Reviews & Analysis

Oceans are on the frontline of an array of new marine–climate actions that are both poorly understood and under-regulated. Development and deployment of these interventions is outpacing governance readiness to address risks and ensure responsible transformation and effective action.

Analysis of satellite observations and in situ phenology records revealed a delayed onset of spring after drought in northern ecosystems. These delays are regulated by both endogenous memory within plants and exogenous memory of the environment, with the latter having a dominant role.

Under climate warming, increased microbial carbon emissions could diminish the vast carbon stores held in northern peatlands. This large-scale experimental study reveals that warming amplifies carbon uptake by peatland microalgae and partially offsets warming-related increases in microbial carbon emissions.

Cities have historically benefitted from coastal access, but sea-level rise may turn this advantage into a vulnerability. Government investment should account for future climate risks.

Drought predictability has a large impact on climate adaptation plans, but its future changes are often unknown. A drought predictability model reveals that increases in global temperatures of 2 °C or 3 °C would cause a significant (p < 0.1) decrease in the dynamic predictability of agricultural drought in more than 70% of the global land area.

Limiting global warming to 1.5 °C requires aggressive climate pledges, but their impact on land-use strategies remains underexplored. Now, a study reveals that these commitments may drive large-scale cropland loss, intensifying food security risks, especially in the global south.

Climate change is causing rapid shrinkage of high-latitude glaciers, fundamentally altering the nature of Arctic landscapes. Now, research quantifies the substantial, yet under-reported, development of new coastlines and islands that are revealed as marine-terminating glaciers fall back from the sea.

How discussions around key climate change topics evolve over time and which organizations drive such change are important questions. We found that business non-governmental organizations affiliated with fossil fuels focus on hosting renewable energy events but remain absent from anti-fossil-fuel discussions, led instead by a tightly connected network of environmental non-governmental organizations.

Species are shifting their distributions in response to climate change, which on land depends on routes connecting intact habitat patches. Now, an analysis exploring the interaction between climate-driven shifts and human activities across ocean depths reveals threats for deep-sea biodiversity.

Children will bear considerable burdens of climate change, particularly where impacts intersect with pre-existing vulnerabilities. In this Perspective, the authors highlight how climate factors and socio-political stratifiers increase children’s risks in Africa and propose action to break vulnerability cycles.

Rising wealth inequality is a major challenge for this century, and climate change could further exacerbate it. Based on an overview of existing studies, this Perspective proposes a framework to advance understanding of wealth inequality in relation to climate change and climate policies.

As urban extent continues to grow, the impact this major land-use change has on soils and their carbon stocks is an increasingly important question. A recent global study suggests that the effects are not straightforward.

Satellite observations suggest a slowdown in the decay of sea surface temperature anomalies over the past four decades, coinciding with an increase in the duration of marine heatwaves. This change is probably linked to factors such as stronger upper-ocean stratification, a deepening mixed layer and weakening oceanic forcing.

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.