{"title":"Social influence shapes climate attitudes and action","authors":"Sam Hampton, Briony Latter, Lorraine Whitmarsh","doi":"10.1038/s41558-026-02711-z","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41558-026-02711-z","url":null,"abstract":"Social influence, which refers to how individuals and groups shape others’ attitudes and actions, plays a central role in encouraging climate-related behaviours. Here we synthesize insights from climate communication, social psychology and behavioural science to organize current evidence on how influence operates in the context of climate action. We structure this synthesis around four interacting dimensions: who is influencing, where influence is directed, how it occurs and which behaviours are targeted. Across these dimensions, we highlight strengths and gaps in the evidence, including the roles of different actors, modes of influence, and audience characteristics. We identify key priorities for future research, particularly the need to better understand how these elements interact in real-world contexts to support sustained climate action. Individuals and groups shape others’ attitudes and actions through social influence. This Perspective articulates a research agenda of social influence for climate action, synthesizes existing evidence and highlights its practical relevance for designing effective behavioural interventions.","PeriodicalId":18974,"journal":{"name":"Nature Climate Change","volume":"16 8","pages":"889-896"},"PeriodicalIF":26.9,"publicationDate":"2026-08-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148667578","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Local stories in climate change communication","authors":"Danyang Cheng","doi":"10.1038/s41558-026-02694-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41558-026-02694-x","url":null,"abstract":"Climate change communication differs across regions, shaped by unique political, economic, social and environmental conditions. These influence how climate messages are framed, received and acted upon by the local public. To explore this diversity, Nature Climate Change spoke to globally distributed scholars for their perspectives on the communication patterns, challenges and priorities in their regions.","PeriodicalId":18974,"journal":{"name":"Nature Climate Change","volume":"16 8","pages":"872-876"},"PeriodicalIF":26.9,"publicationDate":"2026-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148667568","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Local stories in climate change communication","authors":"Danyang Cheng","doi":"10.1038/s41558-026-02694-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41558-026-02694-x","url":null,"abstract":"Climate change communication differs across regions, shaped by unique political, economic, social and environmental conditions. These influence how climate messages are framed, received and acted upon by the local public. To explore this diversity, Nature Climate Change spoke to globally distributed scholars for their perspectives on the communication patterns, challenges and priorities in their regions.","PeriodicalId":18974,"journal":{"name":"Nature Climate Change","volume":"16 8","pages":"872-876"},"PeriodicalIF":26.9,"publicationDate":"2026-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148667563","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Connected cities build mobility resilience","authors":"Wei Zhai","doi":"10.1038/s41558-026-02722-w","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41558-026-02722-w","url":null,"abstract":"Traditional resilience planning for extreme weather focuses on reinforcing municipal boundaries and internal infrastructure. Now, a study demonstrates how a city’s socioeconomic and physical ties to external urban networks act as a critical catalyst for intra-city mobility resilience under extreme rainfall.","PeriodicalId":18974,"journal":{"name":"Nature Climate Change","volume":"16 9","pages":"1012-1013"},"PeriodicalIF":26.9,"publicationDate":"2026-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148872207","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ruochen Cao, Yongguang Zhang, Alessandro Cescatti, Philippe Ciais, Jordi Sardans, Chaoyang Wu, Constantin M. Zohner, Marcos Fernández-Martínez, Adrià Descals, Josep Peñuelas
{"title":"Tree species richness relates to long-term forest photosynthesis increase","authors":"Ruochen Cao, Yongguang Zhang, Alessandro Cescatti, Philippe Ciais, Jordi Sardans, Chaoyang Wu, Constantin M. Zohner, Marcos Fernández-Martínez, Adrià Descals, Josep Peñuelas","doi":"10.1038/s41558-026-02698-7","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41558-026-02698-7","url":null,"abstract":"The widespread increase in vegetation productivity plays an important role in enhancing ecosystem carbon uptake. While it is well established that biodiversity increases ecosystem productivity, its influence on long-term changes in photosynthesis remains unclear. Here we integrate a high-resolution map of tree species richness with satellite-derived photosynthesis proxies during 2001–2020 to show that high richness not only enhances current levels of photosynthesis but also correlates with a greater increase in photosynthesis over time. This pattern is largely driven by an amplified CO2 fertilization effect (CFE) in species-rich forests. The ability of diverse forests to mitigate water and nutrient limitations probably contributes to the CFE enhancement and photosynthesis rise. Projections suggest that biodiversity losses by 2050 could reduce photosynthesis trends by 3–17%, representing a cumulative forest photosynthesis loss of 4.4–35.7 PgC. These findings underscore the critical need to integrate biodiversity conservation into climate mitigation strategies to safeguard the terrestrial carbon sink. The authors integrate tree species richness with satellite-derived photosynthesis proxies to show that richness correlates with greater current levels of photosynthesis and greater increases over time. Projected biodiversity loss by 2050 could lead to cumulative forest photosynthesis loss of 4.4–35.7 PgC.","PeriodicalId":18974,"journal":{"name":"Nature Climate Change","volume":"16 8","pages":"980-988"},"PeriodicalIF":26.9,"publicationDate":"2026-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148612646","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
S. M. Stuenzi, G. Grosse, F. Miesner, S. Westermann, M. Langer
{"title":"Canopy-mediated climate feedbacks in the boreal continuous permafrost zone","authors":"S. M. Stuenzi, G. Grosse, F. Miesner, S. Westermann, M. Langer","doi":"10.1038/s41558-026-02692-z","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41558-026-02692-z","url":null,"abstract":"Boreal forests, covering approximately a quarter of the continuous permafrost zone, store relatively modest aboveground carbon, but thermally protect vast soil organic carbon (SOC) pools. Here, using a process-based model to compare seasonal thaw depths under forested and bare-ground scenarios, we quantify distinct canopy thermal insulation capacities of deciduous needleleaf, evergreen needleleaf and deciduous broadleaf canopies on permafrost thermal dynamics. Canopy buffering maintains approximately 59 Pg of carbon in a frozen state, which equals 32% of the total forested permafrost carbon pool and far exceeds boreal biomass stocks (7–19 Pg). Canopy changes could mobilize this frozen SOC through gradual thaw (40 Pg) and rapid thermokarst collapse (19 Pg). While forest loss sacrifices biomass carbon stocks, resulting thaw would expose orders of magnitude more SOC from previously frozen reservoirs, revealing a critical asymmetry. Forest conservation strategies in continuous permafrost zones must account for canopy-mediated thermal protection of frozen SOC, which far exceeds its biomass carbon sequestration capacity. Soil carbon stocks are greater than biomass carbon in boreal forests. This study shows that tree canopies thermally protect more carbon in permafrost from thaw than is stored in biomass, highlighting the need to consider carbon impacts of forest disturbance and conservation on an ecosystem scale.","PeriodicalId":18974,"journal":{"name":"Nature Climate Change","volume":"16 8","pages":"971-979"},"PeriodicalIF":26.9,"publicationDate":"2026-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-026-02692-z.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148612645","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Multi-century cooling after net-zero greenhouse gas emissions","authors":"Nathaniel Tarshish, Nadir Jeevanjee, Inez Fung","doi":"10.1038/s41558-026-02700-2","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41558-026-02700-2","url":null,"abstract":"Reaching net-zero CO2 emissions is expected to halt warming, yet whether temperatures remain stable in the centuries after net-zero is poorly constrained. Models exhibit diverse long-term responses to the cessation of CO2, including additional multi-century warming. Here we analytically predict this post-cessation temperature change, known as the zero emissions commitment (ZEC), from three climate metrics: the airborne fraction of cumulative CO2 emissions, transient climate response and equilibrium climate sensitivity. Constraining these metrics implies a near-zero multi-century ZEC from historical CO2 emissions. Net-zero GHG policies, however, differ from idealized CO2 cessation by targeting the aggregate effect of multiple GHGs and relying on CO2 removal to offset residual emissions. To capture these policy-relevant effects, we introduce the net-zero emissions commitment (Net-ZEC). Across scenarios and offsetting conventions, Net-ZEC implies a multi-century cooling of at least 0.6 °C following net-zero GHG emissions. How global temperatures change after net-zero emissions are reached is highly uncertain. Here the authors constrain this response and find that net-zero GHG emissions lead to multi-century cooling of at least 0.6 °C.","PeriodicalId":18974,"journal":{"name":"Nature Climate Change","volume":"16 8","pages":"941-946"},"PeriodicalIF":26.9,"publicationDate":"2026-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148587382","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Less than net zero needed to stabilize climate","authors":"Andrew H. MacDougall","doi":"10.1038/s41558-026-02708-8","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41558-026-02708-8","url":null,"abstract":"Global temperature change over long times after cessation of greenhouse gas emissions is not well constrained. Now, research shows a consistent global cooling, especially if negative CO2 emissions compensate for continued CH4 and N2O emissions.","PeriodicalId":18974,"journal":{"name":"Nature Climate Change","volume":"16 8","pages":"881-882"},"PeriodicalIF":26.9,"publicationDate":"2026-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148667559","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Tracking the status of global evidence","authors":"Katharine Vincent","doi":"10.1038/s41558-026-02720-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41558-026-02720-y","url":null,"abstract":"Assessing the status of adaptation is important to target support and determine priority gaps. Here I look back on an influential 2021 study that reported a systematic review of evidence of implemented human adaptation and consider how this underscored the imperative for greater policy action and spawned methodological advancements in how to track adaptation progress.","PeriodicalId":18974,"journal":{"name":"Nature Climate Change","volume":"16 9","pages":"1014-1015"},"PeriodicalIF":26.9,"publicationDate":"2026-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148872208","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Less than net zero needed to stabilize climate","authors":"Andrew H. MacDougall","doi":"10.1038/s41558-026-02708-8","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41558-026-02708-8","url":null,"abstract":"Global temperature change over long times after cessation of greenhouse gas emissions is not well constrained. Now, research shows a consistent global cooling, especially if negative CO2 emissions compensate for continued CH4 and N2O emissions.","PeriodicalId":18974,"journal":{"name":"Nature Climate Change","volume":"16 8","pages":"881-882"},"PeriodicalIF":26.9,"publicationDate":"2026-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148667581","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}