Nature Climate Change

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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: 28 min 8 sec ago

Damage development on Antarctic ice shelves sensitive to climate warming

Fri, 10/17/2025 - 12:00am

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 17 October 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02453-4

Damages such as crevasses or cracks can be early indicators of ice shelf weakening. Here, the authors quantify changes in damage structures in Antarctic ice sheets, which show sensitivity to warming

Critical intervention points for European adaptation to cascading climate change impacts

Thu, 10/16/2025 - 12:00am

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 16 October 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02455-2

Impacts from a climate event can cascade through natural, anthropogenic and socio-economic systems. Here the authors assess cascading climate impacts on the EU and identify intervention points for adaptation related to water, livelihoods, agriculture, infrastructure and economy, and violent conflict.

Towards an open model intercomparison platform for integrated assessment models scenarios

Thu, 10/16/2025 - 12:00am

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 16 October 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02462-3

Scenarios, generated by integrated assessment models in model intercomparison projects (MIPs), play a central role in climate decision-making. This Perspective discusses the challenges of the current approach and proposes a new MIP platform with a transparent and inclusive process.

Mountain glaciers will lose their cooling capacity as they shrink

Wed, 10/15/2025 - 12:00am

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 15 October 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02448-1

Glacier microclimates can decouple glacier temperatures from ongoing climatic warming, slowing down melting. However, these microclimates will decay as glaciers retreat. A statistical model indicates that by the latter half of the twenty-first century, the temperature of glaciers will be increasingly sensitive to fluctuations in atmospheric temperature.

Generative AI can influence climate beliefs and actions

Mon, 10/13/2025 - 12:00am

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 13 October 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02438-3

The rise of generative AI presents both risks and opportunities for shaping climate discourse. New findings suggest it can help lower climate scepticism and bolster support for climate action.

Using generative AI to increase sceptics’ engagement with climate science

Mon, 10/13/2025 - 12:00am

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 13 October 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02424-9

Climate sceptics tend to avoid climate information, making it even harder to reduce scepticism. This study shows that generative AI can enhance sceptics’ engagement with climate news by tailoring headlines to their existing perspective and shift their beliefs towards the scientific consensus.

World Heritage documents reveal persistent gaps between climate awareness and local action

Mon, 10/13/2025 - 12:00am

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 13 October 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02461-4

Climate risk increasingly threatens World Heritage sites, yet its integration into conservation planning remains underexplored. By analysing 1,868 World Heritage documents, this study reveals regional disparities of climate awareness and highlights the gap between awareness and action.

Mountain glaciers recouple to atmospheric warming over the twenty-first century

Fri, 10/10/2025 - 12:00am

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 10 October 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02449-0

It has been argued that air temperatures over mountain glaciers are decoupled from surrounding warming, which could slow down melting. Here the authors show that this effect will weaken with future glacier retreat, leading to a recoupling of temperatures from the 2030s onwards.

The interplay of future emissions and geophysical uncertainties for projections of sea-level rise

Fri, 10/10/2025 - 12:00am

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 10 October 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02457-0

Unclear emissions and ice-sheet processes drive uncertainties in future sea-level rise. The authors show that the timing of emissions reductions drives the uncertainties during the twenty-first century, but geophysical uncertainties become more important with time, especially under optimistic scenarios.

The private sector has started investing in climate adaptation with positive effects for regional economies

Wed, 10/01/2025 - 12:00am

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 01 October 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02463-2

Across five coastal regions over a four-year period, nearly 300,000 businesses invested a total of €8.7 billion in climate adaptation. An econometric analysis of these data shows that this private sector investment in adaptation modestly boosts regional economic performance, although the extent of the boost varies across sectors and geographies.

Synchronization of global peak river discharge since the 1980s

Tue, 09/30/2025 - 12:00am

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 30 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02427-6

River floods that occur simultaneously in multiple locations can lead to higher damages than individual events. Here, the authors show that the likelihood of concurrent high river discharge has increased over the last decades.

Perspectives on climate change in South Asia

Fri, 09/26/2025 - 12:00am

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 26 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02442-7

Home to roughly a quarter of the world’s population, South Asia is a hotspot for global warming impacts. In this Viewpoint, nine researchers from South Asia discuss the progress made in understanding and responding to climate change in the region.

Cost-effective adaptation of electric grids

Thu, 09/25/2025 - 12:00am

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 25 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02421-y

Reducing the wildfire risk of electric grids requires assessing and comparing various adaptation measures. A study shows that a grid technology innovation cuts the risk more cost-effectively than conventional approaches such as burying power lines.

Dynamic grid management reduces wildfire adaptation costs in the electric power sector

Thu, 09/25/2025 - 12:00am

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 25 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02436-5

Extreme events are increasingly becoming severe risks to the electric grid, yet there is limited understanding of the cost-effectiveness of adaptation investments. This research demonstrates that dynamic grid management could reduce large capital spending and limit wildfire risks in the USA.

Wildland fires delay Arctic snow cover formation

Wed, 09/24/2025 - 12:00am

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 24 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02444-5

Wildland fires in snow-dominated regions such as the Arctic can have profound effects on snowpack characteristics. Satellite observations reveal a delay in snow cover formation in the Arctic following major wildland fires. Machine learning and causal analyses suggest that this delay is linked to fire-induced reductions in albedo and increases in surface temperature.

Managing development choices is essential to reduce coastal flood risk in China

Wed, 09/24/2025 - 12:00am

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 24 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02418-7

Future exposure to coastal flooding in China is driven more by growing populations and economic activity rather than by rising seas and intensifying storm surges. Policymakers must anticipate these multiple risk drivers to better inform spatial planning and development strategies and to ensure effective, sustainable coastal adaptation.

Development policy affects coastal flood exposure in China more than sea-level rise

Wed, 09/24/2025 - 12:00am

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 24 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02439-2

Coastal risk assessment under future climate change is important for effective adaptation, but multidimensional analyses are still rare. Here the researchers find that inappropriate development policies could have a greater effect on exposure to flooding than sea-level rise up to 2100 in China.

Upstream data need to prove soil carbon as a climate solution

Tue, 09/23/2025 - 12:00am

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 23 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02429-4

Causal approaches employed at the scale of commercial agriculture are required to build high-quality evidence that climate-smart agricultural interventions result in real emissions reductions and removals. Such project-scale empirical data are additionally required to demonstrate and advance the viability of process-based models and digital measurement, reporting and verification as tools to scale soil carbon accounting.

Delayed formation of Arctic snow cover in response to wildland fires in a warming climate

Tue, 09/23/2025 - 12:00am

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 23 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02443-6

Wildland fires are becoming more frequent in high-latitude regions. Here the authors show that these fires delay the formation of snow cover in the Arctic, which will be exacerbated under future warming due to increases in burned areas.

Climate change raises costs for European forestry

Mon, 09/22/2025 - 12:00am

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 22 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02409-8

Natural disturbances, such as windthrows, pest outbreaks and wildfires, pose a major economic threat for the forestry sector. By coupling spatially explicit ecological and economic forest models, this study assesses the costs of natural disturbances under current and future climate conditions for all of Europe.

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