Nature Climate Change
Nature Climate Change is a monthly journal dedicated to publishing high-quality research papers that describe the most significant and cutting-edge research on the causes, impacts and wider implications of global climate change. The journal publishes climate research across the physical, biological and social sciences and strives to integrate and communicate interdisciplinary research. The journal aims to play a leading role in: providing accessibility to a broad audience to research published both within and outside the journal; raising the visibility of climate change research in related research communities as well as the mainstream media; and offering a forum for discussion of the challenges faced by researchers and policy makers (and other interested parties) in understanding the complex mechanisms and impacts associated with the Earth’s changing climate.
Updated: 2 hours 29 min ago
Large coastal cities are losing sea–land breeze
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 24 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41558-026-02619-8
High-resolution modelling incorporating sea surface temperature variability reveals that ocean warming has already reduced sea–land breeze days in most large coastal cities. Thus, ocean warming poses an overlooked threat to a natural climate regulator, with future emissions pathways determining whether the decline accelerates or slows.Promising climate progress from net-zero ambitions to the Paris Agreement goal
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 22 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41558-026-02615-y
It is important to assess the gap between national climate ambitions and the goal of limiting global temperature increase. This multi-model analysis shows that if net-zero pledges are implemented, meeting the 2 °C target is feasible, while increasing ambition and international cooperation is crucial.Publisher Correction: Neglecting land–atmosphere feedbacks overestimates climate-driven increases in evapotranspiration
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 20 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41558-026-02636-7
Publisher Correction: Neglecting land–atmosphere feedbacks overestimates climate-driven increases in evapotranspirationOcean warming weakens the sea–land breeze in coastal megacities
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 17 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41558-026-02618-9
The sea–land breeze acts to counter urban heat in many coastal cities. Here the authors simulate how this circulation changes with warming ocean water, showing that it decreases in most of them, adding heat stress to urban areas.Humanitarian blind spots in Western climate change policy and discourse
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 16 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41558-026-02613-0
Humanitarian blind spots in Western climate change policy and discourseAligning climate change mitigation strategies with policy objectives beyond cost savings
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 15 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41558-026-02617-w
Optimal climate change mitigation pathways have historically focused on achieving emissions reductions while ensuring cost efficiency. However, the broader impacts of climate action are also important for policymakers and stakeholders. We developed a method that enables mitigation pathways to be defined based on their impact on multiple United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).More eddying of subtropical western boundary currents boosts stratification and cools shelf seas
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 15 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41558-026-02599-9
This work shows that increased eddies accelerate surface warming in the Agulhas Current while also boosting hidden upwelling that cools the current, and adjacent shelf seas, at depth. Similar trends are expected for all subtropical western boundary currents, even if volume transports remain steady.Author Correction: Biodiversity implications of land-intensive carbon dioxide removal
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 13 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41558-026-02632-x
Author Correction: Biodiversity implications of land-intensive carbon dioxide removal15 years of change
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 10 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41558-026-02610-3
Since Nature Climate Change was launched, not only has the journal itself changed but so have the subjects of the studies we publish on the Earth system and how societies interact with it. In this Infographic, we highlight a few examples of how the world differed when we started in 2011 compared with today.Research that captures a changing world
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 10 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41558-026-02623-y
This month marks 15 years since the first publication of Nature Climate Change. Here, we reflect on how both the world and research have changed, and discuss the impacts of memorable climate change science published in our pages.Atlantic exceptionalism in the twentieth century
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 10 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41558-026-02608-x
The North Atlantic is exceptional in cooling during the twentieth century while the world warmed. Here we look back on an influential 2015 study that linked this cooling to a weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and consider the wider implications that this may have for climate, ecosystems and society.Early-career researchers reflect on influential papers
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 10 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41558-026-02605-0
As Nature Climate Change celebrates its 15 year anniversary, we look back at some of the journal’s published works. In this Viewpoint, seven early-career researchers discuss how these papers influenced their research and careers.The underappreciated importance of small wetlands in global methane emissions
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 08 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41558-026-02609-w
Wetland methane emissions are a major source of uncertainty in global emissions estimates. Here the authors use high-resolution remote sensing data to identify small non-forested wetlands and find that they contribute 24% of wetland methane emissions and that these emissions are increasing.Lessons from the International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion for Indigenous rights
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 07 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41558-026-02611-2
Lessons from the International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion for Indigenous rightsFrom least-cost to SDG-optimal sectoral allocation of Paris Agreement-compatible mitigation efforts
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 07 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41558-026-02602-3
Meeting global temperature targets requires deep mitigation across sectors. Moving away from cost optimality when allocating mitigation by sector, the authors link integrated assessment models and portfolio analysis to identify and balance trade-offs between Sustainable Development Goal indicators.Wildfire risk for species under climate change
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 06 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41558-026-02600-5
The authors consider risks to global biodiversity from wildfire under climate change. They show increased risk to 83.9% of species pre-identified as wildfire vulnerable, with high risks for species with small ranges, high conservation concern and those in South America, Australia and South Asia.Global energy and climate benefits from photovoltaics integrated in building façades
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 03 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41558-026-02621-0
Global modelling shows that integrating photovoltaics in the façades of buildings could deliver substantial electricity generation, building energy savings and emissions reductions — and highlights an underexplored opportunity for urban energy transition and climate mitigation.Distributional consequences of climate policy
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 03 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41558-026-02612-1
Carbon pricing can be a cost-effective way to cut carbon dioxide emissions, but only if it is politically sustainable. Two recent papers document how carbon pricing can create winners and losers, while also showing how these shortcomings can be addressed by careful policy design.Food loss and waste associated with misbehaviour drives 11% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 01 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41558-026-02597-x
Food loss and waste (FLW) is often attributed to technoeconomic inefficiencies of food systems. However, using a mechanistic analysis framework, we show that food surplus and misconsumption accounted for 11% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions in 2021, exceeding FLW-associated emissions that are driven by technoeconomic constraints.Biochemical future of marine ecosystems
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 31 March 2026; doi:10.1038/s41558-026-02590-4
Warming oceans will alter not only how much phytoplankton grow, but what they are made of and how they function within marine food webs. Now a mechanistic model shows how environmental change reshapes cellular composition, offering a path towards more physiologically grounded marine ecosystem projections.