greenhouse-gas emitters — has committed to reduce emissions significantly over coming decades, but will its new carbon policy succeed?

Brazil's hosting of the much anticipated Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development this month will put the country in the climate change spotlight.

As the evidence for a tight link between greenhouse-gas emissions and climate change accrues, scientists — and editors — should moderate their use of international air travel.

Nature Climate Change is one year old. Here we reflect on the aims and scope of the journal, using articles from this issue as illustrative examples.

Soulless economics as well as corporate and personal greed constrain climate-friendly behaviour. But explaining climate change in cultural and artistic terms may soften hardened hearts.

The Durban conference on climate change made progress of sorts, but the hardest decisions have been deferred.