Successful communication of climate change needs to be tangible, relevant and tailored to its audience, according to new research. The study established 10 key principles for effective communication using a brainstorming exercise between scientists and local government.

Species will have to shift their range much faster in some areas of the world than others to keep pace with climate change, according to new research. Those that live in certain areas, such as mangroves, tropical basins and deserts, may not be able to move fast enough over the next 100 years to survive.

Maintaining and restoring the world's drylands or arid zones could provide a win-win option for addressing climate change, according to new research. Drylands not only store large amounts of carbon, but improving how they are managed could reduce the vulnerability of ecosystems and humans.

Phrases that combine 'carbon' with other words, such as 'carbon finance' or 'carbon footprint', can provide insight into how climate change issues are communicated. A new study explored online use of these so-called 'carbon compounds' and indicated that they form three clusters focused on finance, lifestyle and attitudes.

Climate change could cause increasing but unpredictable hazard risks in mountainous regions, according to a new study. The study analyses the effects of two extreme weather events - the 2003 heatwave and the 2005 flood - on the Eastern European Alps to demonstrate how similar events, predicted to become more frequent under a changing climate, could have an impact on Alpine regions.

Continuing economic development and public health measures are likely to outweigh the impact of climate change on malaria prevalence, according to new research. The research found that the prevalence of malaria has declined over the past century despite rising temperatures.

Communication about climate change could benefit from reframing it as a public health issue, according to new research. A health perspective could make climate change more relevant and understandable to the public, whilst information about the health benefits of mitigation policy could provide a positive vision for the future.

A review of the European Climate Change Programme has concluded that the initiative has successfully identified cost-efficient policy measures to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, allowed consensus-building among key stakeholders, and positioned the European Union as a leader in climate change actions.

The impact of climate change on electricity consumption is important to both adaptation and mitigation policies. New research has estimated that over the next 100 years climate change could cause up to a 20 per cent decrease in demand for electricity for heating in Northern Europe and up to a 20 per cent increase in demand for electricity for cooling in Southern Europe.

By 2080, parts of Germany could be susceptible to the spread of malaria for up to six months a year, according to new research. The study mapped areas at risk of an outbreak, considering predicted climate change-driven rise in air temperature and data on the spread of malaria.

The threat of possible death from climate change may paradoxically reduce our motivation to protect the environment, according to a new psychology study conducted in Germany. However, this negative impact on the environment could be reduced if people’s environmental motivations stemmed from a desire to benefit humans rather than a desire to protect nature itself.

A recent study has assessed the sustainability of different nuclear cycle scenarios in Europe, and suggests trade-offs are required between reducing the amount of uranium fuel needed, costs and proliferation risks.

Higher atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and temperatures under climate change are likely to increase the rate of corrosive damage in reinforced concrete structures, according to a recent study. This could result in costly repairs in the future, unless structures are suitably adapted.

Policy efforts have focused on modifying individual behaviour as one strategy to address climate change. However, this has been met with limited success and a new UK study suggests that policies to encourage behaviour change need to operate on multiple levels and that there is a need for greater co-ordination between individuals, governments, businesses and communities.

Satellite data from the Torres Islands in the southwest Pacific suggest that rising sea-levels in the region widely attributed to climate change is also partly caused by sinking of the islands following earthquakes in the 1990s, according to recent research.

Extreme events, such as droughts and prolonged dry spells, under climate change could increase the water repellency of soils, according to a recent study. In the long-term, this could reduce the capacity of soils to sequester carbon.

A recent study has projected changes in the spread of malaria caused by climate change and climate variability in Africa by including the effect of variations in land use on local climate. It concludes that the risk of malaria epidemics is likely to shift from the north to the south of the Sahel, and to highland areas previously free of the disease.

Concerns about the negative impacts of ‘sunshade’ geoengineering on global food security are not supported by a recent modelling study, the first to simulate yield changes in a geoengineered climate. However, to mitigate climate change, the researchers suggest actions to reduce CO2 emissions are safer than introducing geoengineering projects, partly because some regions may actually suffer reduced crop yield in a geoengineered climate.

Coral reef formation is already decreasing worldwide. A new study predicts that formation will drop to 60% of its natural rate if anthropogenic CO2 emissions continue to rise over the next century and keep acidifying the oceans.

The rapid decline of Arctic sea ice has had dramatic effects on seals, polar bears, whales and other marine mammals. Changes in distribution, body condition, reproduction and abundance are all consequences of reduced sea ice that may escalate over the coming decade, according to a recent analysis.

Researchers have demonstrated that hatching in polar cod can begin as early as January in Arctic seas that receive large freshwater input, compared to April-July in seas with little freshwater input. Since early hatching leads to higher survival rates, the effects of climate change may enhance polar cod’s survival by favouring conditions that allow winter hatching to occur.

For thousands of years, vast amounts of methane – a potent greenhouse gas – have been stored in frozen deposits on land and under the ocean in the Arctic. A new study has found that rapidly rising temperatures are accelerating the release of methane by thawing subsea ‘permafrost’, releasing nearly 8 million tonnes into the atmosphere each year and potentially increasing global warming.

The Fukushima accident in Japan has sparked international debate on nuclear energy. A new study has identified five factors which may have influenced the contrasting energy policy responses to the incident in the UK and Germany. Following the disaster, the UK is continuing to back nuclear power generation, whilst Germany is withdrawing support.

Climate change will affect the spread and risk of many infectious diseases in Europe, according to a recent survey of leading health experts. The results suggest that more needs to be done to prepare for the expected changes in infectious disease levels, such as improved monitoring of disease.

Adapting to climate change is essential to protecting populations against extreme weather events, but is it adequately integrated into civil protection policy? A new study has analysed the level of integration in Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands and provided broad recommendations for improvement.

Regulators should establish a process to consider the full lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of electric vehicles, according to a new US study. This would help ensure that vehicle emissions regulations are placed on a sound scientific basis, manufacturers continue to improve the efficiency of electric vehicles, and the full benefit of regulations to limit GHG emissions from vehicles are realised, say the researchers.

Long-term urban planning is needed to adapt the urban environment and make it more resilient to climate change, according to a new European Environment Agency (EEA) report that aims to support urban policy development and decision making.

A recent study has explored how national regulations and culture, company size and experience with weather incidents have influenced adaptation to climate change in electricity distribution companies in Norway and Sweden. Smaller companies in a strongly regulated environment, with less experience of extreme weather events, find it more difficult to pursue climate change adaption results,

Grasses growing at the bottom of our oceans lock away large quantities of ‘blue carbon’, according to a new study. The results suggest that the soil that seagrass grows on is capable of storing more carbon than soils on land and as a result of the current global decline in seagrass, vast stores of carbon may be being released into the ocean and atmosphere.

How does climate change cause extinction? An extensive analysis of the available evidence has explored this question and concluded that climate change’s effects on the interactions between species is likely to be the main reason for local extinctions. For example, climate change may lead to the loss of prey for predators.

Shifts in species’ ranges are expected under climate change, as organisms move to find suitable conditions. New research in the Mediterranean Sea has found that the way species interact could also have a significant effect on their resilience in a changing climate.

A new study assesses the potential impacts of climate change on human health in the Netherlands. The researchers conducted a survey, asking health experts to rate the level of uncertainty attached to different health impacts of climate change, which highlighted heat-related deaths and vector-borne diseases as particularly relevant to climate change adaptation.

The impact of climate change on the distribution of tree species is likely to have economic implications for the timber industry. A new study has estimated that climate-induced shifts in range could reduce the value of European forest land for the timber industry by between 14 and 50% by 2100. At the higher end of this estimate, this could equate to a potential loss of several hundred billions of euros.

The social, political, technological and geophysical factors that affect the control of climate change have been assessed in a recent study. The results suggest that political factors, in terms of delaying the implementation of mitigation strategies, have the biggest effect on limiting global warming to below 2C.

New ecosystem-based solutions which provide flexible resilience to coastal flooding, rather than rigid defences, are needed in the face of global environmental change. A recent study examines a new coastal protection scheme in the Netherlands which reduces ecosystem damage whilst offering resilient defence against flooding. Using this case study, the researchers present a framework for evaluating climate change adaptation measures called ‘Building with Nature’.

The growing use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) services is producing an increasing amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. New research has proposed a network model spanning Europe, USA and Canada that uses ‘cloud computing’ to supply renewable energy to IT data centres.

Climate change may increase the risk of outbreaks of infectious diseases, such as salmonella or tick-borne encephalitis. A new study has outlined five main steps in assessing policies to ensure that they can respond effectively to this challenge and highlights the importance of involving stakeholders at every stage of policy assessment.

Researchers have used a new comprehensive life cycle approach to estimate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from road construction. When applied to four projects in Spain, the results suggest improvements could be made in the use and efficiency of off-road machinery, the choice of materials and restoration of ecosystems.

Warming of coastal areas due to climate change is already having an important impact on fishing catches in the North Atlantic, according to a new study. The study also suggests that rising levels of nitrogen pollution, due to run-off from farming and sewage disposal, will pose a serious threat to fisheries in the near future if left unchecked.

Harmful algal blooms may become more common in north western European waters as a result of climate change, according to a new study. The researchers predicted that by the end of this century blooms of two groups of algal species will occur over larger areas and for longer periods every year.

The greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions produced during the decommissioning phase of nuclear power plants may have been underestimated in previous assessments, new research suggests. The study estimated that the decommissioning process for a German plant resulted in 1 651 265 tonnes of CO₂ (or equivalent) emissions, or 0.825 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per tonne of waste. While the researchers acknowledge that impact is highly dependent on the unique characteristics of each decommissioning project, these results raise questions as to whether this phase has been accurately assessed in earlier research.

New areas of land suitable for agriculture will open up under climate change’s effects, new research predicts, particularly in far northern regions of the world. However, the overall quality of land for farming will decline and many regions, including Europe, could lose large areas of suitable land.

Marine biodiversity conservation in the north-east Atlantic needs a combination of more adaptable management strategies and international co-operation, a new study says. This is required to deal with a potential increase in marine conservation hotspots under climate change.

Native soils are thought to take up more of the greenhouse gas methane than land used for farming. This study shows that, while agriculture can exert an adverse impact on soil methane uptake, the application of soil conditioners like compost may compensate for loss of the methane sink function. The researchers propose new land management strategies based on this finding

Restaurants can influence consumer food choices by offering climate-friendly meals on their menus, a recent study concludes. In a trial at Finnish restaurants, customers and staff were receptive to selecting meals based on the carbon footprints of their ingredients. Appearance, taste and healthiness were priority factors in consumers’ choices. The research highlights the importance of planning communication strategies and the need for a carbon footprint food database.

Soil and plants store around 5% of the world’s carbon, but carbon storage in some soils is in decline. Recent research has found that climate change accounted for 9–22% of carbon declines in organic soils in semi-natural habitats throughout England and Wales from 1978–2003. The researchers say monitoring soils rich in carbon should be a priority to ensure that more carbon is not released to reinforce climate change.

Glaciers are sensitive indicators of climate change. This study focused on hanging glaciers in the French Alps, where warming is increasing the risk of glaciers collapsing. The authors applied a state-of-the-art numerical model to a particularly hazardous glacier in Mont Blanc to simulate how it will respond to climate change. The results suggest the glacier may become unstable in the current century, posing a risk to the inhabitants of the valley below.

Modern technologies have provided new ways for communities to engage with climate change. This study investigated the role of Internet-based tools in disseminating the findings of a climate change research project in Canada and provides insights on how best to use the Internet to communicate the outcomes of scientific research.

Messages that focus on the local impacts of climate change are among the most effective at reaching people who are generally dismissive of climate science, according a recent survey of Australian residents. The questionnaire asked participants about their attitudes and beliefs about climate change. Participants were shown a range of messages related to climate change adaptation, and then asked how much each message motivated them to take action. Presentations that contained local impacts, specific advice and negative emotive content were found to be the most effective.

Floods are devastating natural hazards, which can cause loss of life and substantial damage to buildings and other infrastructure. Assessing future flood risk is complicated by the influence of climate change, land-use change and economic development in an area. A study on an Alpine valley suggests that land- use change and urbanisation will affect future flood risk by 2030 more than climate change, but risks can be reduced by adopting low-cost adaptation strategies, such as building restrictions in flood-prone areas and residents taking their own precautions against flooding.