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Policies and subsidies can help, and have helped, to establish the electric vehicle market. As subsidies are withdrawn and policies shift, the public will play a role in the future market infiltration.

Hydrological sensitivity describes how much precipitation changes for a given warming. Here, the authors show that the hydrological sensitivity differs between the three tropical ocean basins, which influences land rainfall changes across the tropical and mid-latitude regions.

Meteorites recovered from Antarctica provide a bounty of materials from asteroids and planets and revolutionized the field of meteoritics. Warming temperatures in Antarctica may lead to the loss of a significant fraction of meteorites exposed at the surface and thus threaten the impact Antarctic meteorites have on planetary science.

Most of the meteorites on the Earth’s surface are found in Antarctica. Here the authors show that ~5,000 meteorites become inaccessible per year as they melt into the ice due to climate change.

Following a groundswell of voluntary net-zero targets by companies, regulators are increasingly introducing mandatory rules. If governments can overcome the barriers to rigour, coherence and fairness, such mandatory ‘ground rules’ have the potential to overcome the obstructionism that holds back a just climate transition.

The authors use resurrected strains of a diatom species to compare temperature optima, cell size and gene expression across 60 years. Modern samples have a 1 °C higher temperature optima and probably support increased nutrient uptake, highlighting the adaptation potential of diatoms to global change.

Many cities are developing plans and strategies to achieve net-zero emissions and combat climate change. However, the operational value of residual emissions remains unknown, thus challenging the integrity, transparency and impact of such pledges.

Current model-based financial regulations favour carbon-intensive investments. This is likely to disincentivize banks from investing in new low-carbon assets, impairing the transition to net zero. Financial regulators and policymakers should consider how this bias may impact financial system stability and broader societal objectives.

Using a global meta-analysis approach, the authors show that elevated CO₂ alone can increase primary productivity and leaf C/N ratio and stimulate nitrogen fixation and nitrogen use efficiency. They project increasing carbon sink and decreasing reactive nitrogen loss under climate change.

As the financial system is increasingly important in catalysing the green transition, it is critical to assess the impediments it may face. This study shows that existing financial regulations may impair the shift of financial resources from high-carbon to low-carbon assets.

Rapid population ageing is challenging for climate adaptation. Considering ageing demographics and green infrastructure development in 26,885 Southeast Asian communities, the authors find a reduction in green space in ageing communities, especially in socio-economically disadvantaged areas, with implications for vulnerability.

The worldwide trend of decreasing corporate tax in recent years has contributed to an increase in global carbon emissions, but implementing a global minimum tax rate of 15% could partially mitigate this impact. Policymakers should coordinate corporate tax policies with climate regulations.

Countries use corporate tax cuts to attract foreign investment, which reshapes patterns of global production. This research shows that such competition will lead to higher carbon emissions and shift them to developing countries, while a global minimum tax could help alleviate these problems.

Global climate change will continue to reconfigure water resources and lead to more extreme events. Water markets may provide a low-cost adaptation tool. This Perspective discusses the opportunities and challenges for surface and groundwater markets to manage water resources.

The ocean stores about 30% of the carbon emitted by human activities, regulating atmospheric CO₂ levels and the Earth’s climate. Research suggests that this uptake of CO₂ has strengthened much faster in coastal ocean waters than in the open ocean due to enhanced biological activity.