News & Comment

Sharp fronts and eddies that are ubiquitous in the world ocean, as well as features such as shelf seas and under-ice-shelf cavities, are not captured in climate projections. Such small-scale processes can play a key role in how the large-scale ocean and cryosphere evolve under climate change, posing a challenge to climate models.

Current global climate models struggle to represent precipitation and related extreme events, with serious implications for the physical evidence base to support climate actions. A leap to kilometre-scale models could overcome this shortcoming but requires collaboration on an unprecedented scale.

Decarbonizing global steel production requires a fundamental transformation. A sectoral climate club, which goes beyond tariffs and involves deep transnational cooperation, can facilitate this transformation by addressing technical, economic and political uncertainties.

Numerous examples highlight leadership and real climate action in the Global South. With financial support from and partnership with countries in the Global North, this leadership can be a cornerstone for getting on track to meeting the Paris Agreement.

Monitoring progress in the Glasgow ‘Declaration on Forests’ remains impossible without open sharing of data. Three actions are required if this declaration is to succeed.

Shifts in phenology can impact organism fitness, ecosystem function, and goods and services from nature. Climate change management must better integrate phenology to optimize conservation outcomes as these impacts increase.

Millions of people rely on potentially sustainable harvesting for their income and energy. Yet specious assumptions about deforestation continue to drive ineffective bans on these practices. This occurs at the peril of the climate and the poor.

Global CO₂ emissions in 2021 were only 1% less than the record levels of 2019, driven by increases in power- and industry-related emissions from China and India and a return of the carbon intensity of electricity to pre-pandemic levels. Is this resumed growth in fossil energy, or a final fleeting surge before a long decline?

Climate hazards can compound existing stresses on the revenues and expenditures of local governments, revealing potential risks to fiscal stability. Incorporating these risks into local budgeting and strategic planning would encourage a more complete accounting of the benefits of climate adaptation and risk reduction efforts.

Communities want to determine their own climate change adaptation strategies, and scientists and decision-makers should listen to them — both the equity and efficacy of climate change adaptation depend on it. We outline key lessons researchers and development actors can take to support communities and learn from them.

Climate change poses a threat to heritage globally. Decolonial approaches to climate change–heritage research and practice can begin to address systemic inequities, recognize the breadth of heritage and strengthen adaptation action globally.

In the context of rising climate uncertainties, there is an urgent need for greater convergence between water and climate change policies. To improve adaptation outcomes, a reorientation towards justice and rights-based frameworks is required.

To date, values are not widely acknowledged or discussed within physical climate science. Yet, effective management of values in physical climate science is required for the benefit of both science and society.

Since the Paris Agreement, the impacts of 1.5 and 2 °C global warming have been emphasized, but the rate of warming also has regional effects. A new framework of model experiments is needed to increase our understanding of climate stabilization and its impacts.

Trees outside of forests are numerous and can be important carbon sinks, while also providing ecosystem services and benefits to livelihoods. New monitoring tools highlight the crucial contribution they can make to strategies for both mitigation and adaptation.

The social cost of nitrous oxide does not account for stratospheric ozone depletion. Doing so could increase its value by 20%. Links between nitrous oxide and other nitrogen pollution impacts could make mitigation even more compelling.

Transdisciplinary research is increasingly seen as critical for advancing climate change adaptation. Operationalizing transdisciplinary research in the global South, however, confronts ingrained cultural and systemic barriers to participatory research.

Local communities can play a role in helping to restore tropical peatlands by using more sustainable agricultural practices. Enhancing this role would help to address interconnected crises such as climate change, food security and environmental degradation.

Small island developing states are currently faced with two significant challenges that are more onerous due to limited financial resources: adapting to increasing climate change risk and recovering from the pandemic. Debt-for-climate swaps provide an avenue for SIDS to address these challenges.

Improved management of water has been shown to have important benefits in both climate adaptation and mitigation. Water must be explicitly considered in climate policy, on par with its energy and land siblings.