Unprecedented UK heatwave harmonised drivers of fuel moisture creating extreme temperate wildfire risk.

Climate change is resulting in more extreme fire weather during major heatwaves. Across temperate Europe, shrub landscapes dominate the area burned, with the moisture content of fuels during these events determining the threat posed. Current controls on the moisture content of temperate fuel constituents and their response to future extreme heatwaves are not known.

A prudent planetary limit for geologic carbon storage.

Geologically storing carbon is a key strategy for abating emissions from fossil fuels and durably removing carbon dioxide (CO) from the atmosphere. However, the storage potential is not unlimited. Here we establish a prudent planetary limit of around 1,460 (1,290-2,710) Gt of CO storage through a risk-based, spatially explicit analysis of carbon storage in sedimentary basins.

Adaptive Strategies in Expertise: Optimizing Movement Trajectory for Perception Accuracy.

This study examines the traces of movement trajectories for perception accuracy in expert performance, focusing on table tennis. Twenty participants (10 experts and 10 novices) performed self-generated movements for extended haptic accuracy tasks, and their performance was analyzed for absolute error and movement trajectory. The results reveal that the expert participants exhibited more movement entropy than novices, strategically sacrificing trajectory predictability to enhance haptic perception accuracy.

Digital transformation in the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways.

Digital transformation refers to the widespread use of digital technologies in ways that reshape societal and economic activity, with significant impacts on sustainable development and climate challenges-both for better and for worse. Using statistical models calibrated to historical evidence in 62 countries across 12 world regions, we project future digital transformation within the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs), adding contextual richness to this scenario framework used extensively in global climate research. In some scenarios, we find a pervasive and prolonged digital divide with up to 45% of the assessed population by mid-century still residing in countries with relatively low levels of digital transformation despite ever-deepening digitalisation in wealthier countries.

Shifts in precipitation regimes exacerbate global inequality in grassland nitrogen cycles.

Grasslands, the Earth's largest terrestrial ecosystem, provide crucial ecosystem services through biogeochemical cycles. However, these cycles are disrupted by climate change, particularly precipitation changes, limiting grassland productivity. By synthesizing 2944 experimental observations and integrating multiple models, here we show that under the middle-of-the-road scenario, global nitrogen input, harvest, and surplus from grasslands are projected to increase by 10, 7, and 3 million tonnes per year (Tg yr), respectively.

Temporal complexity of terrestrial ecosystem functioning and its drivers.

The development of non-linear dynamics theory showed that simple processes can lead to high complexity in the functioning of nature, with ecological studies showing that non-linear dynamics are common across populations of different taxa. However, whether the energy and matter fluxes of entire ecosystems follow non-linear dynamics, and how complex these dynamics are, is still unknown. We investigate the drivers of- and trends in the temporal complexity of ecosystem functioning by calculating the correlation dimension of gross primary production (GPP), ecosystem respiration, and net ecosystem production.

Warming of northern peatlands increases the global temperature overshoot challenge.

Meeting the Paris Agreement's temperature goals requires limiting future carbon emissions, yet current policies make temporarily overshooting the 1.5°C target likely. The potential climate feedback from destabilizing peatlands, storing large amounts of carbon, remains poorly quantified.

The EuropaBON Stakeholder Dashboard: A dynamic web application to map Europe's biodiversity community.

Europe's biodiversity faces increasing pressure from climate change, pollution, and habitat loss, while governments struggle to sustain the monitoring efforts required to respond effectively to these challenges. Addressing this gap calls for a coordinated and inclusive approach that brings together all relevant biodiversity stakeholders to co-design a robust European biodiversity monitoring system. To support this, the Europa Biodiversity Observation Network (EuropaBON) has established one of the most comprehensive biodiversity stakeholder networks in Europe.

Temporal trend of cause-specific mortality burden attributable to ambient PM from different sectors and fuel types across Chinese provinces during 2015-2022.

Background: To estimate the disease-specific mortality burden attributable to fine particulate matter (PM) pollution in China across multiple sectors and fuel types during 2015-2022.

Methods: The Greenhouse Gas-Air Pollution Interactions and Synergies (GAINS) model was used to estimate PM concentrations in Chinese provinces from seven sectors and five fuel types. The relative risks (RR) of seven diseases were assessed using the Integrated Exposure-Response (IER) model.

Sustainable Management of Banked Fluorocarbons as a Cost-Effective Climate Action.

Fluorocarbon banks present a substantial yet largely untapped opportunity for climate change mitigation within current regulatory frameworks. This potential can be effectively addressed through fluorocarbon lifecycle management (FLM), a strategy grounded in circular economy principles. This study quantifies the mitigation potential of FLM in China from 2025 to 2060, employing a tailored emission modeling framework and country-specific cost analysis.

Myopic versus perfect foresight target setting for Indonesia's net zero electricity transition.

In the effort to align with Paris goals, decision-makers set targets that usually concern milestones earlier than 2100. These targets can be derived from different considerations of long-term implications of actions. This study investigates the implications of deciding on emissions targets based on myopic vis-à-vis perfect foresight using long-term energy system optimization model.

Scientific literature on carbon dioxide removal revealed as much larger through AI-enhanced systematic mapping.

Carbon dioxide removal plays an important role in any strategy to limit global warming to well below 2 °C. Keeping abreast with the scientific evidence using rigorous evidence synthesis methods is an important prerequisite for sustainably scaling these methods. Here, we use artificial intelligence to provide a comprehensive systematic map of carbon dioxide removal research.

Forest loss and uncertain economic gains from industrial and garimpo mining in Brazilian municipalities.

Environmental and social risks in mining regions often juxtapose promises of local economic growth. Brazil, a major global mineral supplier and conservation leader, has pursued resource-led development despite mining's threat to its forests. Yet, the efficacy of this development strategy is uncertain.

The role of green credit in energy resilience: A quasi-natural experiment from China.

Green credit policy is an important practice of financial regulation, and its possible effect on energy resilience cannot be ignored. This article adopts theoretical derivation and empirical strategies to study the effect and mechanism of green credit on energy resilience. The promulgation of "green credit guidelines" is used as a quasinatural experiment, and the findings indicate that green credit can significantly improve energy resilience.

Targeting climate finance for global forests.

Comprehensive data on costs of mitigation are needed to guide the scale and distribution of climate finance to sectors and regions where it will be most cost effective. We estimate the finance required to meet regional forest-based mitigation targets, aggregated from Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Regions accounting for 70% of global forest carbon can meet their forest-based NDCs with carbon prices below $100/tonne CO.

A global dataset of public agricultural R&D investment: 1960-2022.

Investment in public agricultural R&D is a key driver of agricultural productivity, which is regarded as one of the major solutions to enhance global food security, reduce the environmental impact of agricultural production and enhance crop resilience to climate change. Detailed information on public agricultural R&D investment is required to inform national science and technology policies that aim to improve the performance of the agricultural sector and monitor whether countries are on track to reach (inter)national targets. Due to the long lead-time, it requires exceptionally long time-series to assess the impact of public agricultural R&D spending on present and future agricultural productivity.

The importance of distinguishing between natural and managed tree cover gains in the moist tropics.

Naturally regenerated forests and managed tree systems provide different levels of carbon, biodiversity, and livelihood benefits. Here, we show that tree cover gains in the moist tropics during 1982-2015 were 56% ± 3% naturally regenerated forests and 27% ± 2.6% managed tree systems, with these differences in forest type, not only natural conditions (climate, soil, and topography), driving observed carbon recovery rates.

Global land cover maps do not reveal mining pressures to biodiversity.

Global land cover maps are key inputs into the biodiversity metrics used by the private sector to align their performance with conservation goals and targets. These maps utilize classification systems depicting combinations of 'natural' (vegetation, water bodies) and 'anthropogenic' (agriculture and built-up land) cover types, but often miss intensive pressures on biodiversity, such as mining. Here, we reveal that more than half (56-77%) the global land area disturbed by mining is classified by land cover maps as 'natural', suggesting metrics based on these maps likely overestimate the current state of biodiversity and underestimate opportunities to improve it.

Climate change and health: the next challenge of ethical AI.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the world's most resource-intensive digital technologies, but the environmental impact of AI on health remains largely unaddressed in both global health and bioethics. Effects on the environment have, thus far, been understood as a subsidiary consideration in AI ethics and rarely considered as a key ethical concern. AI technologies exacerbate climate change and sociopolitical instability due to their intensive use of natural resources and energy resources linked to the training and deployment of algorithmic systems.

Human-induced carbon stress power upon earth: integrated data set, rheological findings and consequences.

In this study we take the position of an outer-space observer to understand Earth's planetary carbon-climate response to stress from a rheological perspective; with stress upon the Earth atmosphere-land and ocean system given by the uninterrupted increase in cumulative CO emissions caused by humankind between 1850 and 2021. This perspective complements the global carbon mass balance perspective applied by the carbon community. It gives reason to suspect that Earth is in an even worse environmental condition than commonly believed.

Regional variations in the impacts of high temperature on hospital admissions in Brazil.

Background: High temperatures driven by climate change significantly threaten global health. Their impact on health systems, particularly within low- and middle-income countries, remains underexplored.

Methods: Daily non-elective hospital admissions were collected from the Brazil Hospital Information System for 5,459 (98%) Brazilian municipalities, 2008-2019.

Universal health coverage in the context of migration and displacement: a cosmopolitan perspective.

Migration and displacement are reshaping societies and economies with profound implications for health equity and universal health coverage (UHC). In this Viewpoint, we review the unique health challenges faced by migrants and displaced people, as well as the limitations of current UHC policies and financing arrangements. We propose a cosmopolitan approach to UHC, grounded in global solidarity and structured around four pillars: supranational financing, integrated cross-border care, harmonised legal frameworks, and long-term investment in inclusive health systems.

Family-work history and inequalities in old-age cognition in China.

Prior work showed that an individual's history of partnership, fertility, or employment was separately linked to old-age cognition, but little is known about how family-work history influences later-life cognition, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Our sample comprised respondents aged 50 and above in 2014 interviewed in regular (2011, 2013, 2015, 2018, and 2020) and life-history (2014) waves of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS, n = 8,535). After conducting sequence analysis and identifying six statistically justifiable and context-attuned family-work trajectories, we investigated how Chinese older adults' family-work history (age 18-50) related to their cognition measured by immediate word recall (0-10) and mental status scores (0-11) cross-sectionally (pairwise comparison) and longitudinally (linear mixed-effects models).