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: 3 hours 18 min ago
Avoid urban development policy that fuels climate risk
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 08 July 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02365-3
Urban development policies, designed to improve city resilience, could unintentionally increase the exposure to climate risk. This Comment discusses the impact of misaligned incentives, miscalculated benefits and costs, and overlooked behavioural responses on policy outcomes, as well as future directions.A systems perspective for climate adaptation in deltas
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 07 July 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02368-0
Deltas are complex and are among the most vulnerable landforms under climate change. Studying them collectively highlights common stressors that drive their most significant challenges. A holistic conceptual framing of a delta and its feeding river basin is fundamental to effective adaptation planning.East Antarctica slides into the spotlight as surface melt hotspot
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 04 July 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02371-5
Ice-sheet surface melting impacts sea level and ice dynamics. Now two studies provide a wake-up call for monitoring melt in Antarctica.Continent-wide mapping shows increasing sensitivity of East Antarctica to meltwater ponding
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 04 July 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02363-5
This study provides a continent-wide assessment of surface meltwater area in Antarctica between 2006 and 2021, highlighting recent increases in magnitude and variability in East Antarctica, with indications that the ice-sheet surface is becoming increasingly prone to further meltwater ponding.Rapid increases in satellite-observed ice sheet surface meltwater production
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 04 July 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02364-4
Surface melt is an important component of ice sheet dynamics, but for many remote regions the melt rates are mainly known from models. Here the authors present satellite observations of melt rates for Greenland and Antarctica, showing that East Antarctica has become a melting hotspot.Promoting targeted heat early warning systems for at-risk populations
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 03 July 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02374-2
Extreme heat poses a growing threat to vulnerable urban populations, and the existing heat early warning system usually operates at population level. Pairing emerging individualized and population early warning systems could directly and meaningfully extend protection to those most in need.Extreme weather event attribution predicts climate policy support across the world
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 01 July 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02372-4
Literature produced inconsistent findings regarding the links between extreme weather events and climate policy support across regions, populations and events. This global study offers a holistic assessment of these relationships and highlights the role of subjective attribution.Changing wildfire complexity highlights the need for institutional adaptation
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 26 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02367-1
Growing wildfire threats require governing institutions to adapt their responses for effective management, yet institutional adaptation remains unexplored. This study reveals increasingly complex task environments for institutions managing wildfire incidents in the USA over the period 1999–2020.Protect young secondary forests for optimum carbon removal
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 24 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02355-5
The authors generate ~1-km2 growth curves for aboveground live carbon in regrowing forests, globally. They show that maximum carbon removal rates can vary by 200-fold spatially and with age, with the greatest rates estimated at about 30 ± 12 years, highlighting the role of secondary forests in carbon cycling.Author Correction: Recommendations for producing knowledge syntheses to inform climate change assessments
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 23 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02378-y
Author Correction: Recommendations for producing knowledge syntheses to inform climate change assessmentsSocial strategies to engage video gamers in climate action
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 20 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02369-z
Video games are a popular method for climate change communication, but current efforts undervalue the potential role of gaming communities. To empower gaming communities to take climate action, we suggest social strategies including fostering climate change conversations through games and in gaming social spaces, and organizing real-world gaming community events.Navigating the black box of fair national emissions targets
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 16 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02361-7
Fair climate targets aligned with the Paris Agreement can be calculated in multiple ways, yielding diverse outcomes. Researchers unpack how equity, global strategies and political and social uncertainties shape fair share allocations, using them to assess nationally determined contributions and guide global climate finance.Exploring climate futures with deep learning
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 13 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02350-w
Glancing forward to view alternative futures for limiting global warming requires understanding complex societal–environmental systems that drive future emissions. Now a study explores the potential, and limits, of deep learning to generate core characteristics of these futures.Future climate-driven fires may boost ocean productivity in the iron-limited North Atlantic
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 13 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02356-4
Fire emissions can be an important source of nutrients such as iron, particularly for the oceans. Here the authors estimate that climate-change-driven changes in fire emissions could increase iron deposition in ocean ecosystems, enhancing productivity particularly in the North Atlantic.Facebook algorithm’s active role in climate advertisement delivery
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 13 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02326-w
Content delivery algorithms on social media exhibit biases in audience selection, which are understudied in the climate context. This study combines observational analysis and a field experiment to reveal algorithmic bias in Facebook’s climate ad data across location, gender and age groups.Using deep learning to generate key variables in global mitigation scenarios
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 13 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02352-8
Integrated assessment model-based scenarios are commonly used to project future emission pathways but suffer from submission biases and high computational cost. Here researchers develop a deep learning framework to generate synthetic scenarios and replicate key variables across a wide range of mitigation ambitions.Recommendations for producing knowledge syntheses to inform climate change assessments
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 10 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02354-6
Climate change assessment reports are increasing in complexity as the knowledge base grows exponentially. In this Perspective, the authors advocate, and provide recommendations, for knowledge synthesis to become more common as a way to better inform such assessments.Conflicting selection on flowering time
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 09 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02360-8
Conflicting selection on flowering timeLost along the way
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 09 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02359-1
Lost along the wayPlant processes matter
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 09 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02357-3
Plant processes matter