Reviews & Analysis

This Perspective highlights links between gender inequality and climate change adaptation and mitigation, and proposes a roadmap for incorporating gender issues into the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways. These scenarios could help understand challenges under diverse trajectories of gender equality.

The interactions between mitigation policies could hinder China’s progress toward carbon neutrality by limiting the space for effective policy implementation. Policymakers should emphasize optimizing the combination of these policies to ensure efficient decarbonization.

High-quality coverage of climate change requires trained reporters, editorial support and financial assistance, but news media in the global south often lack access to such resources. Now, a study points to further disparities across language and regional communities.

Accountability serves as an adhesive that binds commitment to results. Now, a study on corporate carbon emissions targets reveals that firms hold limited accountability to their targets, with little public backlash against missed targets.

For almost 30 years, an insect fungal disease has repressed defoliation caused by the spongy moth in North American hardwood forests. The fungus needs cool, moist weather, but computer models project that the effects of climate change will prevent the fungus from killing spongy moths, which could lead to a resurgence of this devastating forest pest.

As Arctic sea ice thinned, it was thought that a weaker, more dynamic ice cover might become more heavily deformed and ridged. Now, analysis of three decades of airborne observations shows instead that the Arctic ice cover has smoothed.

Climate change research and policy rely on emissions scenarios to project future warming and its impacts. Now, a study highlights both progress and challenges to keeping key socioeconomic scenario assumptions up to date for the IPCC.

Climate-sensitive disturbances impact ecosystem productivity and carbon uptake. We found that the sensitivity of ecosystem productivity to disturbances differs between regions, with dryland ecosystems becoming more sensitive to water stress after disturbances, whereas wet regions become less sensitive. On average, ecosystem sensitivity requires approximately five years to recover to pre-disturbance levels.

The first global stocktake marks an important step in enabling Parties to the Paris Agreement to enhance their climate actions and support with the aim of achieving long-term goals. Two co-facilitators of the technical dialogue discuss the process, findings, relationship with political outcomes and implications for future negotiations.

Vocal communication is essential for information transmission in many species, such as that related to mating opportunities or predator presence. Recent research revealing how phenotypic changes brought about by a changing climate may influence vocal communication raises some serious concerns for conservation management.

The tipping points framing is widely used in climate discussions but receives mixed feedback. This Perspective critiques it for oversimplifying the complexities of natural and social systems and failing to drive effective action, and offers recommendations for future improvements.

A rigorous analysis of twenty-first-century multi-hazard exposure for US Southeast Atlantic coastal communities indicates that up to 70% of residents will be exposed daily to shallow and emerging groundwater by approximately 2100. This threat further exacerbates the impacts of other coastal stressors, such as flooding, beach erosion and subsidence, under expected future climate change scenarios.

Wildfires are raging around the globe with increasing intensity and frequency, transforming ecosystems and affecting the climate of regions far beyond. Now, a study shows that boreal forest fires are amplifying Arctic warming due to increased local solar absorption from biomass burning aerosols.

A novel type of climate oscillation might emerge in the Arctic Ocean owing to sea-ice melting. The air–sea coupling feedbacks occurring in the ice-free Arctic Ocean would trigger periodic warm–cold temperature oscillations, similar to El Niño and La Niña in the tropical Pacific Ocean.

Online image search results depict climate change differently across the world. Countries with high (versus low) levels of climate concern encounter more emotional images, creating a difference that can change how people think and feel about climate change.

Ocean alkalinity enhancement is a commonly touted method for marine carbon dioxide removal but many questions remain, including its capacity for large-scale carbon removal. Computer models have now been used to map the timescales and efficiency of carbon removal at global scale, revealing important regional differences.

In this Perspective, the authors discuss the current status of ecological forecasting research, its role in helping to address the climate and biodiversity crises facing society and potential future directions, with a central focus on how to scale up ecological forecasting capabilities.

An in-depth examination of the factors driving rising greenhouse gas emissions in the production of wheat, maize and rice uncovers trends that conflict with the objective of reducing emissions while simultaneously boosting production.