Nature Climate Change
Weakening mountain vegetation aspect asymmetry due to altered energy conditions
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 12 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02542-4
The authors quantify long-term (2003–2024) changes in Northern Hemisphere mountain aspect asymmetry—the difference in vegetation density between polar-facing and equatorial-facing slopes. They show a weakening trend, linked to changing hydrothermal conditions.Enduring impacts of El Niño on life expectancy in past and future climates
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 09 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02534-4
The El Niño–Southern Oscillation threatens human health, and its impacts are likely to intensify under climate change. This research examines how historical El Niño–Southern Oscillation events have caused life expectancy and economic losses across the Pacific Rim and projects future impacts and vulnerable groups.Channelized melt beneath Antarctic ice shelves previously underestimated
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 09 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02537-1
Channelized subsurface melting is an important process in the dynamics of ice shelves. Here the authors present observational data from Antarctic ice shelves and show that their basal melt is up to 50% higher than previously assumed.Irreversibility in climate action
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 08 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02526-4
Although climate action is undermined by political interests and institutional inertia, multiple safeguards are in place to prevent backsliding on progress so far, and positive feedbacks reinforce progress despite opposing forces. Key elements of climate action are irreversible and can be further strengthened by commitments, investments and positive narratives.AI-driven weather forecasts for climate adaptation in India
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 08 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02521-9
Advanced monsoon onset prediction with multi-week lead time via an artificial intelligence (AI) weather model helps smallholder farmers adapt to a changing climate.Successes in climate action
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 08 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02546-0
Climate action clearly needs greater ambition in the face of increasing physical, biological and social impacts. However, it is important to acknowledge successes, including safeguards that protect action so far, and there are initiatives being implemented across scales that are effective.Communicating the need for climate action
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 05 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02503-x
It is essential to understand the best way to frame a persuasive message aimed at increasing concern about climate change and support for pro-environmental action. Now a Registered Report presents a large-scale study that tests and compares the effectiveness of ten widely cited messaging strategies.A registered report megastudy on the persuasiveness of the most-cited climate messages
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 05 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02536-2
How to effectively communicate climate change to the public has long been studied and debated. Through a registered report megastudy, researchers tested the ten most-cited climate change messaging strategies published, finding that many had significant, but small, effects on climate change attitudes.Barents Sea atlantification driven by a shift in atmospheric synoptic timescale
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 02 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02535-3
The Atlantic Ocean is having an increasing influence on the Arctic but the drivers of this are unclear. By combining ocean modelling and deep learning methods, the authors show that the increased flow through the Barents Sea Opening is driven by spectral changes of atmospheric variability.Building material stock drives embodied carbon emissions and risks future climate goals in China
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 02 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02527-3
Reducing the embodied carbon emissions of building material stock is essential for mitigation. Using a high-resolution multiyear dataset in China, researchers show the historically massive contributions of these emissions during past decades of rapid urbanization and the potential risks for future climate goals.Greening schools for climate-resilient, inclusive and liveable cities
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 29 December 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02519-3
Transforming school environments into nature-based climate shelters not only promotes cooling and greening under extreme heat, but also fosters quality education, ecological restoration, empowerment and reconnection with nature, and provides children with healthier, safer, more playful, equitable and climate-proof spaces.Heatwave attribution in seconds
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 24 December 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02532-6
Heatwave attribution in secondsForaging constrained by heat and dark
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 24 December 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02530-8
Foraging constrained by heat and darkRising lake and reservoir emissions
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 24 December 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02529-1
Rising lake and reservoir emissionsInequalities in resilience and preparedness
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 24 December 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02531-7
Inequalities in resilience and preparednessRivers accelerate and slow as temperatures rise
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 24 December 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02508-6
Whether erosion is accelerating or decelerating along Arctic rivers has been unclear, but each trend has distinct implications for the vast amount of carbon stored in permanently frozen soils. Now, research demonstrates that warming air temperatures are driving divergent outcomes for Arctic rivers, causing some to erode their banks more rapidly while others slow down.Overlooked toll of climate change on migrant children in the Americas
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 24 December 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02525-5
Climate change drives displacement and migration across the Americas, particularly exposing Latin American and Caribbean children to compounded health risks. We explore these health impacts, identify gaps in related US healthcare and health policy, and propose recommendations for how they can respond.Resolving the changing pace of Arctic rivers
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 24 December 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02512-w
Whether rivers are speeding up or slowing down in a warming Arctic is unclear, but has implications for carbon cycling and infrastructure. This study finds divergent behaviour in migration rates for rivers in discontinuous versus continuous permafrost, driven by changes in permafrost thaw and river ice.Deforestation-induced emissions from mining energy transition minerals
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 24 December 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02520-w
Energy transition minerals (ETM) are essential for decarbonization, yet extractions often occur in carbon-rich forests and lands of Indigenous peoples and local communities. Here the authors provide global analysis showing how ETM mining causes sustained forest loss and GHG emissions.Green industrial policy is not enough for net-zero decarbonization
Nature Climate Change, Published online: 22 December 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02514-8
Both green industrial policy (‘carrots’) and carbon pricing (‘sticks’) are seen as important instruments for decarbonization, but the sequencing strategy matters. Researchers now demonstrate that carrots alone — without sticks — are unlikely to reach long-term net-zero targets in the USA.