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For science-based decision-making on the climate emergency: 10 new insights in climate science
Each year, Future Earth, the Earth League and the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) invite leading scientists from around the world to review the most pressing findings in climate change-related research. Summarized into 10 concise insights, the result has always been a rich and valuable synthesis for policy and society at large.
The latest 10 New Insights in Climate Science report reveals critical climate challenges, highlighting how rising temperatures are raising the risk of ecosystem collapse and threatening maternal and reproductive well-being. Launched today by a global consortium of scientists, this annual report synthesizes key findings from the past 18 months, aiming to inform policy decisions at COP29 and beyond.
It warns of severe climate impacts, including the risk of the Amazon reaching a tipping point, the growing threat of extreme El Niño events, and increased vulnerability of critical infrastructure. Alongside these warnings, however, it offers clear pathways for action by identifying ways to reduce methane emissions, emphasizing the importance of integrating nature-based solutions to strengthen ecosystem resilience, and underlining the potential of Artificial Intelligence tools to enhance infrastructure resilience.
“This year’s report provides crucial scientific insights to underpin commitments by world leaders at COP29 to significantly step up their ambition. It’s only by reducing greenhouse gas emissions that we can reduce further risks and costs to societies and ecosystems.”
Wendy Broadgate, Global Hub Director at Future Earth.
The 10 New Insights in Climate Science is a collaboration between Future Earth, the Earth League, and the World Climate Research Programme, involving more than 80 researchers from 45 countries.
As world leaders prepare for COP29, the report calls for ambitious and equitable climate policies that address these escalating risks. It emphasizes the need for policies to be perceived as fair by the public to ensure their success and warns against the resistance that can arise from policies viewed as unjust.
10 New Insights in Climate Science 2024/2025
Each year, Future Earth, the Earth League and the WCRP invite leading scientists from around the world to review the most pressing findings in climate change-related research. Summarized into 10 concise insights, the result has always been a rich and valuable synthesis for policy and society at large.
Methane levels are surging. Enforceable policies for emission reductions are essential. Methane levels have surged since 2006, driven primarily by human activities. We have enough information about our methane emissions to take action, but more enforceable policies to drive reductions are vital. While reductions in the fossil fuel and waste sectors are most feasible, addressing agricultural emissions is also critical. Climate warming is increasing natural methane emissions, making rapid cuts to human-caused emissions more urgent.
Reductions in air pollution have implications for mitigation and adaptation given complex aerosol-climate interactions. Reductions in air pollution have greatly improved public health, but simultaneously have revealed the full extent of warming caused by historical greenhouse gas emissions, and have additional regional implications on rainfall and extreme events. Mitigation and adaptation strategies cannot afford to ignore aerosol climate interactions.
Increasing heat is making more of the planet uninhabitable. Rising heat and humidity are pushing more people outside of habitable climatic conditions, with over 600 million already affected and many more at risk as warming continues. Heat action plans, early warning systems, and targeted measures for vulnerable groups are a priority for adaptation in the most affected regions.
Climate extremes are harming maternal and reproductive well-being. Climate change is increasing risks for pregnant women, unborn children and infants, threatening decades of progress in maternal and reproductive health (MRH). These impacts are exacerbated in contexts with high levels of poverty and entrenched gender norms. Effective interventions should be integrated with broader efforts to advance gender equity and climate justice.
Concerns about El Niño-Southern Oscillation and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation with an increasingly warm ocean. Unprecedented ocean warming since 2023 has heightened concerns about large-scale ocean and atmosphere interactions. New research highlights the risk of more extreme and costly El Niño events under climate change, and even the threat to the stability of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, with far-reaching implications for climate and societies.
Biocultural diversity can bolster the Amazon’s resilience against climate change. The Amazon faces growing threats from climate change and deforestation, pushing the rainforest closer to critical thresholds and increasing the risk of large-scale collapse. Regional and local actions to safeguard ecological and biocultural diversity can strengthen the forest’s resilience to climate change. However, these efforts will be insufficient to safeguard the Amazon unless global emissions rapidly decline.
Critical infrastructure is increasingly exposed to climate hazards, with risk of cascading disruption across interconnected networks. Critical infrastructure underpinning the functioning of all societies is increasingly vulnerable to more frequent and intense climate hazards, with interconnected systems posing a risk of cascade effects. Artificial intelligence (AI) tools can enhance the resilience of critical infrastructure to climate change.
New frameworks for climate-resilient development in cities provide decision-makers with ideas for unlocking co-benefits. Few cities have effectively integrated mitigation and adaptation strategies in their climate action plans. A social-ecological-technological systems (SETS) approach can help guide climate-resilient development by maximizing co-benefits and minimizing trade-offs through strategies tailored to the unique contexts of each city.
Public’s acceptance of (or resistance to) climate policies crucially depends on perceptions of fairness. Perceived fairness is a key determinant for public acceptance of climate policies. Ignoring citizens’ concerns undermines the effectiveness of climate action and fuels resistance. Participatory decision-making and clearly communicated revenue-use plans can help navigate the structural socio-economic factors that generate resistance to climate policies.
Closing governance gaps in the energy transition minerals global value chain is crucial for a just and equitable energy transition. As demand for energy transition minerals (ETMs) grows, supply chain risks, geopolitical tensions, and socio-environmental impacts concentrated in the Global South are expected to intensify. A just transition that avoids greater burdens and fewer benefits for Global South countries is a major governance challenge.
Explore the full 2024-2025’s 10 New Insights in Climate Science here.
Photo by Freepik. Editorial provided by Future Earth.
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