research paper topics about climate change

310 Climate Change Essay Topics

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🏆 Best Essay Topics on Climate Change

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• The Problem of Global Warming and Ways of Its Solution
• Environmental Health Theory and Climate Change
• Climate Change Impacts
• Food Security: The Impact of Climate Change
• Climate Change in Africa and How to Address It
• Climate Change: The Impact of Technology
• Tree Planting and Climate Change
• Global Warming and Ozone Depletion The phenomena of ozone depletion and global warming are entirely different processes, they are often confused for each other due to the obvious connection between them.
• Extreme Weather and Global Warming The Global warming is a bad phenomenon that is causing to see level raise, change weather pattern, and create alteration in animal life.
• Global Warming is Not a Myth All facts points out that the ranging debate on whether global warming is a myth or reality has been squarely won by the global warming proponents.
• Effects of Global Warming: Essay Example According to environmentalists and other nature conservatives, Africa would be the worst hit continent by the effects of global warming despite emitting less greenhouse gases.
• Solving the Climate Change Crisis by Using Renewable Energy Sources Climate change has caused extreme changes in temperature and weather patterns on planet Earth, thus threatening the lives of living organisms.
• Climate Change Impacts on Oceans The consequences of climate change on seawater have had harmful impacts, including irreversible damage to the water’s natural environment and ecological system.
• Climate Change and Future Generations The consequences of global warming can be extremely dire for future generations. Temperature, if increased by one and a half degrees, will push natural systems to a turning point.
• Energy Crisis and Climate Change The global community needs to adopt an energy efficient behavior and invest in the exploration of sustainable energy resources.
• How Climate Changes Affect Coastal Areas Natural disasters and hazards caused by climate change are especially the cases during modern times, as the number of toxic substances and polluting elements is increasing every year.
• Climate Change: Concept and Theories Climate change has become a concern of scientists rather recently. There are numerous theories as to the reasons for this process, but there are still no particular answers.
• Climate Change and Global Warming Global warming is a subject that has elicited a heated debate for a long time. This debate is commonplace among scholars and policy makers.
• Al Gore’s Speech on Global Warming Using two essential constituents of a subtle rhetoric analysis for speech or text, the paper scrutinizes Al Gore’s speech on global warming.
• Climate Change and Corporate Responsibility The problem of climate change is not new, but it becomes more and more crucial nowadays. The first changes in climate were observed during the industrial period, from the 1750s.
• Global Warming Effects on the Environment and Animals Global warming is a threat to the survival and well-being of human and animal life. This discussion aims to provide the effects of the current global warming threats.
• How Global Warming Affects Wildlife Global warming is a matter of great concern since it affects humans and wildlife directly, and this issue should be addressed appropriately.
• Social Issue: Climate Change The topic of climate change was chosen to learn more in the modern sense about the phenomenon that most people have heard about for decades.
• Climate Changes Impact on Agriculture and Livestock The project evaluates the influences of climate changes on agriculture and livestock in different areas in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
• Climate Change in Terms of Project Management The primary aim of the following paper is to define the notion of climate change in terms of project management, risk management, and business communication.
• Impact of Climate Change on Property Development and Management This essay will focus on the BBC article, COP26 promises could limit global warming to 1.8C, with a specific focus on the impact of climate change on property development.
• Electric Vehicles and Their Impact on Climate Change Internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEV) that have dominated the market over the recent decades are now giving way to electric vehicles (EV) experiencing rapid growth.
• The Effect of Global Warming and the Future Global warming effects are the social and environmental changes brought-about by the increase in global temperatures.
• Fast Fashion and Its Impacts on Global Warming Fast fashion contributes to this change in weather conditions due to its improper disposal, leading to the release of emissions into the atmosphere, thus causing global warming.
• Global Warming: Myth or Reality? Global warming can be described as a progressive increase in the earth’s temperature as a result of a trap to greenhouse gases within its atmosphere.
• Water Scarcity as Effect of Climate Change Climate change is the cause of variability in the water cycle, which also reduces the predictability of water availability, demand, and quality, aggravating water scarcity.
• Security and Climate Change Climate change has been happening at an unprecedented rate over the last decade to become a major global concern.
• The Problem of Climate Change in the 21st Century Climate change is among the top threats facing the world in the 21st century, and it deserves prioritization when planning how to move the country and the globe forward.
• Climate Change: A Global Concern The phenomenon of climate change has attracted a notable amount of attention, the early 1990s being the point at which the phenomenon in question became a worldwide concern.
• Climate Change as an Ethical Issue Although global warming is a hotly debated topic, some groups claim that the issue is not as acute as it is presented.
• Global Warming and Business Ethics Business ethics is significant in promoting effective industrial activities that promote environmental conservation and reduce global warming.
• “The Basics of Climate Change” Blog The author of “The Basics of Climate Change” reveals the main concepts about the balance between the input and output of energy on Earth that directly relate to the climate.
• Napa Valley Wine Industry and Climate Change The current competitive landscape of the Napa Valley is formed from a multitude of stakeholders of varying sizes. The work studies climate change and the Napa Valley wine industry.
• Climate Change Policies and Regulation The current changes in climate patterns have attracted attention from researchers and institutions as they endeavor to formulate and implement policies.
• How Climate Change Impacts Aviation The issue of climate change and its impact on the aviation industry has been a developing story lately due to the two-way relationship between them.
• Philosophers’ Theories on Climate Change The paper demonstrates two philosophers’ theories on climate change, namely Laura Westra and Graham Long. The thoughts and ideas are evaluated by using a hypothetical situation.
• Climate Change and Global Health Climate change is among the most discussed topics in various fields, as it has overarching effects on many aspects of human life.
• Climate Change and the Media Biases This essay’s purpose is to address the media bias concerning the rising global warming and climate change, referring to news articles made by scientists and various scholars.
• The Impact of Climate Change on the United States Climate change is a serious issue faced by the United States, and it has various effects, including in the spheres of economy, animal habitat, and health of the population.
• The Controversies of Climate Change This paper discusses the issue of climate change by considering the arguments presented by both the proponents and opponents based on ethical principles and sources of moral value.
• Human Impact on the Environment Leading to Climate Change An elevated amount of greenhouse gases results in the retention of solar energy in the low levels of the atmosphere, which in turn brings to the melting of glaciers.
• Climate Change and Impact on Human Health In this paper, two academic articles that discuss the problem of climate change and its impact on human health will be reviewed.
• Solubility of Carbon Dioxide Related to Climate Change The solubility of carbon dioxide is directly related to climate change because oceans absorb excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
• The Effect of Climate Change on Weather Climate change is resulting in weather extremes that are affecting millions of people around the world in recent times.
• Investing in Climate Change vs. Space Exploration Efforts aimed at investing in climate change versus outer space exploration will be compared in this essay, and their consequences will be analyzed.
• Social Challenges of Climate Change Climate change is among the most pressing global issues, and it is not easy to find a solution that will work for everyone.
• Climate Change and Food Production Cycle In order to address the problem of climate change in relation to the overproduction of food, a more responsible attitude toward its consumption.
• The Global Impact of Climate Change Into Our Homes and Families A home is a significant part of someone’s life. That’s why it is always considered as part of basic needs. They give people a sense of belonging and security.
• The Catholic Response to the Climate Change Catholic Church joined other global climate change movements such as Action for climate change by the United Nations to champion a safer and sustainable ecosystem by 2050.
• Climate Change and Social Responsibility in the UAE The UAE is rapidly developing for several decades already, which has a positive influence on the well-being of the population.
• Discussion of Impact of Climate Change in Society Modern scholars and environmentalists acknowledge that climate change is a major challenge affecting the global society today.
• Climate Change From the Anthropological Perspective The adaptive nature of the anthropological development of humanity explains the contemporary global problems, and climate change may be assessed from the human adaptation perspective.
• Journal and Newspaper Collection on Global Warming This paper comments on Journal/ newspaper article on global warming from major newspapers and journals around the world
• Climate Change and Human Heath Climate change has been rated among the top issues which have continued to draw much concern and interest in modern study and research.
• Climate Change and Its Evidence The review of common claims about global warming made it possible to say that in spite of some skeptical opinions, it might be really happening.
• Car Emission Effects on Global Warming Car emissions are expected to aid policy makers in national governments, automobile manufacturers, fuel industry CEOs and city planners.
• Global Warming Causes and Impacts This paper endeavors to delineate the history of global warming, the causality and every potential revelation towards diminution of the impacts of global warming.
• Climate Change as a Healthcare Priority Human-caused climate change significantly impacts the ecological situation and many areas of human life, such as health care.
• Climate Change: Impact on Extreme Weather Events The article summarizes the scientific paper on the impact of climate change on extreme weather events worldwide.
• Climate Changes Effects on the North and South Pole Global climate change has led to major problems in the North and South Pole ecosystems, with many animals losing their homes and even becoming endangered.
• Climate Change and Creation of Earth Day Climate change enables communities to create environmental initiatives, industries to update their manufacturing, and politicians to influence the problem through their campaigns.
• “The Impact of Climate Change Mitigation Strategies on Animal Welfare” by Shields and Orme-Evans The paper states that for animal welfare to improve, climate change mitigation strategies should encompass systematic changes in the industry.
• How Climate Change Influenced Global Migration Migration and conflict have become the most important reasons causing researchers’ interest in climate change.
• Climate Change and Accessibility to Safe Water The paper discusses climate change’s effect on water accessibility, providing graphs on water scarcity and freshwater use and resources.
• Climate Change: Dangers and Prevention This paper explores anthropogenic and natural causes of climate change examine its potential outcomes and presents actions aimed at stabilizing the climate.
• How Climate Change Increases the Risk of Hurricanes Hurricanes generate significant financial loss particularly in areas with a high degree of development activities.
• Modern Environmental Issues: Climate Change Climate change had taken place before humans evolved, but the issue lies in the one, which is caused by direct human intervention.
• Sustainable Development: The Climate Change Issues Climate change, spurred by economic and population growth, has affected humans and natural systems in every country on every continent.
• Climate Change as a Challenge to Australia Climate change is characterised by changes in the weather conditions brought about by emissions from industries as well as emissions from agriculture.
• Global Warming and Mitigation Strategies The paper outlines causes of global warming and possible impact on human beings. There is also an evaluation of strategies applied in realization of environmental sustainability.
• Climate Change and Its Potential Impact on Agriculture and Food Supply The global food supply chain has been greatly affected by the impact of global climate change. There are, however, benefits as well as drawbacks to crop production.
• Car Emissions and Global Warming The emissions problem that is caused by the excessive use of cars is an issue that affects most of the modern world and needs to be addressed as soon as possible to prevent further adverse impact.
• Remote Sensing Applications to Climate Change Remote sensing is defined as the measurement of information and area property on the Earth’ surface by means of satellites and aircrafts.
• Carbon Markets and Climate Change Many climatological concepts predict a rise in worldwide average temperature over the succeeding few decades centered on tripling atmospheric carbon oxide levels.
• How Human Activities Cause Climate Change Scientists and various leaders globally have seriously debated the causes of climate change. This essay involves a discussion of how human activities cause climate change.
• Consequences of Global Warming Although the opinions about the causes of climate change are diverse, the effects of human activities and natural elements are similar and lead to global warming.
• Climate Change and Fall of the Western Roman Empire The authors researched the relevant literature about why the Empire failed and how climate change was connected to the decline.
• Climate Change in Environmentally Vulnerable Countries The repercussions of climate change are global in character and unprecedented in size, ranging from changing weather patterns to sea level rise.
• Climate Change and Environmental Anxiety Individuals must develop a strategy to be able to resist climate change. In addition, there is a need for a global plan to restrain the influence of global warming.
• Greenhouse Effect as a Cause of Global Warming The report serves an informative function and is designed to explore the nature of global warming through the greenhouse effect.
• Anthropogenic Influence on Climate Change Throughout History The objective of this paper is to discuss the anthropogenic influence on climate change through history and adaptations during the glaciation period.
• Web-Based Organizational Discourses: Climate Change This paper pertains to the investigation of argumentation formation within the process of interaction with organizations holding similar and opposite opinions and viewpoints.
• How Human Behavior Promotes Climate Change Uncontrolled reproduction is one of several behaviors promoting climate change. It increases the size of the population and changes its distribution.
• The Importance of Addressing Climate Change Climate change is a topical issue, and the way humanity will choose to address it will determine whether major negative consequences can be avoided.
• Global Warming and Climate Change Climate change is caused by greenhouse gas emissions resulting from human activities, mainly through the energy and transport sectors.
• Global Warming: Issue Analysis Global warming is a term commonly used to describe the consequences of man- made pollutants overloading the naturally-occurring greenhouse gases causing an increase of the average global temperature.
• Global Warming: Causes and Consequences Global warming is the result of high levels of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, and ozone) in the earth’s atmosphere.
• Health Issues Caused by Climate Change The elevation of temperature changes the weather patterns and causes intensive snowstorms, heatwaves, floods, droughts, rising sea levels, and wildfires.
• Global Warming With an Emphasis on the Arctic This paper presents the impact of global warming with a focus on the Arctic region. It also provides key solutions that can be implemented to reduce its effects.
• Multinational Corporations and Climate Change The current essay revolves around the topic of climate change and economic activities. In the essay, the author focuses on MNCs and their role in environmental conservation.
• Climate Change, Human Activities and Remedies Human beings are the worst enemies of the environment. The Kyoto Protocol and the concept of green buildings are the two major interventions to climatic change and global warming.
• The Issue of Global Climate Change and the Use of Global Ethic Modern technologies such as “the use of satellites have made it easier for scientists to analyze climate on a global scale”.
• The History of Climate Change and Global Warming Issue The paper states that the history of climate change and the solutions communities opted for are critical to tackling the current global warming issue.
• Climate Change and Global Warming Awareness If people continue to have misconceptions about global warming, climate change will negatively impact weather, food security, and biodiversity.
• The Earth Day and Climate Change Climate change remains a relevant topic despite over fifty years of efforts since the establishment of Earth Day in 1970.
• Desertification and Climate Change Desertification can be prevented by holistic and planned grazing. This transformation can lead to better outcomes in the fight against climate change.
• Climate Change: The Impact on North America As the analysis of climate change patterns reveals, the North American continent is on the verge of profound environmental changes resulting from global warming.
• Water Scarcity Due to Climate Change This paper focuses on the adverse impact that water scarcity has brought today with the view that water is the most valuable element in running critical processes.
• Climate Change Prediction for the Caribbean Climate change can be defined as the global spectacle of climate alteration described by the earth’s natural climate variations due to human activities.
• Climate Change and Carbon Dioxide Emissions Climate change is in large part caused by human action, and the continued industrial development of the world can be accredited to exacerbating the problem further than ever.
• Causes of Climate Change and Ways to Reduce It Despite the effects, investing in green energy, increasing vegetation cover, and conducting public education are some measures that can be taken to reduce climate change.
• Climate Change and Mitigation Approaches The issue of climate change may appear to be extremely controversial. The reason behind that is the fact that environmental changes have both dependence and influence on humanity.
• Environmental Issues: Problems of Climate Change The paper states that climate change poses a threat to the planet in various forms, including vital impacts on health, food, water, and air.
• Economic Model for Global Warming The adoption of various economic models is a superior strategy that appears promising and capable of guiding policymakers and nations to tackle the predicament of climate change.
• The Effect of Climate Change on the Environment The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the influence of humans’ activity on the environment has caused drastic climate change, and how climate change affects the environment.
• Global Warming, Climate Change and Ozone Depletion Global warming refers to an increase in the Earth’s average temperature that is characterized by rising global surface temperatures and the accumulation of pollutants in the atmosphere.
• The Impact of Climate Change on Inflectional Diseases This paper will examine the increasing spread of infectious diseases as one of the effects of climate change, as well as current and possible measures to overcome it.
• It’s Not My Fault: Global Warming and Moral Responsibility The work of the American professor of ethical sciences Sinnott-Armstrong approaches the phenomenon of global warming in terms of individual and collective responsibility.
• Global Warming: Causes, Factors and Effects The main factors that have been attributed to the resulting global warming are the green house gas effects, differences in the solar and also volcanoes.
• The Issue of Unstoppable Global Warming and Its Effects Drought levels shall increase if the temperatures remain high, evaporation shall increase too, mostly at summer and fall, could worsen famine, and the danger of wildfires.
• Global Warming as a Humanity’s Fault World leaders were forced to hold discussions in Kigali, Rwanda, in late 2016 to establish a deal addressing mechanisms to be adopted to curb global warming.
• Causes and Effects of Global Warming on the Environment The Global Warming is a process which points out an increase of approximate temperature in different spots of Earth. Causes and effects of global warming bear in present days an equivocal character.
• Climate Change Threats in Public Perception Diverse social, economic, ecological, and geopolitical variables that operate on multiple scales contribute to different levels of human vulnerability to climate change threats.
• The Key to Addressing Climate Change in Modern Business Globalisation, industrialisation, and rise of global corporations promoted the increased topicality of the climate change topic and its transformation into a shared problem.
• Overpopulation, Climate Change, and Security Issues This research paper examines such social and environmental issues as overpopulation, urbanization, climate change, food security, and air pollution.
• Climate Change: Nature Communications Climate change is one of the main concerns in contemporary global society. This subject is an issue of great contention, with different sides disagreeing.
• Global Warming: Understanding Causes of Event Global warming is a phenomenon characterized by the gradual increase of the temperature of the earth’s atmosphere.
• Climate Change and Its Impact on the Weather Climate change is a serious issue nowadays, considering that it is bound to affect my generation and the next ones.
• Climate Change: Impact on Lemurs Climate change and other environmental issues severely impact the lifestyle and behaviors of lemurs. High temperatures make lemurs spend more time on the ground.
• Climate Change: Causes, Dynamics, and Effects It is crucial to provide a description of the problem of the climate crisis, its causes and effects, and possible prevention measures.
• Ethical, Moral, and Christian Views on Climate Change Strategies Climate change strategies pose ethical, moral, and religious concerns that influence people to bring change and conserve the environment.
• Greenpeace’s Climate Change Article Review The article What Are the Solutions to Climate Change by Greenpeace explains the ways climate change can be resolved while using comprehensive terms and being concise.
• Worldwide Effects of Global Warming The article conveys Trenberth’s message about the far-reaching implications of global warming on climate and the urgent need for collective action to address its consequences.
• Climate Change and Health: Public Health Human activity influences the environment in various ways, from climate change acceleration to the increasing deforestation that can cause another global pandemic.
• Global Warming and Climate Change and Their Impact on Humans Climate change and global warming are significant issues with negative impacts on all aspects of human life; for example, they disrupt the food web, hurting humans and wildlife.
• Earth Day and the Climate Change Agenda This research paper examines the social significance and ecological value of Earth Day in the face of the climate change agenda.
• The Climate Change Impact on Sea Levels and Coastal Zones This paper summarizes the effects of climate change on seawater levels and subsequent effects on the coastal zones.
• Importance of Climate Change Issue Decision The situation of climate change is the central issue of the 21st century, and its solution is a turning point in history.
• Climate Change Mitigation Strategies and Animals The thesis of the article is clear and identifies two main points, which are the problem that the global discussion does not propose sufficient methods to solve the issue.
• The Climate Change: Project Topic Exploration Climate change is an environmental problem that relates to an increase in the Earth’s average surface temperature.
• Air Pollution Crisis and Climate Change in China Air pollution is a serious problem in many countries, including China. The main source of air pollutants is fumes from burning fuels in industries or vehicles.
• Analysis of Climate Change Ethical Issues Climate change is a major problem in contemporary society, evidenced by issues such as global warming that have affected and continue to wreck societal norms around the world.
• Climate Change from Different Perspectives The climate change situation has two types of responses, with one camp making deliberate efforts to minimize the impact of climate change and others ignoring the issue altogether.
• Devastating Effects of Global Warming The incapacitating consequences of a changing climate have resulted in significant distress among vulnerable populations as they face various challenges.
• The Impacts of Climate Change Mitigation Strategies on Animal Welfare The article by Shields and Orme-Evans focuses on the problem of climate change from the aspect of greenhouse emissions from farm animals and their contribution to global warming.
• Climate Change and Crop Production This paper aims to discuss how climate change affects crop production in Latin American, Central American, and Eastern African regions.
• Global Warming and Crop Production in Africa Many people are aware of the current and future negative effects of global warming. Global warming will cause severe reductions in the crop in Africa, particularly in Ethiopia.
• Solar Activity as a Cause of Climate Change Climate change is not solely the result of human activity because solar activity also impacts the Earth’s climate in a significant manner.
• Climate Change: Risks and Consequences Climate change has long been one of the global environmental challenges humanity has faced. A slow but steady rise in surface temperatures is a sustainable trend.
• Carbon Dioxide Factor in Climate Change Increasing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have a profound effect on global warming, and in turn, it affects the total temperature of the Earth.
• Climate Change: The Role of Scientific and Technological Progress This paper serves as a starting point when looking at climate change and the effects of scientific and technological progress.
• Climate Change and Modern Indigenous Treaties in Northern Canada The purpose of this paper is to answer the following question: how does climate change affect aboriginal culture, food gathering, and Canadian government policy?
• Ascertaining Scientific Truth on Climate Change Human activities impact the environment. The consequences of anthropological actions reverberate across all aspects of the Earth’s habitat.
• Climate Change Prevention Improvements This paper aims to examine the principal indicators in achieving improvements in climate change prevention and the current results of programs.
• The UN Climate Change Conference: Indigenous Concerns During the UN Climate Change Conference, it was clear that indigenous environmental defenders have a particular stake in the outcomes of climate change global negotiations.
• Climate Change: Canada’s Environment Policy The essay argues that Canada is a major contributor to climate change and its environmental policies are inadequate in resolving the environmental problems.
• Researching the Interactions between Climate Change and Plankton Communities This paper is aimed at examining the interactions between climate change and plankton communities, focusing on the abundance, distribution, and structure of the species.
• Climate Change in “The Parable of the Sower” by Butler Butler’s “The Parable of The Sower” is a post-apocalyptic knowledge literature novel that addresses climate modification and socioeconomic inequalities.
• Global Warming: “Hopeful Lessons From the Battle to Save Rainforests” The “Hopeful lessons from the battle to save rainforests” video proposes several solutions to deforestation and global warming.
• Climate Change: Factors and Future Climate change and global warming have been stressed since the early 20th century, and different environmental corps and governments have communicated several mitigation techniques.
• Global Warming Effects on Earth Global warming presents a considerable threat by having an enormous influence on humanity’s social, economic, and physical state.
• The Affect of Climate Change on the Social and Environmental Determinants of Health There is a lack of sufficient awareness in society about how climate change affects health although it significantly influences its environmental determinants.
• The Future of Coal Plants Regarding Climate Change The use of coal plants to provide energy has been at the center of the growth of many economies of the world. However, coal is associated with the emission of greenhouse gasses.
• Global Warming and Economics Discussion The article discusses that at the international level, the carbon tax is not always conducive to climate change regulation.
• Climate Change: Improving Global Health The climate of the planet is changing, and today it is impossible to deny. The temperature of air and water is increasing every decade.
• Global Warming: The Importance of Addressing the Climate Crisis The paper states that global warming has many consequences. Multiple scientific discoveries emphasize the importance of addressing the climate crisis urgently.
• Examining the Potential of Digital Earth Services in Connection to Global Warming In this work, the primary characteristics of global warming will be discussed with the implementation of digital Earth tools, examining the data from these sources.
• Climate Change Reflection in Law System The paper states that climate change in the coming decade will be crucial to achieving global goals set on the governmental and international levels.
• The Science Behind Climate Change Regardless of how strong the natural change to the climate system was, it could not have led to the temperature increase seen over the past semicentenary.
• Oil Spills and How They Are Related to Climate Change The paper states that oil spills are destructive to ecosystems. Oil spills and climate change are two deeply interrelated environmental phenomena.
• A Climate Change Emergency in the US To handle the problem of climate change effects, the US must restrict carbon emissions by enforcing policies that favor the initiatives and financing the green economy.
• Solar Energy in China and Its Influence on Climate Change The influence of solar energy on climate change has impacted production, the advancement of solar energy has impacted climate change in the geography of China.
• Natural Climate Solutions for Climate Change in China
• International Climate Change Law and National Acts
• Harmful Impact of Climate Change
• Global Warming in Relation to Human Population Size
• Climate Change, Its Causes and Implications
• Mitigating Climate Change in Massachusetts: Policy Recommendations
• Climate Change: Dealing with the Problem
• The Health Impacts of Climate Change in China
• Disasters Caused by Climate Change
• Impacts of Climate Change on Electricity Demand in China
• Tree Planting Ameliorating Climate Change
• Climate Change and Mitigation Measures in China
• Environmental Treaties in Addressing Climate Change
• Impacts of Climate Change on Agriculture and Food
• The Truth Behind Climate Change
• “Climate Change Facts and Effect on Economy” by Amadeo
• Discussing Climate Change: Randy Johnson
• The Impact of Global Climate Change on Health
• Iron Fertilization: Solving Global Warming
• How Car Emissions Affect Global Warming
• Aspects of Global Climate Change
• Carbon Emission Effects and Global Warming Laws
• Correlation of “Climate Change” and Public Health
• The Problem of Climate Change in South Florida
• Climate Change as a Public Health Issue
• Effect of Climate Change in the Future
• Religion and Politics: Pope Francis and Climate Change
• Global Warming From a Social Studies Perspective
• Climate Change: El Niño Oscillation Phenomenon (ENSO)
• Climate and Social Change in Global Warming Crisis
• Capitalism, Climate Change, and Globalization
• Impact of Climate Change on Early Societies
• Climate Change: Forecast of Possible Events
• Climate Change: The Leading Cause of Global Warming
• Climate Change: Causes and Consequences, and the Issue of Social Collapse
• Canada: The First Victim of Global Climate Change
• Climate Change Skepticism in Relation to Global Warming
• The Issue of Global Warming in the Community
• Global Warming: Do Human Activities Threaten to Change Climate?
• Global Warming: Is It Caused by Nature or Mankind?
• Controversy About Global Warming: Skepticism and Reality
• Global Warming and Other Ecology Issues
• Global Warming: Harmful Impact on the Polar Bears
• Oil and Gas Industry Response to Global Warming
• Global Warming: Causes and Solutions
• The Kyoto Protocol: First Framework for Fighting Global Warming
• Global Warming as Not a New-Fangled Issue
• The Global Warming Crisis and Ways of its Solution
• Issue of the Global Warming
• Global Warming: Solving a Social Problem
• Women’s Activism Sources Around Climate Change
• Weather and Climate Change: Physical Equations
• Ecofeminism: Women Against Climate Change
• Respiratory Diseases Caused by Climate Change
• Global Warming and Its Various Consequences
• Climate Change Factors and Impacts on Blue Crab Populations
• Global Warming Leads Climate Change
• Climate Change Impacts Florida’s Biodiversity
• The Paris Accord: Macroeconomics and Global Warming
• Climate Change and Related Issues in Canada
• Climate Change as Political Leaders’ Primary Concern
• Virtue Ethics: Altering Testimony on Global Warming
• Climate Change Initiative in Canada
• Impact of Climate Change on Intermodal Transportation
• Global Warming and Its Health Implications
• Global Warming and Its Threats: Debates
• Global Warming Challenges Solving in General Electric
• The Issue of Global Warming
• Climate Change Affecting Global Public Health
• Global Warming Problems due to Economic Growth
• Global Warming and the Free Rider Problem
• Trump Presidency: Immigration and Climate Change
• Iron Seeding Oceans: Global Warming Solution
• Biodiversity, Global Warming, Environmental Conservation
• Climate Change as a Threat to Pension Fund
• Climate Change: Changing Patterns of Malaria
• The Problem of Global Warming and Its Effects
• Global Climate Change and Health Concerns
• British Petroleum’s Risks due to Climate Changes
• Paris Agreement: Climate Change Deal
• Climate Change: Changing Patterns of Malaria Disease
• The Climate Change Problem
• Climate Change: When Nature Is in Agony
• Humans Contribution to Global Climate Change
• The Seriousness of Global Warming
• Global Warming: Car Emissions Effects
• Climate Change and International Trade
• Environmental Studies of Global Warming: Cause and Mitigation
• The United States Policy on Climate Change
• Environmental Studies: The Global Warming Holocaust
• Concept of Global Warming
• What Natural Forces Have Caused Climate Change?
• What Problems Are Involved with Establishing an International Climate Change Regime?
• What Role Has Human Activity Played in Causing Climate Change?
• What Does the World Say About Climate Change?
• What Are the Five Main Effects of Climate Change?
• What Is Climate Change and How Is It Changing?
• What Is Climate Change in Simple Words?
• How Does Climate Change Affect Human Life?
• Why Is Climate Change Important?
• How Does Climate Change Affect Society?
• What Are Some of the Signs of Climate Change?
• What Are the Impacts of Climate Change?
• What Is the Main Ways of Solving Climate Change Issue?
• What Are Some Examples of Climate Change?
• How Does Climate Change Affect Our Human Rights?
• What Can Students Do to Help Climate Change?
• How Can We Reduce the Impact of Climate Change?
• When Did Climate Change Become an Issue?
• Can Climate Change Be Stopped?
• Where Is Climate Change the Worst?
• Why Is Climate Change a Global Challenge?
• How Many Years Do We Have to Save the Planet From Climate Change?
• How Many Years Until Climate Change Is Irreversible?
• What American State Is Safest From Climate Change?
• Where Should People Live to Avoid Climate Change?
• What Countries Will Be the Least Affected by Climate Change?
• Who Will Benefit From Climate Change?
• What Is China Doing About Climate Change?
• Which Country Is the Biggest Contributor to Climate Change?
• What Is the Most Effective Solution to Climate Change?
• Climate Change-Related Health Risks
• Climate Change Threats to Ecosystems and Species
• How Deforestation Leads to Climate Change
• Costs and Benefits of Climate Change Mitigation Strategies
• The Feasibility and Challenges of Renewable Energy Transition
• The Politics of Climate Change: Cooperation and Disagreements
• How Climate Change Affects Agriculture and Food Production
• Climate Change, Migration, and Environmental Refugees
• The Connection Between Climate Change and Extreme Weather Events
• The Effectiveness of Climate Messaging and Public Perception
• How Climate Models Help Predicting Future Climate Scenarios
• What Are the Social Justice Dimensions of Climate Change?
• Best Personal Carbon Footprint Reduction Strategies
• The Impact of Climate Change on Freshwater Availability
• Strategies to Cope with Changing Climate Conditions
• The Role of Urban Planning in Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation
• How Indigenous Knowledge Can Help Understand Climate Change
• The Adverse Effect of Climate Change on Polar Regions and Indigenous Peoples
• The Consequences of Climate Change and Ocean Acidification for Marine Ecosystems
• The Relationship between Environmental Changes and International Security

Here’s what makes our list of topics stand out:

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StudyCorgi. (2021, September 9). 310 Climate Change Essay Topics. https://studycorgi.com/ideas/climate-change-essay-topics/

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StudyCorgi . "310 Climate Change Essay Topics." September 9, 2021. https://studycorgi.com/ideas/climate-change-essay-topics/.

StudyCorgi . 2021. "310 Climate Change Essay Topics." September 9, 2021. https://studycorgi.com/ideas/climate-change-essay-topics/.

These essay examples and topics on Climate Change were carefully selected by the StudyCorgi editorial team. They meet our highest standards in terms of grammar, punctuation, style, and fact accuracy. Please ensure you properly reference the materials if you’re using them to write your assignment.

This essay topic collection was updated on January 5, 2024 .

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The Top 10 Most Interesting Climate Change Research Topics

Finishing your environmental science degree may require you to write about climate change research topics. For example, students pursuing a career as environmental scientists may focus their research on environmental-climate sensitivity or those studying to become conservation scientists will focus on ways to improve the quality of natural resources.

Climate change research paper topics vary from anthropogenic climate to physical risks of abrupt climate change. Papers should focus on a specific climate change research question. Read on to learn more about examples of climate change research topics and questions.

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What makes a strong climate change research topic.

A strong climate change research paper topic should be precise in order for others to understand your research. You must use research methods to find topics that discuss a concern about climate issues. Your broader topic should be of current importance and a well-defined discourse on climate change.

Tips for Choosing a Climate Change Research Topic

• Research what environmental scientists say. Environmental scientists study ecological problems. Their studies include the threat of climate change on environmental issues. Studies completed by these professionals are a good starting point.
• Use original research to review articles for sources. Starting with a general search is a good place to get ideas. However, as you begin to refine your search, use original research papers that have passed through the stage of peer review.
• Discover the current climatic conditions of the research area. The issue of climate change affects each area differently. Gather information on the current climate and historical climate conditions to help bolster your research.
• Consider current issues of climate change. You want your analyses on climate change to be current. Using historical data can help you delve deep into climate change effects. First, however, it needs to back up climate change risks.
• Research the climate model evaluation options. There are different approaches to climate change evaluation. Choosing the right climate model evaluation system will help solidify your research.

What’s the Difference Between a Research Topic and a Research Question?

A research topic is a broad area of study that can encompass several different issues. An example might be the key role of climate change in the United States. While this topic might make for a good paper, it is too broad and must be narrowed to be written effectively.

A research question narrows the topic down to one or two points. The question provides a framework from which to start building your paper. The answers to your research question create the substance of your paper as you report the findings.

How to Create Strong Climate Change Research Questions

To create a strong climate change research question, start settling on the broader topic. Once you decide on a topic, use your research skills and make notes about issues or debates that may make an interesting paper. Then, narrow your ideas down into a niche that you can address with theoretical or practical research.

Top 10 Climate Change Research Paper Topics

1. climate changes effect on agriculture.

Climate change’s effect on agriculture is a topic that has been studied for years. The concern is the major role of climate as it affects the growth of crops, such as the grains that the United States cultivates and trades on the world market. According to the scientific journal Nature , one primary concern is how the high levels of carbon dioxide can affect overall crops .

2. Economic Impact of Climate Change

Climate can have a negative effect on both local and global economies. While the costs may vary greatly, even a slight change could cost the United States a loss in the Global Domestic Product (GDP). For example, rising sea levels may damage the fiber optic infrastructure the world relies on for trade and communication.

3. Solutions for Reducing the Effect of Future Climate Conditions

Solutions for reducing the effect of future climate conditions range from reducing the reliance on fossil fuels to reducing the number of children you have. Some of these solutions to climate change are radical ideas and may not be accepted by the general population.

4. Federal Government Climate Policy

The United States government’s climate policy is extensive. The climate policy is the federal government’s action for climate change and how it hopes to make an impact. It includes adopting the use of electric vehicles instead of gas-powered cars. It also includes the use of alternative energy systems such as wind energy.

5. Understanding of Climate Change

Understanding climate change is a broad climate change research topic. With this, you can introduce different research methods for tracking climate change and showing a focused effect on specific areas, such as the impact on water availability in certain geographic areas.

6. Carbon Emissions Impact of Climate Change

Carbon emissions are a major factor in climate change. Due to the greenhouse effect they cause, the world is seeing a higher number of devastating weather events. An increase in the number and intensity of tsunamis, hurricanes, and tornados are some of the results.

7. Evidence of Climate Change

There is ample evidence of climate change available, thanks to the scientific community. However, some of these implications of climate change are hotly contested by those with poor views about climate scientists. Proof of climate change includes satellite images, ice cores, and retreating glaciers.

8. Cause and Mitigation of Climate Change

The causes of climate change can be either human activities or natural causes. Greenhouse gas emissions are an example of how human activities can alter the world’s climate. However, natural causes such as volcanic and solar activity are also issues. Mitigation plans for these effects may include options for both causes.

9. Health Threats and Climate Change

Climate change can have an adverse effect on human health. The impacts on health from climate change can include extreme heat, air pollution, and increasing allergies. The CDC warns these changes can cause respiratory threats, cardiovascular issues, and heat-related illnesses.

10. Industrial Pollution and the Effects of Climate Change

Just as car emissions can have an adverse effect on the climate, so can industrial pollution. It is one of the leading factors in greenhouse gas effects on average temperature. While the US has played a key role in curtailing industrial pollution, other countries need to follow suit to mitigate the negative impacts it causes.

Other Examples of Climate Change Research Topics & Questions

Climate change research topics.

• The challenge of climate change faced by the United States
• Climate change communication and social movements
• Global adaptation methods to climate change
• How climate change affects migration
• Capacity on climate change and the effect on biodiversity

Climate Change Research Questions

• What are some mitigation and adaptation to climate change options for farmers?
• How do alternative energy sources play a role in climate change?
• Do federal policies on climate change help reduce carbon emissions?
• What impacts of climate change affect the environment?
• Do climate change and social movements mean the end of travel?

Choosing the Right Climate Change Research Topic

Choosing the correct climate change research paper topic takes continuous research and refining. Your topic starts as a general overview of an area of climate change. Then, after extensive research, you can narrow it down to a specific question.

You need to ensure that your research is timely, however. For example, you don’t want to address the effects of climate change on natural resources from 15 or 20 years ago. Instead, you want to focus on views about climate change from resources within the last five years.

Climate Change Research Topics FAQ

A climate change research paper has five parts, beginning with introducing the problem and background before moving into a review of related sources. After reviewing, share methods and procedures, followed by data analysis . Finally, conclude with a summary and recommendations.

A thesis statement presents the topic of your paper to the reader. It also helps you as you begin to organize your paper, much like a mission statement. Therefore, your thesis statement may change during writing as you start to present your arguments.

According to the US Forest Service, climate change issues are related to topics regarding forest management, biodiversity, and species distribution. Climate change is a broad focus that affects many topics.

To write a research paper title, a good strategy is not to write the title right away. Instead, wait until the end after you finish everything else. Then use a short and to-the-point phrase that summarizes your document. Use keywords from the paper and avoid jargon.

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A review of the global climate change impacts, adaptation, and sustainable mitigation measures

Kashif abbass.

1 School of Economics and Management, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210094 People’s Republic of China

Muhammad Zeeshan Qasim

2 Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Chemical Pollution Control and Resources Reuse, School of Environmental and Biological Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Xiaolingwei 200, Nanjing, 210094 People’s Republic of China

Huaming Song

Muntasir murshed.

3 School of Business and Economics, North South University, Dhaka, 1229 Bangladesh

4 Department of Journalism, Media and Communications, Daffodil International University, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Haider Mahmood

5 Department of Finance, College of Business Administration, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, 173, Alkharj, 11942 Saudi Arabia

Ijaz Younis

Associated data.

Data sources and relevant links are provided in the paper to access data.

Climate change is a long-lasting change in the weather arrays across tropics to polls. It is a global threat that has embarked on to put stress on various sectors. This study is aimed to conceptually engineer how climate variability is deteriorating the sustainability of diverse sectors worldwide. Specifically, the agricultural sector’s vulnerability is a globally concerning scenario, as sufficient production and food supplies are threatened due to irreversible weather fluctuations. In turn, it is challenging the global feeding patterns, particularly in countries with agriculture as an integral part of their economy and total productivity. Climate change has also put the integrity and survival of many species at stake due to shifts in optimum temperature ranges, thereby accelerating biodiversity loss by progressively changing the ecosystem structures. Climate variations increase the likelihood of particular food and waterborne and vector-borne diseases, and a recent example is a coronavirus pandemic. Climate change also accelerates the enigma of antimicrobial resistance, another threat to human health due to the increasing incidence of resistant pathogenic infections. Besides, the global tourism industry is devastated as climate change impacts unfavorable tourism spots. The methodology investigates hypothetical scenarios of climate variability and attempts to describe the quality of evidence to facilitate readers’ careful, critical engagement. Secondary data is used to identify sustainability issues such as environmental, social, and economic viability. To better understand the problem, gathered the information in this report from various media outlets, research agencies, policy papers, newspapers, and other sources. This review is a sectorial assessment of climate change mitigation and adaptation approaches worldwide in the aforementioned sectors and the associated economic costs. According to the findings, government involvement is necessary for the country’s long-term development through strict accountability of resources and regulations implemented in the past to generate cutting-edge climate policy. Therefore, mitigating the impacts of climate change must be of the utmost importance, and hence, this global threat requires global commitment to address its dreadful implications to ensure global sustenance.

Introduction

Worldwide observed and anticipated climatic changes for the twenty-first century and global warming are significant global changes that have been encountered during the past 65 years. Climate change (CC) is an inter-governmental complex challenge globally with its influence over various components of the ecological, environmental, socio-political, and socio-economic disciplines (Adger et al.  2005 ; Leal Filho et al.  2021 ; Feliciano et al.  2022 ). Climate change involves heightened temperatures across numerous worlds (Battisti and Naylor  2009 ; Schuurmans  2021 ; Weisheimer and Palmer  2005 ; Yadav et al.  2015 ). With the onset of the industrial revolution, the problem of earth climate was amplified manifold (Leppänen et al.  2014 ). It is reported that the immediate attention and due steps might increase the probability of overcoming its devastating impacts. It is not plausible to interpret the exact consequences of climate change (CC) on a sectoral basis (Izaguirre et al.  2021 ; Jurgilevich et al.  2017 ), which is evident by the emerging level of recognition plus the inclusion of climatic uncertainties at both local and national level of policymaking (Ayers et al.  2014 ).

Climate change is characterized based on the comprehensive long-haul temperature and precipitation trends and other components such as pressure and humidity level in the surrounding environment. Besides, the irregular weather patterns, retreating of global ice sheets, and the corresponding elevated sea level rise are among the most renowned international and domestic effects of climate change (Lipczynska-Kochany  2018 ; Michel et al.  2021 ; Murshed and Dao 2020 ). Before the industrial revolution, natural sources, including volcanoes, forest fires, and seismic activities, were regarded as the distinct sources of greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as CO 2 , CH 4 , N 2 O, and H 2 O into the atmosphere (Murshed et al. 2020 ; Hussain et al.  2020 ; Sovacool et al.  2021 ; Usman and Balsalobre-Lorente 2022 ; Murshed 2022 ). United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) struck a major agreement to tackle climate change and accelerate and intensify the actions and investments required for a sustainable low-carbon future at Conference of the Parties (COP-21) in Paris on December 12, 2015. The Paris Agreement expands on the Convention by bringing all nations together for the first time in a single cause to undertake ambitious measures to prevent climate change and adapt to its impacts, with increased funding to assist developing countries in doing so. As so, it marks a turning point in the global climate fight. The core goal of the Paris Agreement is to improve the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping the global temperature rise this century well below 2 °C over pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5° C (Sharma et al. 2020 ; Sharif et al. 2020 ; Chien et al. 2021 .

Furthermore, the agreement aspires to strengthen nations’ ability to deal with the effects of climate change and align financing flows with low GHG emissions and climate-resilient paths (Shahbaz et al. 2019 ; Anwar et al. 2021 ; Usman et al. 2022a ). To achieve these lofty goals, adequate financial resources must be mobilized and provided, as well as a new technology framework and expanded capacity building, allowing developing countries and the most vulnerable countries to act under their respective national objectives. The agreement also establishes a more transparent action and support mechanism. All Parties are required by the Paris Agreement to do their best through “nationally determined contributions” (NDCs) and to strengthen these efforts in the coming years (Balsalobre-Lorente et al. 2020 ). It includes obligations that all Parties regularly report on their emissions and implementation activities. A global stock-take will be conducted every five years to review collective progress toward the agreement’s goal and inform the Parties’ future individual actions. The Paris Agreement became available for signature on April 22, 2016, Earth Day, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. On November 4, 2016, it went into effect 30 days after the so-called double threshold was met (ratification by 55 nations accounting for at least 55% of world emissions). More countries have ratified and continue to ratify the agreement since then, bringing 125 Parties in early 2017. To fully operationalize the Paris Agreement, a work program was initiated in Paris to define mechanisms, processes, and recommendations on a wide range of concerns (Murshed et al. 2021 ). Since 2016, Parties have collaborated in subsidiary bodies (APA, SBSTA, and SBI) and numerous formed entities. The Conference of the Parties functioning as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA) convened for the first time in November 2016 in Marrakesh in conjunction with COP22 and made its first two resolutions. The work plan is scheduled to be finished by 2018. Some mitigation and adaptation strategies to reduce the emission in the prospective of Paris agreement are following firstly, a long-term goal of keeping the increase in global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels, secondly, to aim to limit the rise to 1.5 °C, since this would significantly reduce risks and the impacts of climate change, thirdly, on the need for global emissions to peak as soon as possible, recognizing that this will take longer for developing countries, lastly, to undertake rapid reductions after that under the best available science, to achieve a balance between emissions and removals in the second half of the century. On the other side, some adaptation strategies are; strengthening societies’ ability to deal with the effects of climate change and to continue & expand international assistance for developing nations’ adaptation.

However, anthropogenic activities are currently regarded as most accountable for CC (Murshed et al. 2022 ). Apart from the industrial revolution, other anthropogenic activities include excessive agricultural operations, which further involve the high use of fuel-based mechanization, burning of agricultural residues, burning fossil fuels, deforestation, national and domestic transportation sectors, etc. (Huang et al.  2016 ). Consequently, these anthropogenic activities lead to climatic catastrophes, damaging local and global infrastructure, human health, and total productivity. Energy consumption has mounted GHGs levels concerning warming temperatures as most of the energy production in developing countries comes from fossil fuels (Balsalobre-Lorente et al. 2022 ; Usman et al. 2022b ; Abbass et al. 2021a ; Ishikawa-Ishiwata and Furuya  2022 ).

This review aims to highlight the effects of climate change in a socio-scientific aspect by analyzing the existing literature on various sectorial pieces of evidence globally that influence the environment. Although this review provides a thorough examination of climate change and its severe affected sectors that pose a grave danger for global agriculture, biodiversity, health, economy, forestry, and tourism, and to purpose some practical prophylactic measures and mitigation strategies to be adapted as sound substitutes to survive from climate change (CC) impacts. The societal implications of irregular weather patterns and other effects of climate changes are discussed in detail. Some numerous sustainable mitigation measures and adaptation practices and techniques at the global level are discussed in this review with an in-depth focus on its economic, social, and environmental aspects. Methods of data collection section are included in the supplementary information.

Review methodology

Related study and its objectives.

Today, we live an ordinary life in the beautiful digital, globalized world where climate change has a decisive role. What happens in one country has a massive influence on geographically far apart countries, which points to the current crisis known as COVID-19 (Sarkar et al.  2021 ). The most dangerous disease like COVID-19 has affected the world’s climate changes and economic conditions (Abbass et al. 2022 ; Pirasteh-Anosheh et al.  2021 ). The purpose of the present study is to review the status of research on the subject, which is based on “Global Climate Change Impacts, adaptation, and sustainable mitigation measures” by systematically reviewing past published and unpublished research work. Furthermore, the current study seeks to comment on research on the same topic and suggest future research on the same topic. Specifically, the present study aims: The first one is, organize publications to make them easy and quick to find. Secondly, to explore issues in this area, propose an outline of research for future work. The third aim of the study is to synthesize the previous literature on climate change, various sectors, and their mitigation measurement. Lastly , classify the articles according to the different methods and procedures that have been adopted.

Review methodology for reviewers

This review-based article followed systematic literature review techniques that have proved the literature review as a rigorous framework (Benita  2021 ; Tranfield et al.  2003 ). Moreover, we illustrate in Fig.  1 the search method that we have started for this research. First, finalized the research theme to search literature (Cooper et al.  2018 ). Second, used numerous research databases to search related articles and download from the database (Web of Science, Google Scholar, Scopus Index Journals, Emerald, Elsevier Science Direct, Springer, and Sciverse). We focused on various articles, with research articles, feedback pieces, short notes, debates, and review articles published in scholarly journals. Reports used to search for multiple keywords such as “Climate Change,” “Mitigation and Adaptation,” “Department of Agriculture and Human Health,” “Department of Biodiversity and Forestry,” etc.; in summary, keyword list and full text have been made. Initially, the search for keywords yielded a large amount of literature.

Methodology search for finalized articles for investigations.

Source : constructed by authors

Since 2020, it has been impossible to review all the articles found; some restrictions have been set for the literature exhibition. The study searched 95 articles on a different database mentioned above based on the nature of the study. It excluded 40 irrelevant papers due to copied from a previous search after readings tiles, abstract and full pieces. The criteria for inclusion were: (i) articles focused on “Global Climate Change Impacts, adaptation, and sustainable mitigation measures,” and (ii) the search key terms related to study requirements. The complete procedure yielded 55 articles for our study. We repeat our search on the “Web of Science and Google Scholars” database to enhance the search results and check the referenced articles.

In this study, 55 articles are reviewed systematically and analyzed for research topics and other aspects, such as the methods, contexts, and theories used in these studies. Furthermore, this study analyzes closely related areas to provide unique research opportunities in the future. The study also discussed future direction opportunities and research questions by understanding the research findings climate changes and other affected sectors. The reviewed paper framework analysis process is outlined in Fig.  2 .

Framework of the analysis Process.

Natural disasters and climate change’s socio-economic consequences

Natural and environmental disasters can be highly variable from year to year; some years pass with very few deaths before a significant disaster event claims many lives (Symanski et al.  2021 ). Approximately 60,000 people globally died from natural disasters each year on average over the past decade (Ritchie and Roser  2014 ; Wiranata and Simbolon  2021 ). So, according to the report, around 0.1% of global deaths. Annual variability in the number and share of deaths from natural disasters in recent decades are shown in Fig.  3 . The number of fatalities can be meager—sometimes less than 10,000, and as few as 0.01% of all deaths. But shock events have a devastating impact: the 1983–1985 famine and drought in Ethiopia; the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami; Cyclone Nargis, which struck Myanmar in 2008; and the 2010 Port-au-Prince earthquake in Haiti and now recent example is COVID-19 pandemic (Erman et al.  2021 ). These events pushed global disaster deaths to over 200,000—more than 0.4% of deaths in these years. Low-frequency, high-impact events such as earthquakes and tsunamis are not preventable, but such high losses of human life are. Historical evidence shows that earlier disaster detection, more robust infrastructure, emergency preparedness, and response programmers have substantially reduced disaster deaths worldwide. Low-income is also the most vulnerable to disasters; improving living conditions, facilities, and response services in these areas would be critical in reducing natural disaster deaths in the coming decades.

Global deaths from natural disasters, 1978 to 2020.

Source EMDAT ( 2020 )

The interior regions of the continent are likely to be impacted by rising temperatures (Dimri et al.  2018 ; Goes et al.  2020 ; Mannig et al.  2018 ; Schuurmans  2021 ). Weather patterns change due to the shortage of natural resources (water), increase in glacier melting, and rising mercury are likely to cause extinction to many planted species (Gampe et al.  2016 ; Mihiretu et al.  2021 ; Shaffril et al.  2018 ).On the other hand, the coastal ecosystem is on the verge of devastation (Perera et al.  2018 ; Phillips  2018 ). The temperature rises, insect disease outbreaks, health-related problems, and seasonal and lifestyle changes are persistent, with a strong probability of these patterns continuing in the future (Abbass et al. 2021c ; Hussain et al.  2018 ). At the global level, a shortage of good infrastructure and insufficient adaptive capacity are hammering the most (IPCC  2013 ). In addition to the above concerns, a lack of environmental education and knowledge, outdated consumer behavior, a scarcity of incentives, a lack of legislation, and the government’s lack of commitment to climate change contribute to the general public’s concerns. By 2050, a 2 to 3% rise in mercury and a drastic shift in rainfall patterns may have serious consequences (Huang et al. 2022 ; Gorst et al.  2018 ). Natural and environmental calamities caused huge losses globally, such as decreased agriculture outputs, rehabilitation of the system, and rebuilding necessary technologies (Ali and Erenstein  2017 ; Ramankutty et al.  2018 ; Yu et al.  2021 ) (Table ​ (Table1). 1 ). Furthermore, in the last 3 or 4 years, the world has been plagued by smog-related eye and skin diseases, as well as a rise in road accidents due to poor visibility.

Main natural danger statistics for 1985–2020 at the global level

Source: EM-DAT ( 2020 )

Climate change and agriculture

Global agriculture is the ultimate sector responsible for 30–40% of all greenhouse emissions, which makes it a leading industry predominantly contributing to climate warming and significantly impacted by it (Grieg; Mishra et al.  2021 ; Ortiz et al.  2021 ; Thornton and Lipper  2014 ). Numerous agro-environmental and climatic factors that have a dominant influence on agriculture productivity (Pautasso et al.  2012 ) are significantly impacted in response to precipitation extremes including floods, forest fires, and droughts (Huang  2004 ). Besides, the immense dependency on exhaustible resources also fuels the fire and leads global agriculture to become prone to devastation. Godfray et al. ( 2010 ) mentioned that decline in agriculture challenges the farmer’s quality of life and thus a significant factor to poverty as the food and water supplies are critically impacted by CC (Ortiz et al.  2021 ; Rosenzweig et al.  2014 ). As an essential part of the economic systems, especially in developing countries, agricultural systems affect the overall economy and potentially the well-being of households (Schlenker and Roberts  2009 ). According to the report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, i.e., CH 4, CO 2 , and N 2 O, are increased in the air to extraordinary levels over the last few centuries (Usman and Makhdum 2021 ; Stocker et al.  2013 ). Climate change is the composite outcome of two different factors. The first is the natural causes, and the second is the anthropogenic actions (Karami 2012 ). It is also forecasted that the world may experience a typical rise in temperature stretching from 1 to 3.7 °C at the end of this century (Pachauri et al. 2014 ). The world’s crop production is also highly vulnerable to these global temperature-changing trends as raised temperatures will pose severe negative impacts on crop growth (Reidsma et al. 2009 ). Some of the recent modeling about the fate of global agriculture is briefly described below.

Decline in cereal productivity

Crop productivity will also be affected dramatically in the next few decades due to variations in integral abiotic factors such as temperature, solar radiation, precipitation, and CO 2 . These all factors are included in various regulatory instruments like progress and growth, weather-tempted changes, pest invasions (Cammell and Knight 1992 ), accompanying disease snags (Fand et al. 2012 ), water supplies (Panda et al. 2003 ), high prices of agro-products in world’s agriculture industry, and preeminent quantity of fertilizer consumption. Lobell and field ( 2007 ) claimed that from 1962 to 2002, wheat crop output had condensed significantly due to rising temperatures. Therefore, during 1980–2011, the common wheat productivity trends endorsed extreme temperature events confirmed by Gourdji et al. ( 2013 ) around South Asia, South America, and Central Asia. Various other studies (Asseng, Cao, Zhang, and Ludwig 2009 ; Asseng et al. 2013 ; García et al. 2015 ; Ortiz et al. 2021 ) also proved that wheat output is negatively affected by the rising temperatures and also caused adverse effects on biomass productivity (Calderini et al. 1999 ; Sadras and Slafer 2012 ). Hereafter, the rice crop is also influenced by the high temperatures at night. These difficulties will worsen because the temperature will be rising further in the future owing to CC (Tebaldi et al. 2006 ). Another research conducted in China revealed that a 4.6% of rice production per 1 °C has happened connected with the advancement in night temperatures (Tao et al. 2006 ). Moreover, the average night temperature growth also affected rice indicia cultivar’s output pragmatically during 25 years in the Philippines (Peng et al. 2004 ). It is anticipated that the increase in world average temperature will also cause a substantial reduction in yield (Hatfield et al. 2011 ; Lobell and Gourdji 2012 ). In the southern hemisphere, Parry et al. ( 2007 ) noted a rise of 1–4 °C in average daily temperatures at the end of spring season unti the middle of summers, and this raised temperature reduced crop output by cutting down the time length for phenophases eventually reduce the yield (Hatfield and Prueger 2015 ; R. Ortiz 2008 ). Also, world climate models have recommended that humid and subtropical regions expect to be plentiful prey to the upcoming heat strokes (Battisti and Naylor 2009 ). Grain production is the amalgamation of two constituents: the average weight and the grain output/m 2 , however, in crop production. Crop output is mainly accredited to the grain quantity (Araus et al. 2008 ; Gambín and Borrás 2010 ). In the times of grain set, yield resources are mainly strewn between hitherto defined components, i.e., grain usual weight and grain output, which presents a trade-off between them (Gambín and Borrás 2010 ) beside disparities in per grain integration (B. L. Gambín et al. 2006 ). In addition to this, the maize crop is also susceptible to raised temperatures, principally in the flowering stage (Edreira and Otegui 2013 ). In reality, the lower grain number is associated with insufficient acclimatization due to intense photosynthesis and higher respiration and the high-temperature effect on the reproduction phenomena (Edreira and Otegui 2013 ). During the flowering phase, maize visible to heat (30–36 °C) seemed less anthesis-silking intermissions (Edreira et al. 2011 ). Another research by Dupuis and Dumas ( 1990 ) proved that a drop in spikelet when directly visible to high temperatures above 35 °C in vitro pollination. Abnormalities in kernel number claimed by Vega et al. ( 2001 ) is related to conceded plant development during a flowering phase that is linked with the active ear growth phase and categorized as a critical phase for approximation of kernel number during silking (Otegui and Bonhomme 1998 ).

The retort of rice output to high temperature presents disparities in flowering patterns, and seed set lessens and lessens grain weight (Qasim et al. 2020 ; Qasim, Hammad, Maqsood, Tariq, & Chawla). During the daytime, heat directly impacts flowers which lessens the thesis period and quickens the earlier peak flowering (Tao et al. 2006 ). Antagonistic effect of higher daytime temperature d on pollen sprouting proposed seed set decay, whereas, seed set was lengthily reduced than could be explicated by pollen growing at high temperatures 40◦C (Matsui et al. 2001 ).

The decline in wheat output is linked with higher temperatures, confirmed in numerous studies (Semenov 2009 ; Stone and Nicolas 1994 ). High temperatures fast-track the arrangements of plant expansion (Blum et al. 2001 ), diminution photosynthetic process (Salvucci and Crafts‐Brandner 2004 ), and also considerably affect the reproductive operations (Farooq et al. 2011 ).

The destructive impacts of CC induced weather extremes to deteriorate the integrity of crops (Chaudhary et al. 2011 ), e.g., Spartan cold and extreme fog cause falling and discoloration of betel leaves (Rosenzweig et al. 2001 ), giving them a somehow reddish appearance, squeezing of lemon leaves (Pautasso et al. 2012 ), as well as root rot of pineapple, have reported (Vedwan and Rhoades 2001 ). Henceforth, in tackling the disruptive effects of CC, several short-term and long-term management approaches are the crucial need of time (Fig.  4 ). Moreover, various studies (Chaudhary et al. 2011 ; Patz et al. 2005 ; Pautasso et al. 2012 ) have demonstrated adapting trends such as ameliorating crop diversity can yield better adaptability towards CC.

Schematic description of potential impacts of climate change on the agriculture sector and the appropriate mitigation and adaptation measures to overcome its impact.

Climate change impacts on biodiversity

Global biodiversity is among the severe victims of CC because it is the fastest emerging cause of species loss. Studies demonstrated that the massive scale species dynamics are considerably associated with diverse climatic events (Abraham and Chain 1988 ; Manes et al. 2021 ; A. M. D. Ortiz et al. 2021 ). Both the pace and magnitude of CC are altering the compatible habitat ranges for living entities of marine, freshwater, and terrestrial regions. Alterations in general climate regimes influence the integrity of ecosystems in numerous ways, such as variation in the relative abundance of species, range shifts, changes in activity timing, and microhabitat use (Bates et al. 2014 ). The geographic distribution of any species often depends upon its ability to tolerate environmental stresses, biological interactions, and dispersal constraints. Hence, instead of the CC, the local species must only accept, adapt, move, or face extinction (Berg et al. 2010 ). So, the best performer species have a better survival capacity for adjusting to new ecosystems or a decreased perseverance to survive where they are already situated (Bates et al. 2014 ). An important aspect here is the inadequate habitat connectivity and access to microclimates, also crucial in raising the exposure to climate warming and extreme heatwave episodes. For example, the carbon sequestration rates are undergoing fluctuations due to climate-driven expansion in the range of global mangroves (Cavanaugh et al. 2014 ).

Similarly, the loss of kelp-forest ecosystems in various regions and its occupancy by the seaweed turfs has set the track for elevated herbivory by the high influx of tropical fish populations. Not only this, the increased water temperatures have exacerbated the conditions far away from the physiological tolerance level of the kelp communities (Vergés et al. 2016 ; Wernberg et al. 2016 ). Another pertinent danger is the devastation of keystone species, which even has more pervasive effects on the entire communities in that habitat (Zarnetske et al. 2012 ). It is particularly important as CC does not specify specific populations or communities. Eventually, this CC-induced redistribution of species may deteriorate carbon storage and the net ecosystem productivity (Weed et al. 2013 ). Among the typical disruptions, the prominent ones include impacts on marine and terrestrial productivity, marine community assembly, and the extended invasion of toxic cyanobacteria bloom (Fossheim et al. 2015 ).

The CC-impacted species extinction is widely reported in the literature (Beesley et al. 2019 ; Urban 2015 ), and the predictions of demise until the twenty-first century are dreadful (Abbass et al. 2019 ; Pereira et al. 2013 ). In a few cases, northward shifting of species may not be formidable as it allows mountain-dwelling species to find optimum climates. However, the migrant species may be trapped in isolated and incompatible habitats due to losing topography and range (Dullinger et al. 2012 ). For example, a study indicated that the American pika has been extirpated or intensely diminished in some regions, primarily attributed to the CC-impacted extinction or at least local extirpation (Stewart et al. 2015 ). Besides, the anticipation of persistent responses to the impacts of CC often requires data records of several decades to rigorously analyze the critical pre and post CC patterns at species and ecosystem levels (Manes et al. 2021 ; Testa et al. 2018 ).

Nonetheless, the availability of such long-term data records is rare; hence, attempts are needed to focus on these profound aspects. Biodiversity is also vulnerable to the other associated impacts of CC, such as rising temperatures, droughts, and certain invasive pest species. For instance, a study revealed the changes in the composition of plankton communities attributed to rising temperatures. Henceforth, alterations in such aquatic producer communities, i.e., diatoms and calcareous plants, can ultimately lead to variation in the recycling of biological carbon. Moreover, such changes are characterized as a potential contributor to CO 2 differences between the Pleistocene glacial and interglacial periods (Kohfeld et al. 2005 ).

Climate change implications on human health

It is an understood corporality that human health is a significant victim of CC (Costello et al. 2009 ). According to the WHO, CC might be responsible for 250,000 additional deaths per year during 2030–2050 (Watts et al. 2015 ). These deaths are attributed to extreme weather-induced mortality and morbidity and the global expansion of vector-borne diseases (Lemery et al. 2021; Yang and Usman 2021 ; Meierrieks 2021 ; UNEP 2017 ). Here, some of the emerging health issues pertinent to this global problem are briefly described.

Climate change and antimicrobial resistance with corresponding economic costs

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an up-surging complex global health challenge (Garner et al. 2019 ; Lemery et al. 2021 ). Health professionals across the globe are extremely worried due to this phenomenon that has critical potential to reverse almost all the progress that has been achieved so far in the health discipline (Gosling and Arnell 2016 ). A massive amount of antibiotics is produced by many pharmaceutical industries worldwide, and the pathogenic microorganisms are gradually developing resistance to them, which can be comprehended how strongly this aspect can shake the foundations of national and global economies (UNEP 2017 ). This statement is supported by the fact that AMR is not developing in a particular region or country. Instead, it is flourishing in every continent of the world (WHO 2018 ). This plague is heavily pushing humanity to the post-antibiotic era, in which currently antibiotic-susceptible pathogens will once again lead to certain endemics and pandemics after being resistant(WHO 2018 ). Undesirably, if this statement would become a factuality, there might emerge certain risks in undertaking sophisticated interventions such as chemotherapy, joint replacement cases, and organ transplantation (Su et al. 2018 ). Presently, the amplification of drug resistance cases has made common illnesses like pneumonia, post-surgical infections, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, etc., too difficult and costly to be treated or cure well (WHO 2018 ). From a simple example, it can be assumed how easily antibiotic-resistant strains can be transmitted from one person to another and ultimately travel across the boundaries (Berendonk et al. 2015 ). Talking about the second- and third-generation classes of antibiotics, e.g., most renowned generations of cephalosporin antibiotics that are more expensive, broad-spectrum, more toxic, and usually require more extended periods whenever prescribed to patients (Lemery et al. 2021 ; Pärnänen et al. 2019 ). This scenario has also revealed that the abundance of resistant strains of pathogens was also higher in the Southern part (WHO 2018 ). As southern parts are generally warmer than their counterparts, it is evident from this example how CC-induced global warming can augment the spread of antibiotic-resistant strains within the biosphere, eventually putting additional economic burden in the face of developing new and costlier antibiotics. The ARG exchange to susceptible bacteria through one of the potential mechanisms, transformation, transduction, and conjugation; Selection pressure can be caused by certain antibiotics, metals or pesticides, etc., as shown in Fig.  5 .

A typical interaction between the susceptible and resistant strains.

Source: Elsayed et al. ( 2021 ); Karkman et al. ( 2018 )

Certain studies highlighted that conventional urban wastewater treatment plants are typical hotspots where most bacterial strains exchange genetic material through horizontal gene transfer (Fig.  5 ). Although at present, the extent of risks associated with the antibiotic resistance found in wastewater is complicated; environmental scientists and engineers have particular concerns about the potential impacts of these antibiotic resistance genes on human health (Ashbolt 2015 ). At most undesirable and worst case, these antibiotic-resistant genes containing bacteria can make their way to enter into the environment (Pruden et al. 2013 ), irrigation water used for crops and public water supplies and ultimately become a part of food chains and food webs (Ma et al. 2019 ; D. Wu et al. 2019 ). This problem has been reported manifold in several countries (Hendriksen et al. 2019 ), where wastewater as a means of irrigated water is quite common.

Climate change and vector borne-diseases

Temperature is a fundamental factor for the sustenance of living entities regardless of an ecosystem. So, a specific living being, especially a pathogen, requires a sophisticated temperature range to exist on earth. The second essential component of CC is precipitation, which also impacts numerous infectious agents’ transport and dissemination patterns. Global rising temperature is a significant cause of many species extinction. On the one hand, this changing environmental temperature may be causing species extinction, and on the other, this warming temperature might favor the thriving of some new organisms. Here, it was evident that some pathogens may also upraise once non-evident or reported (Patz et al. 2000 ). This concept can be exemplified through certain pathogenic strains of microorganisms that how the likelihood of various diseases increases in response to climate warming-induced environmental changes (Table ​ (Table2 2 ).

Examples of how various environmental changes affect various infectious diseases in humans

Source: Aron and Patz ( 2001 )

A recent example is an outburst of coronavirus (COVID-19) in the Republic of China, causing pneumonia and severe acute respiratory complications (Cui et al. 2021 ; Song et al. 2021 ). The large family of viruses is harbored in numerous animals, bats, and snakes in particular (livescience.com) with the subsequent transfer into human beings. Hence, it is worth noting that the thriving of numerous vectors involved in spreading various diseases is influenced by Climate change (Ogden 2018 ; Santos et al. 2021 ).

Psychological impacts of climate change

Climate change (CC) is responsible for the rapid dissemination and exaggeration of certain epidemics and pandemics. In addition to the vast apparent impacts of climate change on health, forestry, agriculture, etc., it may also have psychological implications on vulnerable societies. It can be exemplified through the recent outburst of (COVID-19) in various countries around the world (Pal 2021 ). Besides, the victims of this viral infection have made healthy beings scarier and terrified. In the wake of such epidemics, people with common colds or fever are also frightened and must pass specific regulatory protocols. Living in such situations continuously terrifies the public and makes the stress familiar, which eventually makes them psychologically weak (npr.org).

CC boosts the extent of anxiety, distress, and other issues in public, pushing them to develop various mental-related problems. Besides, frequent exposure to extreme climatic catastrophes such as geological disasters also imprints post-traumatic disorder, and their ubiquitous occurrence paves the way to developing chronic psychological dysfunction. Moreover, repetitive listening from media also causes an increase in the person’s stress level (Association 2020 ). Similarly, communities living in flood-prone areas constantly live in extreme fear of drowning and die by floods. In addition to human lives, the flood-induced destruction of physical infrastructure is a specific reason for putting pressure on these communities (Ogden 2018 ). For instance, Ogden ( 2018 ) comprehensively denoted that Katrina’s Hurricane augmented the mental health issues in the victim communities.

Climate change impacts on the forestry sector

Forests are the global regulators of the world’s climate (FAO 2018 ) and have an indispensable role in regulating global carbon and nitrogen cycles (Rehman et al. 2021 ; Reichstein and Carvalhais 2019 ). Hence, disturbances in forest ecology affect the micro and macro-climates (Ellison et al. 2017 ). Climate warming, in return, has profound impacts on the growth and productivity of transboundary forests by influencing the temperature and precipitation patterns, etc. As CC induces specific changes in the typical structure and functions of ecosystems (Zhang et al. 2017 ) as well impacts forest health, climate change also has several devastating consequences such as forest fires, droughts, pest outbreaks (EPA 2018 ), and last but not the least is the livelihoods of forest-dependent communities. The rising frequency and intensity of another CC product, i.e., droughts, pose plenty of challenges to the well-being of global forests (Diffenbaugh et al. 2017 ), which is further projected to increase soon (Hartmann et al. 2018 ; Lehner et al. 2017 ; Rehman et al. 2021 ). Hence, CC induces storms, with more significant impacts also put extra pressure on the survival of the global forests (Martínez-Alvarado et al. 2018 ), significantly since their influences are augmented during higher winter precipitations with corresponding wetter soils causing weak root anchorage of trees (Brázdil et al. 2018 ). Surging temperature regimes causes alterations in usual precipitation patterns, which is a significant hurdle for the survival of temperate forests (Allen et al. 2010 ; Flannigan et al. 2013 ), letting them encounter severe stress and disturbances which adversely affects the local tree species (Hubbart et al. 2016 ; Millar and Stephenson 2015 ; Rehman et al. 2021 ).

Climate change impacts on forest-dependent communities

Forests are the fundamental livelihood resource for about 1.6 billion people worldwide; out of them, 350 million are distinguished with relatively higher reliance (Bank 2008 ). Agro-forestry-dependent communities comprise 1.2 billion, and 60 million indigenous people solely rely on forests and their products to sustain their lives (Sunderlin et al. 2005 ). For example, in the entire African continent, more than 2/3rd of inhabitants depend on forest resources and woodlands for their alimonies, e.g., food, fuelwood and grazing (Wasiq and Ahmad 2004 ). The livings of these people are more intensely affected by the climatic disruptions making their lives harder (Brown et al. 2014 ). On the one hand, forest communities are incredibly vulnerable to CC due to their livelihoods, cultural and spiritual ties as well as socio-ecological connections, and on the other, they are not familiar with the term “climate change.” (Rahman and Alam 2016 ). Among the destructive impacts of temperature and rainfall, disruption of the agroforestry crops with resultant downscale growth and yield (Macchi et al. 2008 ). Cruz ( 2015 ) ascribed that forest-dependent smallholder farmers in the Philippines face the enigma of delayed fruiting, more severe damages by insect and pest incidences due to unfavorable temperature regimes, and changed rainfall patterns.

Among these series of challenges to forest communities, their well-being is also distinctly vulnerable to CC. Though the detailed climate change impacts on human health have been comprehensively mentioned in the previous section, some studies have listed a few more devastating effects on the prosperity of forest-dependent communities. For instance, the Himalayan people have been experiencing frequent skin-borne diseases such as malaria and other skin diseases due to increasing mosquitoes, wild boar as well, and new wasps species, particularly in higher altitudes that were almost non-existent before last 5–10 years (Xu et al. 2008 ). Similarly, people living at high altitudes in Bangladesh have experienced frequent mosquito-borne calamities (Fardous; Sharma 2012 ). In addition, the pace of other waterborne diseases such as infectious diarrhea, cholera, pathogenic induced abdominal complications and dengue has also been boosted in other distinguished regions of Bangladesh (Cell 2009 ; Gunter et al. 2008 ).

Pest outbreak

Upscaling hotter climate may positively affect the mobile organisms with shorter generation times because they can scurry from harsh conditions than the immobile species (Fettig et al. 2013 ; Schoene and Bernier 2012 ) and are also relatively more capable of adapting to new environments (Jactel et al. 2019 ). It reveals that insects adapt quickly to global warming due to their mobility advantages. Due to past outbreaks, the trees (forests) are relatively more susceptible victims (Kurz et al. 2008 ). Before CC, the influence of factors mentioned earlier, i.e., droughts and storms, was existent and made the forests susceptible to insect pest interventions; however, the global forests remain steadfast, assiduous, and green (Jactel et al. 2019 ). The typical reasons could be the insect herbivores were regulated by several tree defenses and pressures of predation (Wilkinson and Sherratt 2016 ). As climate greatly influences these phenomena, the global forests cannot be so sedulous against such challenges (Jactel et al. 2019 ). Table ​ Table3 3 demonstrates some of the particular considerations with practical examples that are essential while mitigating the impacts of CC in the forestry sector.

Essential considerations while mitigating the climate change impacts on the forestry sector

Source : Fischer ( 2019 )

Climate change impacts on tourism

Tourism is a commercial activity that has roots in multi-dimensions and an efficient tool with adequate job generation potential, revenue creation, earning of spectacular foreign exchange, enhancement in cross-cultural promulgation and cooperation, a business tool for entrepreneurs and eventually for the country’s national development (Arshad et al. 2018 ; Scott 2021 ). Among a plethora of other disciplines, the tourism industry is also a distinct victim of climate warming (Gössling et al. 2012 ; Hall et al. 2015 ) as the climate is among the essential resources that enable tourism in particular regions as most preferred locations. Different places at different times of the year attract tourists both within and across the countries depending upon the feasibility and compatibility of particular weather patterns. Hence, the massive variations in these weather patterns resulting from CC will eventually lead to monumental challenges to the local economy in that specific area’s particular and national economy (Bujosa et al. 2015 ). For instance, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report demonstrated that the global tourism industry had faced a considerable decline in the duration of ski season, including the loss of some ski areas and the dramatic shifts in tourist destinations’ climate warming.

Furthermore, different studies (Neuvonen et al. 2015 ; Scott et al. 2004 ) indicated that various currently perfect tourist spots, e.g., coastal areas, splendid islands, and ski resorts, will suffer consequences of CC. It is also worth noting that the quality and potential of administrative management potential to cope with the influence of CC on the tourism industry is of crucial significance, which renders specific strengths of resiliency to numerous destinations to withstand against it (Füssel and Hildén 2014 ). Similarly, in the partial or complete absence of adequate socio-economic and socio-political capital, the high-demanding tourist sites scurry towards the verge of vulnerability. The susceptibility of tourism is based on different components such as the extent of exposure, sensitivity, life-supporting sectors, and capacity assessment factors (Füssel and Hildén 2014 ). It is obvious corporality that sectors such as health, food, ecosystems, human habitat, infrastructure, water availability, and the accessibility of a particular region are prone to CC. Henceforth, the sensitivity of these critical sectors to CC and, in return, the adaptive measures are a hallmark in determining the composite vulnerability of climate warming (Ionescu et al. 2009 ).

Moreover, the dependence on imported food items, poor hygienic conditions, and inadequate health professionals are dominant aspects affecting the local terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity. Meanwhile, the greater dependency on ecosystem services and its products also makes a destination more fragile to become a prey of CC (Rizvi et al. 2015 ). Some significant non-climatic factors are important indicators of a particular ecosystem’s typical health and functioning, e.g., resource richness and abundance portray the picture of ecosystem stability. Similarly, the species abundance is also a productive tool that ensures that the ecosystem has a higher buffering capacity, which is terrific in terms of resiliency (Roscher et al. 2013 ).

Climate change impacts on the economic sector

Climate plays a significant role in overall productivity and economic growth. Due to its increasingly global existence and its effect on economic growth, CC has become one of the major concerns of both local and international environmental policymakers (Ferreira et al. 2020 ; Gleditsch 2021 ; Abbass et al. 2021b ; Lamperti et al. 2021 ). The adverse effects of CC on the overall productivity factor of the agricultural sector are therefore significant for understanding the creation of local adaptation policies and the composition of productive climate policy contracts. Previous studies on CC in the world have already forecasted its effects on the agricultural sector. Researchers have found that global CC will impact the agricultural sector in different world regions. The study of the impacts of CC on various agrarian activities in other demographic areas and the development of relative strategies to respond to effects has become a focal point for researchers (Chandioet al. 2020 ; Gleditsch 2021 ; Mosavi et al. 2020 ).

With the rapid growth of global warming since the 1980s, the temperature has started increasing globally, which resulted in the incredible transformation of rain and evaporation in the countries. The agricultural development of many countries has been reliant, delicate, and susceptible to CC for a long time, and it is on the development of agriculture total factor productivity (ATFP) influence different crops and yields of farmers (Alhassan 2021 ; Wu  2020 ).

Food security and natural disasters are increasing rapidly in the world. Several major climatic/natural disasters have impacted local crop production in the countries concerned. The effects of these natural disasters have been poorly controlled by the development of the economies and populations and may affect human life as well. One example is China, which is among the world’s most affected countries, vulnerable to natural disasters due to its large population, harsh environmental conditions, rapid CC, low environmental stability, and disaster power. According to the January 2016 statistical survey, China experienced an economic loss of 298.3 billion Yuan, and about 137 million Chinese people were severely affected by various natural disasters (Xie et al. 2018 ).

Mitigation and adaptation strategies of climate changes

Adaptation and mitigation are the crucial factors to address the response to CC (Jahanzad et al. 2020 ). Researchers define mitigation on climate changes, and on the other hand, adaptation directly impacts climate changes like floods. To some extent, mitigation reduces or moderates greenhouse gas emission, and it becomes a critical issue both economically and environmentally (Botzen et al. 2021 ; Jahanzad et al. 2020 ; Kongsager 2018 ; Smit et al. 2000 ; Vale et al. 2021 ; Usman et al. 2021 ; Verheyen 2005 ).

Researchers have deep concern about the adaptation and mitigation methodologies in sectoral and geographical contexts. Agriculture, industry, forestry, transport, and land use are the main sectors to adapt and mitigate policies(Kärkkäinen et al. 2020 ; Waheed et al. 2021 ). Adaptation and mitigation require particular concern both at the national and international levels. The world has faced a significant problem of climate change in the last decades, and adaptation to these effects is compulsory for economic and social development. To adapt and mitigate against CC, one should develop policies and strategies at the international level (Hussain et al. 2020 ). Figure  6 depicts the list of current studies on sectoral impacts of CC with adaptation and mitigation measures globally.

Sectoral impacts of climate change with adaptation and mitigation measures.

Conclusion and future perspectives

Specific socio-agricultural, socio-economic, and physical systems are the cornerstone of psychological well-being, and the alteration in these systems by CC will have disastrous impacts. Climate variability, alongside other anthropogenic and natural stressors, influences human and environmental health sustainability. Food security is another concerning scenario that may lead to compromised food quality, higher food prices, and inadequate food distribution systems. Global forests are challenged by different climatic factors such as storms, droughts, flash floods, and intense precipitation. On the other hand, their anthropogenic wiping is aggrandizing their existence. Undoubtedly, the vulnerability scale of the world’s regions differs; however, appropriate mitigation and adaptation measures can aid the decision-making bodies in developing effective policies to tackle its impacts. Presently, modern life on earth has tailored to consistent climatic patterns, and accordingly, adapting to such considerable variations is of paramount importance. Because the faster changes in climate will make it harder to survive and adjust, this globally-raising enigma calls for immediate attention at every scale ranging from elementary community level to international level. Still, much effort, research, and dedication are required, which is the most critical time. Some policy implications can help us to mitigate the consequences of climate change, especially the most affected sectors like the agriculture sector;

Warming might lengthen the season in frost-prone growing regions (temperate and arctic zones), allowing for longer-maturing seasonal cultivars with better yields (Pfadenhauer 2020 ; Bonacci 2019 ). Extending the planting season may allow additional crops each year; when warming leads to frequent warmer months highs over critical thresholds, a split season with a brief summer fallow may be conceivable for short-period crops such as wheat barley, cereals, and many other vegetable crops. The capacity to prolong the planting season in tropical and subtropical places where the harvest season is constrained by precipitation or agriculture farming occurs after the year may be more limited and dependent on how precipitation patterns vary (Wu et al. 2017 ).

The genetic component is comprehensive for many yields, but it is restricted like kiwi fruit for a few. Ali et al. ( 2017 ) investigated how new crops will react to climatic changes (also stated in Mall et al. 2017 ). Hot temperature, drought, insect resistance; salt tolerance; and overall crop production and product quality increases would all be advantageous (Akkari 2016 ). Genetic mapping and engineering can introduce a greater spectrum of features. The adoption of genetically altered cultivars has been slowed, particularly in the early forecasts owing to the complexity in ensuring features are expediently expressed throughout the entire plant, customer concerns, economic profitability, and regulatory impediments (Wirehn 2018 ; Davidson et al. 2016 ).

To get the full benefit of the CO 2 would certainly require additional nitrogen and other fertilizers. Nitrogen not consumed by the plants may be excreted into groundwater, discharged into water surface, or emitted from the land, soil nitrous oxide when large doses of fertilizer are sprayed. Increased nitrogen levels in groundwater sources have been related to human chronic illnesses and impact marine ecosystems. Cultivation, grain drying, and other field activities have all been examined in depth in the studies (Barua et al. 2018 ).

• The technological and socio-economic adaptation

The policy consequence of the causative conclusion is that as a source of alternative energy, biofuel production is one of the routes that explain oil price volatility separate from international macroeconomic factors. Even though biofuel production has just begun in a few sample nations, there is still a tremendous worldwide need for feedstock to satisfy industrial expansion in China and the USA, which explains the food price relationship to the global oil price. Essentially, oil-exporting countries may create incentives in their economies to increase food production. It may accomplish by giving farmers financing, seedlings, fertilizers, and farming equipment. Because of the declining global oil price and, as a result, their earnings from oil export, oil-producing nations may be unable to subsidize food imports even in the near term. As a result, these countries can boost the agricultural value chain for export. It may be accomplished through R&D and adding value to their food products to increase income by correcting exchange rate misalignment and adverse trade terms. These nations may also diversify their economies away from oil, as dependence on oil exports alone is no longer economically viable given the extreme volatility of global oil prices. Finally, resource-rich and oil-exporting countries can convert to non-food renewable energy sources such as solar, hydro, coal, wind, wave, and tidal energy. By doing so, both world food and oil supplies would be maintained rather than harmed.

IRENA’s modeling work shows that, if a comprehensive policy framework is in place, efforts toward decarbonizing the energy future will benefit economic activity, jobs (outweighing losses in the fossil fuel industry), and welfare. Countries with weak domestic supply chains and a large reliance on fossil fuel income, in particular, must undertake structural reforms to capitalize on the opportunities inherent in the energy transition. Governments continue to give major policy assistance to extract fossil fuels, including tax incentives, financing, direct infrastructure expenditures, exemptions from environmental regulations, and other measures. The majority of major oil and gas producing countries intend to increase output. Some countries intend to cut coal output, while others plan to maintain or expand it. While some nations are beginning to explore and execute policies aimed at a just and equitable transition away from fossil fuel production, these efforts have yet to impact major producing countries’ plans and goals. Verifiable and comparable data on fossil fuel output and assistance from governments and industries are critical to closing the production gap. Governments could increase openness by declaring their production intentions in their climate obligations under the Paris Agreement.

It is firmly believed that achieving the Paris Agreement commitments is doubtlful without undergoing renewable energy transition across the globe (Murshed 2020 ; Zhao et al. 2022 ). Policy instruments play the most important role in determining the degree of investment in renewable energy technology. This study examines the efficacy of various policy strategies in the renewable energy industry of multiple nations. Although its impact is more visible in established renewable energy markets, a renewable portfolio standard is also a useful policy instrument. The cost of producing renewable energy is still greater than other traditional energy sources. Furthermore, government incentives in the R&D sector can foster innovation in this field, resulting in cost reductions in the renewable energy industry. These nations may export their technologies and share their policy experiences by forming networks among their renewable energy-focused organizations. All policy measures aim to reduce production costs while increasing the proportion of renewables to a country’s energy system. Meanwhile, long-term contracts with renewable energy providers, government commitment and control, and the establishment of long-term goals can assist developing nations in deploying renewable energy technology in their energy sector.

Author contribution

KA: Writing the original manuscript, data collection, data analysis, Study design, Formal analysis, Visualization, Revised draft, Writing-review, and editing. MZQ: Writing the original manuscript, data collection, data analysis, Writing-review, and editing. HS: Contribution to the contextualization of the theme, Conceptualization, Validation, Supervision, literature review, Revised drapt, and writing review and editing. MM: Writing review and editing, compiling the literature review, language editing. HM: Writing review and editing, compiling the literature review, language editing. IY: Contribution to the contextualization of the theme, literature review, and writing review and editing.

Availability of data and material

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Contributor Information

Kashif Abbass, Email: nc.ude.tsujn@ssabbafihsak .

Muhammad Zeeshan Qasim, Email: moc.kooltuo@888misaqnahseez .

Huaming Song, Email: nc.ude.tsujn@gnimauh .

Muntasir Murshed, Email: [email protected] .

Haider Mahmood, Email: moc.liamtoh@doomhamrediah .

Ijaz Younis, Email: nc.ude.tsujn@sinuoyzaji .

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Climate change, energy, environment and sustainability topics research guide

What is climate change.

Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. The world is now warming faster than at any point in recorded history, which disrupts the usual balance of nature and is a threat to human beings and other forms of life on Earth. This topic guide includes sample keywords and search terms, databases to find sources, and samples of online books.

Example keywords and subtopics

Example keywords or search terms:  

• Climate change
• global warming
• greenhouse effect or greenhouse gas
• climate crisis
• environmental change
• clean energy
• alternative energy or renewable energy
• green energy or renewable energy or clean energy
• Low carbon or carbon neutral
• Carbon offsetting
• sustainability environment or sustainability
• environmental protection
• pollution or contamination
• impact or effect or influence
• cost or price or expense or money or financial
• fossil fuels or coal or oil or gas

Tip: This is a big topic with lots written so you can often focus on one or two subtopics. This will help to find more relevant sources, more quickly and be a better fit for an assignment. 

Possible subtopics ideas:  Pick one or two subtopics and then add those words to your search.

• Health impacts of climate changes (e.g. air pollution, water pollution, etc.)
• impacts on a specific city, state, region or country
• political impacts (e.g. voting, government policy, etc.)
• impact on specific population or culture (e.g. children, elderly, racial or ethic group, country, etc.)
• specific types of renewable or alternative energy (e.g. solar, wind, bio, etc.) 
• example of new technology (e.g. electric cars or electric vehicles or hybrid vehicles
• economic impacts (e.g. business, employment, industry (e.g. oil, coal, etc.)
• weather and impacts (e.g. rising sea levels, flooding, droughts or heat waves, etc.)
• media aspects (e.g. news coverage, advertising, misinformation, movies, music, etc.) 
• Tutorial: Creating an effective search strategy

• Use meaningful keywords to find the best sources
• Apply search strategies like AND and OR to connect keywords
• Tutorial: What is a library database and why should I use one?

• Identify what a library database is
• Recognize the two main types of library databases
• Know why you should use them
• Understand why searching a library database is different than searching the general internet

Databases for finding sources

Article Databases - 

Use articles to find new research, specific information and evidence to support or refute a claim. You can also look at the bibliography or works cited to find additional sources. Some articles give an overview of a specific topic -- sometimes called "review articles" or "meta-analyses" or "systematic review." Databases are like mini-search engines for finding articles (e.g. Business Source Premier database searches business journals, business magazines and business newspapers). Pick a database that searches the subject of articles you want to find. 

• Agricultural & Environmental Science Database Search journals and literature on agriculture, pollution, animals, environment, policy, natural resources, water issues and more. Searches tools like AGRICOLA, Environmental Sciences & Pollution Management (ESPM), and Digests of Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) databases.
• GreenFILE Collection of scholarly, government and general-interest titles. Multidisciplinary by nature, GreenFILE draws on the connections between the environment and agriculture, education, law, health and technology. Topics covered include global climate change, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, recycling, and more.
• Ethnic NewsWatch Ethnic NewsWatch is a current resource of full-text newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic and minority press from 1990, providing researchers access to essential, often overlooked perspectives.
• Opposing Viewpoints in Context Find articles on current issues, including viewpoint articles, topic overviews, statistics, primary documents, magazine and newspaper articles.

Sample of online books

Below are a selection of online books and readings on the broad topic. We have more online books, journal articles, and sources in our Libraries Search and article databases.  

• A climate policy revolution : what the science of complexity reveals about saving our planet by Roland Kupers ISBN: 9780674246812 Publication Date: 2020 "In this book, Roland Kupers argues that the climate crisis is well suited to the bottom-up, rapid, and revolutionary change complexity science theorizes; he succinctly makes the case that complexity science promises policy solutions to address climate change."

Get help from the U Libraries - Online!

• Peer Research Consultants Make an online 30 minute appointment for one-on-one peer assistance with your research. Get help with researching your topic, finding sources, citing sources and more. Peer Research Consultants can also help you get started with faculty-sponsored research.
• Chat 24/7 online with the Libraries Ask us anything! Chat with a librarian, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with any research or library questions.
• Meet with a librarian Schedule an online consultations for personalized research support primarily for University of Minnesota faculty, instructors, graduate and undergraduate students and staff.

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The trends of major issues connecting climate change and the sustainable development goals

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• Published: 12 March 2024
• Volume 5 , article number  31 , ( 2024 )

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• Yi-Lin Hsieh 1 &
• Shin-Cheng Yeh 1  

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This study aims to explore the research trends and patterns of major issues connecting climate change and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by employing a bibliometric analysis. The study has found that there is an increasing number of research and policies in various countries committed to finding and implementing strategies to solve climate change issues. The countries with the most research in this field are China, India, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, with Environmental Sciences & Ecology being the most published domain. The study has identified 19 clusters intersecting with climate change and SDGs, with the top five clusters in terms of proportion related to agricultural and food systems, water and soil resources, energy, economy, ecosystem, and sustainable management. This study also presents the trend changes of research topics intersecting climate change and SDGs every 2–3 years. Especially in the recent two years, with the convening of COP26 and COP27 and the advocacy of Net Zero and CBAM (Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism) of the EU, important topics include renewable energy, protection of ecosystem services, life cycle assessment, food security, agriculture in Africa, sustainable management, synergies of various policies, remote sensing technology, and desertification among others. This shows an increasingly diversified range of important topics being discussed in relation to climate change and sustainable development goals.

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1 Introduction

1.1 background.

Climate change has emerged as a pressing global issue that poses significant challenges to human societies and the environment [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. Climate change is primarily due to human activities, particularly the extensive combustion of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas. These human activities generate a substantial amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, leading to global warming.

Global warming, a persistent increase in Earth’s average temperature, is the most significant manifestation of climate change. This change in climate has led to numerous severe effects, including an increase in extreme weather events [ 2 ] (such as storms, floods, and droughts), the melting of glaciers and ice caps, a rise in sea levels, and changes to ecosystems [ 4 ] and agriculture [ 5 , 6 ]. If left these impacts unchecked, these impacts could have disastrous consequences for human societies and the natural environment.

In 1992, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was signed at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The goal was "to prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system," and it required countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with their responsibilities, abilities, and specific circumstances. The first substantive agreement of the UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol [ 7 ], was signed in 1997, requiring industrialized countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to below 5% of 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012. In 2009, the UN hosted a climate change conference in Copenhagen in an attempt to reach a new global agreement; however, the meeting ended without a clear agreement and was considered a failure [ 8 ]. The Paris Agreement [ 9 ] was signed at the UN Climate Change Conference in 2015, with the goal of keeping global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius. To achieve this, countries agreed to submit nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to reduce emissions and to review these goals every five years. These agreements and meetings highlight the challenges of combating climate change, including in science, policy, economics, and justice. A key issue is how to ensure economic development and poverty reduction while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These challenges and issues are intimately related to sustainable human development.

The Brundtland Report, “Our Common Future [ 10 ],” was released by the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987. The report first introduced the concept of “sustainable development,” defined as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” The Rio Declaration [ 11 ] and Agenda 21 [ 12 ] were both signed at the Earth Summit in 1992. The Rio Declaration included 27 principles on sustainable development, while Agenda 21 was a global action plan aimed at achieving a balance between the environment and development. In 2000, the United Nations established eight development goals to be achieved by 2015, known as the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which included reducing extreme poverty and hunger, improving levels of education, health, and gender equality, and ensuring environmental sustainability. The United Nations General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015, which outlines 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a blueprint for achieving a more sustainable future for all [ 13 ].

Among them, SDG13 (Climate Action) is directly related to climate change, with the aim to "take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts". SDG13 encourages all countries to respond to climate change, strengthen their resilience and adaptability to its impacts, and integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies, and plans. The goal also emphasizes enhancing education, raising people's awareness of the threats posed by climate change, and increasing institutional capacities to handle climate change. It also refers to global participation and cooperation in addressing these issues. This includes development assistance to help developing countries enhance their capacities to deal with climate change.

The goal of sustainable development is to achieve balance in social, economic, and environmental dimensions, a principle also known as the “triple bottom line [ 14 ].” Under this framework, it is not only necessary to ensure economic growth and social justice but also to ensure the health and sustainability of the Earth's ecosystems and resources. Therefore, addressing climate change is an integral part of achieving sustainable development. On the other hand, accomplishing one or more sustainable development goals is also a way to address climate change issues.

1.2 Research frontier

Addressing the issue of climate change faces many challenges and obstacles, including political challenges, economic factors, technological challenges, social and cultural barriers, and issues of inequality. Firstly, policy makers need to strike a balance between short-term economic benefits and long-term environmental sustainability. Political disagreements and national interests can also hinder the achievement and implementation of global climate agreements [ 15 , 16 ]. Secondly, transitioning to a low-carbon economy requires a significant amount of funding and investment. Many economically backward countries may lack resources to implement necessary changes [ 17 ]. Thirdly, although renewable energy technologies have made significant progress, these technologies still can't completely replace fossil fuels in many cases [ 18 ]. Fourthly, human lifestyles and consumption patterns need to undergo major changes, which may face resistance in many societies and cultures [ 19 ]. Lastly, the impacts of climate change are not equal globally. Some of the poorest and most vulnerable countries and communities are often the most affected, yet they lack the resources and capacity to cope with these changes [ 20 ].

There are numerous studies related to climate change, and these studies encompass a wide range of issues. Issues related to climate change and sustainable development goals [ 21 ], for example, the water-energy-food (nexus), has been extensively studied in relation to climate change in the past [ 22 ]. In this issue, systematic analyses, comparisons, interpretations, and governance recommendations have been proposed, along with in-depth exploration of sustainable development goals and appropriate management models [ 23 , 24 , 25 ].

The connection between climate change and the SDGs is evident, as the impacts of climate change have the potential to undermine the progress made towards achieving these goals [ 166 , 167 ]. For instance, climate change has direct implications for SDGs [ 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 ] related to poverty reduction(SDG1: NO Poverty), food security(SDG2: No Hunger) [ 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 ],energy(SDG7: Affordable and clean energy) [ 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 ], clean water and sanitation(SDG6: Clean water and sanitation), and sustainable cities [ 44 , 45 , 46 ] and communities(SDG11 Sustainable cities and communities). People must take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts, including enhancing the resilience and adaptive capacity of nations to climate-related disasters, and integrating climate change measures into national policies and planning(SDG13: Climate action). Therefore, understanding the trends and patterns of research on the interlinkages between climate change and the SDGs is crucial for policymakers, researchers, and practitioners to identify gaps and prioritize efforts in addressing these challenges [ 47 , 48 , 49 ].

However, many topics still require systematic research to formulate sustainable management strategies. For instance, key decisions from the COP26 held in 2021 included the formulation of long-term low-carbon development strategies, strengthening actions to reduce non-CO2 greenhouse gases (such as methane), and enhancing the intensity of nationally determined contributions (NDC) targets for 2030 [ 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 ]. Comprehensive assessments are needed on how countries can gradually reduce coal burning and phase out fossil fuel subsidies, as well as establish rules for the international carbon market [ 54 ].

In order to follow these resolutions, the majority of countries around the world are currently formulating net-zero emission management strategies. Net-zero emissions mean that the greenhouse gas emissions produced by an organization, city, region, or country are balanced by the amount they offset, thereby contributing zero to global warming [ 55 ].

When systematically formulating net-zero management strategies, there are several important topics that need to be considered, such as energy transition (requiring investment and policy promotion to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy) [ 56 , 57 ], green infrastructure (constructing low-carbon, green infrastructure, such as green buildings and public transportation systems) [ 58 ], green finance (encouraging and guiding financial institutions to invest in low-carbon technologies and industries, and incorporating climate risks into their risk management frameworks) [ 59 ], carbon pricing (establishing and implementing carbon pricing systems, such as carbon taxes or carbon trading markets, to reflect their true environmental costs), and international cooperation (climate change is a global issue that requires cooperation among countries to share resources and technology).

It involves multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These strategies need to take into account trade-offs or synergistic effects, including the balance between economy and environment (energy transition may lead to job loss in certain industries, but it may also create new job opportunities. Appropriate policies are needed to mitigate the impact of this transition) [ 60 , 61 , 62 ], fairness (wealthier countries have more resources to reduce emissions, while poorer countries may rely more on fossil fuels. To resolve this inequality, international aid or other mechanisms may be needed) [ 63 , 64 ], cross-sector collaboration (many solutions will require cooperative work between different sectors or industries, such as energy, transportation, construction, finance, etc.) [ 65 , 66 ], technological innovation and application (from improving energy efficiency to developing clean energy, and designing and implementing carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies, technological innovation plays a key role in achieving net-zero. Of course, this also requires resource input and a suitable policy environment to incentivize and support) [ 67 , 68 , 69 ], behavioral and cultural change (to successfully achieve net-zero, it may be necessary to change public behavior and values, from dietary habits to travel methods, and attitudes towards energy use. This may involve education, policy guidance, and public participation) [ 70 , 71 ], and ecological restoration and protection (forests, oceans, and other natural ecosystems are important carbon sinks of the planet. Protecting and restoring these ecosystems can provide important offset strategies, while also helping to protect biodiversity and enhance ecological resilience) [ 72 ].

Strategies to address climate change include mitigation and adaptation. The aforementioned net zero is a mitigation strategy, while the formulation of adaptation strategies to manage and respond to climate change also requires systematic consideration. This includes disaster prevention and post-disaster recovery, water resource management, adjustments to farming and livestock practices, urban planning and design, protection and restoration of ecosystems, and policy and legislation among other topics. Additionally, research suggests that enhancing the ability to manage extreme weather events can reduce economic, social, and human losses, and ultimately decrease borrowing from lending institutions. The vulnerability to extreme weather events, disaster management, and adaptation must become part of the long-term sustainable development planning for developing countries [ 73 , 74 , 75 , 76 ].

In this process, there indeed exist many challenges, echoing the previously mentioned obstacles faced in tackling the issue of climate change. These include technical, policy-related, economic, social, and cultural aspects. Therefore, people must take a systemic and holistic approach, implementing solutions to climate change from the framework of sustainable development.

Currently, there are over ten thousand academic papers discussing the relevance of climate change or one or more Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). There are numerous ways to summarize, integrate, or categorize these research perspectives. Common methods include convening expert meetings [ 77 , 168 ] or using literature mining software [ 73 , 74 , 78 , 169 , 170 ] such as VOSviewer, Microsoft Excel, and Biblioshiny, to conduct structured reviews of the interrelationships between Climate Change (CC) and SDGs.

The discussions at the expert meeting revealed the synergies and trade-offs between climate change and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as the impact of climate change (CC) on the achievement of the SDGs [ 77 ]. Using literature software, the bibliometrix package, and R library, it was found that precipitation, drought, and evapotranspiration are the main climate terms most focused on under the topic of climate change [ 79 ]. Moreover, an analysis using Microsoft Excel on published journal articles found that gender equality, climate action, and global health are the key words most focused on in studies related to the Sustainable Development Goals. Some researchers also presented the evolution of themes over the years, and the co-occurrence maps of key words in the context of climate change and sustainable development practice, and found that there have been many research studies in these areas, but there is still a need for more in-depth study [ 80 ].

However, as highlighted in the background, after the 2015 Paris Agreement and the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals were proposed, researchers worldwide are called upon to perform comprehensive and systematic analyses, categorizations, and discussions of the results presented by these literature analysis tools. These efforts aim to aid researchers and policymakers in addressing climate change and its related problems, as well as formulating suitable strategies for these issues, all from a perspective of sustainable development. These areas continue to require further in-depth research, and bibliometric analysis can serve as one effective method in this regard.

1.3 Research questions

The research question of this study is to examine the trends of major issues connecting climate change and the SDGs, as reflected in the literature [ 81 , 82 ]. In particular, the study aims to identify the most prominent Clusters and sub-Clusters related to this intersection and to understand the evolution of research in this area over time. This examination will help uncover potential gaps in knowledge, as well as highlight areas in need of further investigation or policy intervention.

Additionally, when systematically analyzing the issues and sub-issues of climate change within the framework of sustainable development, we still do not have a clear understanding of how many important issues related to climate change have emerged since the United Nations announced the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015, as well as the proportion of these issues in the research or which fields is leading in these areas [ 75 , 77 , 83 ]. The policy-making and research processes have not had sufficient literature to help understand the varying degrees of correlation between these issues to aid policy-makers or researchers in making appropriate strategies. Moreover, one indicator of the current situation in various countries is the development status of how researchers or research institutions in these countries view climate change within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals, but there is limited academic research on the issues connecting climate change and the sustainable development goals [ 84 ].

This study poses four questions:

Q1: What are the main research topics at the intersection of climate change and sustainable development goals?

Q2: How have the research trends at the intersection of climate change and sustainable development goals developed?

Q3: What are the main research countries at the intersection of climate change and sustainable development goals?

Q4: What are the main research fields at the intersection of climate change and sustainable development goals?

1.4 Methodological approach

This study employs a bibliometric analysis to systematically review and analyze the body of literature on the connection between climate change and the SDGs. Bibliometric analysis is a quantitative method that employs statistical techniques to analyze and classify large volumes of academic publications. This method has the advantage of providing a comprehensive and objective overview of the research landscape [ 85 ], as compared to traditional literature reviews and other classification methods, which may be subject to biases and limited in scope [ 80 , 86 , 87 ].

1.5 Significance of the study

The findings of this study will provide valuable insights into the trends and patterns of research on the interlinkages between climate change and the SDGs, helping to inform future research agendas and policy interventions. By identifying the most prominent Clusters and potential knowledge gaps in this area, this study can contribute to a better understanding of how climate change and the SDGs are interconnected, thereby supporting the development of more effective strategies to address these pressing global challenges.

1.6 Potential applications

The results of this study can be applied in various ways. For instance, the findings can be used by researchers to identify research gaps and opportunities, guiding the direction of future studies. Policymakers and practitioners can also use the insights gained from this study to prioritize efforts and allocate resources more effectively in addressing the challenges posed by climate change and achieving the SDGs. Furthermore, the study can contribute to the development of interdisciplinary research, as understanding the complex interconnections between climate change and the SDGs requires the integration of knowledge from multiple fields and disciplines.

In conclusion, this study aims to explore the research trends and patterns of major issues connecting climate change and the SDGs using a bibliometric analysis. The findings will provide valuable insights for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners.

2 Methodology

2.1 literature mining tools.

This study analyzes and categorizes literature using the two tools. The first one is called Content Analysis Toolkit for Academic Research (CATAR), the other one is called VOSviewer.

2.1.1 The benefits of using CATAR for literature analysis

CATAR is designed to help researchers analyze scholarly literature with academic value. CATAR is particularly effective in multidimensional scaling (MDS) and hierarchical agglomerative clustering (HAC) [ 88 ], which can be used as one of the presentation directions for research outcomes. MDS is a technique that presents n documents on a map according to their similarity [ 89 ], where documents with high similarity cluster in close proximity to each other, while those with low similarity are located further apart. HAC is a type of document clustering [ 90 ] that does not require users to specify the number of categories and can iteratively group the most similar documents or categories into larger groups, gradually organizing all documents from the bottom up. In particular, the complete linkage method can group files that are highly similar to each other into the same group. Therefore, if two files cite common bibliography, they will generate a coupling relationship, and the more bibliography they share, the higher the correlation will be, and the more likely they will be classified into the same category.

The topic map of this study was generated by CATAR using multidimensional scaling (MDS) technique to calculate the relative relationships between categories in a two-dimensional space and draw the topic map accordingly. In the map, circles represent a group of documents classified into the same cluster, with the size of the circle indicating the number of documents in the group, and the distance between circles representing the strength of the relationship between the groups. The closer the circles, the higher the relevance between the topics. The color of the circle represents the classification result in the next higher level, and if the circle is composed of dashed lines, it indicates that it cannot be clustered in the next level [ 91 ].

2.1.2 The benefits of using VOSviewer for literature analysis

The second tool used in this study is VOSviewer, which is a visualization tool characterized by its technical robustness and relatively simple usage. It allows for a detailed examination of bibliometric maps. In the network visualization maps produced by VOSviewer, each label is represented by a colored node, with node size determined by the frequency of use of the item. The higher the usage frequency of an item, the larger its label. In addition, the thickness of the nodes and connecting lines indicates the co-occurrence frequency of the labels. Nodes with the same color have stronger connections [ 74 , 84 , 85 , 92 ].

As keyword co-occurrence network analysis is one of the most effective methods, a large number of studies have used VOSviewer for topics such as climate change or sustainable energy [ 91 , 93 , 94 ], helping researchers quantify trends in research Clusters and future research directions. This study use keyword co-occurrence network analysis in Vosviewer.

2.2 Explanation of data background

2.2.1 the selection of the database.

The data source for this study is the Web of Science (WoS) academic database by Thomson Routers. Analysis of citation data in WoS has shown greater consistency and accuracy than other databases such as Scopus and Google Scholar, [ 95 ] thus this study only analyzed journals included in WoS.

2.2.2 Boolean operators

The background setting for downloading data from WoS was as follows: TS = (climate change) AND AB = ("sustainable development goal" OR "sustainable development goals" OR SDG OR SDGs). These documents are focused on the Cluster of climate change, and the mention of SDGs in the abstract refers to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. The SDGs aim to address major global issues, including poverty, hunger, inequality, and climate change. Therefore, if a document related to climate change also involves SDGs, it may explore how to link climate change with sustainable development goals to achieve a more sustainable future. Such research may investigate the impact of climate change on sustainable development goals or how to address issues related to climate change by achieving sustainable development goals.

2.2.3 The status of literature download

In order to understand the research trends up to December 31, 2022, a total of 2533 articles were downloaded for analysis. On the other hand, when downloading data from the WOS database, it was found that the closer it was to 2022, the more literature discussed CC and SDGs. In order to understand the research trends every 2–3 years and appropriately distribute the number of articles for analysis, research from 2015 to 2017, 2018 to 2022, and 2021 to 2022 was also downloaded. A total of 177 articles were from the first three years, 955 articles were from the middle three years, and 1401 articles were from the last two years.

3 Results and discussion

The research results are presented using the analysis results of two tools, CATAR and VOSviewer. The two research tools are distinguished by date. The data analyzed by the CATAR tool dates from 2015 to 2022, and this tool carries out a comprehensive analysis of the literature. The data analyzed by the VOSviewer tool is divided into three parts: 2015–2017 (the first three years), 2018–2020 (the middle three years), and 2021–2022 (the most recent two years), to understand the development trends of the research field. In addition, CATAR also specifically presents the main research fields and research countries of the literature as academic references.

3.1 Results and dicussion of bibliographic coupling analysis by using CATAR (2015–2022)

Using CATAR for bibliographic coupling analysis and multiple hierarchical agglomerative clustering, 19 clusters (A-1 to A-19) were obtained at the fourth level, with 1220 documents participating in clustering. The characteristic vocabulary of each cluster is shown in Table  1 (with a default threshold of 0.01), and the degree of association is shown in Fig.  1 , (with a threshold set to 0.02). Furthermore, the top five clusters in terms of proportion are related to agricultural and food systems, water and soil resources, energy, economy, ecosystem, and sustainable management, with a proportion of 53% of the documents in this level. The first cluster has the highest proportion of 34%.

Maps of the clusters (2015–2022)

In Fig.  1 , clusters 10, 11, 15, and 17 are in green, clusters 4 and 14 are in blue, and clusters 12, and 16 are in yellow. These colors indicate that they can continue to form clusters in the next level and suggest that these topics are worth exploring as they are related to each other. Dashed circles represent clusters that cannot be agglomerated in the next level.

Referring to Table  1 for the keywords condensed in each cluster, appropriate names for the clusters are assigned. The results are shown in Table  2 .

Through the research results of Fig.  1 , since the circles represent the knowledge content contained in the cluster, considering factors such as circle color, circle size, and the intersection and union of circles, a systematic discussion is conducted below.

3.1.1 The relationship about A-10, A-11, A15 and A17 (color green)

In the green circle, A-10, A-11, A-15, and A-17 are four significant topics. The critical issues intersecting these four topics, this study discovered, include "Adaptation and mitigation strategies", "Integration of knowledge and collaboration", and "Urban and community context".

The four Clusters collectively highlight the importance of both adaptation and mitigation strategies in response to climate change. Cluster 10 emphasizes the need to understand and address the health impacts of climate change as an adaptation measure [ 88 , 89 , 96 ]. Cluster 11 focuses on building resilience in coastal areas, which is another form of adaptation [ 97 ]. Cluster 15 covers various aspects of climate change adaptation strategies, including public health, particularly sanitation issues, large urban environments, and the application of green and blue infrastructure. It emphasizes the importance of considering these issues from both local and global perspectives [ 98 , 99 , 100 , 101 , 102 ]. Cluster 17 centers on mitigation strategies such as achieving carbon neutrality through renewable energy sources [ 95 , 97 , 103 , 104 , 105 ].

Clusters 11 and 17 highlight the importance of integrating knowledge from various sources and fostering collaboration between different stakeholders. Cluster 11 emphasizes the role of knowledge integration in sustainability governance, while Cluster 17 involves surveys and research on carbon balance and renewable energy, which require collaboration among experts from various fields.

Cluster 10, 11 and 17 explore the impacts of climate change and sustainable development within urban or community settings. Cluster 10 investigates the relationship between climate change and health in the context of planetary health. Cluster 15 addresses the role of green and blue infrastructure in promoting sustainable development within mega-urban areas. Cluster 17 focuses on achieving carbon neutrality in cities or countries, which has direct implications for urban and community sustainability.

3.1.2 The relationship between “ocean conservation and coral reef biodiversity” (A-12) and “corporate cultural sustainability” (A-16) (color yellow)

The relationship between "Ocean Conservation and Coral Reef Biodiversity" and "Corporate Cultural Sustainability" is closely connected to climate change and ongoing sustainable development [ 106 , 107 , 108 ]. Many companies recognize the importance of environmental sustainability, particularly in the context of climate change and sustainable development. They incorporate this into their business strategies, which includes supporting ocean conservation and preserving coral reef biodiversity through environmentally-friendly practices, philanthropy, or partnerships with non-profit organizations. Examples of this include adopting sustainable practices and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, promoting innovation in products, services, and technologies that contribute to ocean conservation and coral reef biodiversity protection, and collaborating with various stakeholders, including customers, employees, investors, and local communities, to address the challenges of climate change and support ocean conservation and coral reef biodiversity preservation [ 109 , 110 , 111 ].

3.1.3 The relationship between “ecosystems and land degradation” (A-4) and “urban infrastructure and governance” (A-14) (color blue)

First, Climate change poses threats to ecosystems and land, including extreme weather events and unstable rainfall patterns. Ecosystems play a crucial role in land conservation, water resource management, and biodiversity protection. Disrupting ecosystems increases the risk of land degradation, adversely affecting agriculture and ecological environments. Protecting and restoring ecosystems are key to achieving sustainable development goals [ 171 , 172 ].

Second, rapid urbanization necessitates large-scale infrastructure development. The expansion and management of urban infrastructure are directly linked to land use. Poor urban planning and management can lead to improper land use, overdevelopment, and environmental deterioration. Effective urban governance should emphasize the sustainability of land use, including land planning and environmental regulation. Sustainable urban infrastructure and governance help reduce the risk of land degradation while achieving sustainable development goals [ 173 , 174 , 175 , 176 ].

Therefore, the relationship between ecosystems and land degradation and urban infrastructure and governance should be viewed comprehensively. The expansion and management of urban infrastructure should fully consider ecosystem protection and land degradation prevention. For instance, urban planning may include the preservation of green spaces and natural conservation areas to promote ecosystem health. Moreover, urban governance should emphasize the involvement of multiple stakeholders to ensure that land use and infrastructure development align with the principles of sustainable development. This necessitates interdisciplinary research and policy formulation to ensure effective management of land resources during the urbanization process while safeguarding ecosystems to address climate change and achieve sustainable development goals.

3.2 Ranking of countries by the number of published papers, citation count, and publication year

The overview analysis through CATAR is used to present the top eight countries in terms of the number of published papers. Considering that each piece of literature might be co-authored by multiple individuals, the analysis results are presented using Fractional Count (FC). FC means that all the co-authors are counted as a single author. For instance, a paper co-authored by two individuals is counted as one, and the contribution of each author to the paper count is 0.5 and 0.5, respectively.

The results of the FC statistics are shown in Figs.  2 and 3 . We can observe that within the defined scope, the number of papers has significantly increased since 2015. The top eight countries in terms of the number of published papers, from most to least, are the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Australia, India, Germany, the Netherlands, and South Africa. If we only look at 2022, the top eight countries from most to least are China, India, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Spain, Germany, and Canada.

Statistical analysis of the top eight countries in terms of the number of papers published, and their publication years, using Fractional Count

Statistical analysis of the top eight countries in terms of the number of papers published in 2022, using Fractional Count

3.2.1 The number of articles interpreting climate change issues from the perspective of sustainable development goals

By observing the results presented in Fig.  2 , two pieces of information can be identified. The first piece of information is that, whether the data time is from 2015 to 2022 or only looking at 2022, China, India, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia are all in the top five. The reasons for this include several factors:

The first factor is economic influence. These countries are significant pillars of the global economy, and their policies and investment decisions have massive impacts on the global economy. For instance, China is the world's largest manufacturer and largest emitter of carbon dioxide, while the United States, as the world's largest economy, holds significant sway in driving global climate action.

The second factor is population size. India and China are the two most populous countries globally, and their decisions will have monumental impacts on global climate change. In countries with large populations, the need for sustainable development is particularly pressing [ 112 , 113 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 121 ].

The third factor is influence in science and technology. The United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia hold leadership positions in the field of science and technology, including research and development in climate science and environmental technologies. Their innovations and solutions can have significant impacts on the global climate change issue [ 115 , 116 , 117 ].

The fourth factor is policy and international leadership. These countries play critical roles in global policy and international affairs [ 122 , 123 , 124 , 125 ]. For instance, the United Kingdom was the host of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), and the United States also plays a leading role in driving the global climate agenda.

3.2.2 The increase and decrease of the number of papers published by each country

The second piece of information is that regardless of the country, the number of publications generally shows a growing trend from 2015 to 2021. The sharp increase in relevant literature published by China and India in 2022 indicates that addressing the challenges brought about by climate change and achieving sustainable development goals are issues of concern to these countries [ 126 , 127 , 128 ].

3.3 Number of publications on the relationship between CC and SDGs by field

As shown in Fig.  4 , the top eight fields and years in terms of the number of publications can be seen. We can observe that since 2015, there has been a significant increase in literature discussing the relationship between CC and SDGs. The field of Environmental Sciences & Ecology has consistently had the most publicated documents every year, followed by the field of Science & Technology—Other Topics.

Number of publications on the relationship between CC and SDGs by field

3.4 Tracking the research development trends on climate change issues from the framework of sustainable development goals every 2–3 years

The literature mining tool, Vosviewer, was used to perform co-occurrence word analysis on authors. Due to the small number of articles from 2015 to 2017, the clustering result is shown in Fig.  5 . The clustering results for 2018–2020 and 2021–2022 are shown in Figs.  6 and 7 respectively. The larger the clustered keyword, the more frequently it is mentioned by authors. Keywords of the same color indicate a higher degree of association, and are likely to discuss important topics.

Keyword relationship diagram for climate change and sustainable development goals from 2015 to 2017

Keyword relationship diagram for climate change and sustainable development goals from 2018 to 2020

Keyword relationship diagram for climate change and sustainable development goals from 2021 to 2022

3.4.1 Keywords and topics related to climate change and the implementation of sustainable development goals during 2015–2017

During 2015–2017, it is found that research keywords regarding climate change and the implementation of sustainable development goals mainly include "Ecosystem," "Climate change adaptation," "Disaster risk," "Reduction," "Public health," "Renewable energy," "Resilience," and "Water security." The topic discussed during this period is mainly "The impact of climate change on public health and its adaptation strategies." This topic covers the mutual influences of various aspects including environmental ecology, climate change, and public health, emphasizing on how to reduce disaster risks and improve public health levels through the protection and management of ecosystems to adapt to the challenges brought about by climate change. On the other hand, the development of renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, and the establishment of water security strategies also contribute to coping with climate change [ 129 , 130 , 131 , 132 ].

3.4.2 Keywords and topics related to climate change and the implementation of sustainable development goals during 2018–2020

During 2018–2020, the research trend in discussing climate change and the implementation of sustainable development goals partially continued from the previous period, and the number of keywords increased. On the other hand, from a broader framework, the research trend shifted towards cross-disciplinary approaches to tackle and adapt to climate change issues and explored how to achieve this goal by protecting the environment and promoting sustainable development [ 133 ]. The most widely addressed topics represented by keywords of different colors include the following top four: "Efficient use and management of food supply to water resources", "Sustainable ecosystem management and land use under climate change", "Adaptation strategies and sustainable development strategies for agriculture under climate change", and "Development of renewable energy" [ 134 , 135 , 136 , 137 , 138 , 139 ].

3.4.3 Keywords and topics related to climate change and the implementation of sustainable development goals during 2021–2022

By 2021–2022, the research trend showed that some keywords regarding climate change and the implementation of sustainable development goals continued from the previous stage, and the number of keywords also increased. During this time period, 'renewable energy' (marked in red) has become the most emphasized keyword against the backdrop of hot advocacy topics such as 'Net Zero' and 'CBAM' (carbon border adjustment mechanism). It particularly emphasizes how, in the process of pursuing economic growth, we can reduce carbon dioxide emissions and achieve sustainable development by improving energy efficiency and using renewable energy [ 140 ].This also echoes the resolutions of COP26 and COP27, which call for an increased proportion of clean energy, including renewable and low-carbon energy sources, acceleration in the research and development, deployment, and dissemination of low-carbon technologies, and emphasis on the importance of natural carbon sinks [ 133 , 141 , 142 , 143 , 144 , 145 ].

Other important keywords are resilience (in orange), ecosystem services; life cycle assessment (in blue), Africa; agriculture (in dark green), policy; adaptation; education (in purple), and Agenda 2030; Paris Agreement; synergy; bibliometric analysis; remote sensing; desertification (in light green).

These keywords are all related to the clusters of climate change and sustainable development, encompassing topics such as the protection of ecosystem services [ 140 , 146 , 147 , 148 ], life cycle assessment, agriculture in Africa, policy; adaptation, education [ 149 , 150 , 151 , 152 , 153 , 154 ], the global sustainable development goals (Agenda 2030), the Paris Agreement, the synergistic effects of various policies [ 155 , 156 , 157 , 158 ], bibliometric analysis, remote sensing technology [ 159 , 160 , 161 ], and desertification [ 162 , 163 , 164 , 165 ].

4 Conclusion

This study, through bibliometric analysis tools CATAR and VOSviewer, presents multiple research findings. First, both tools indicate an increasing number of links between climate change and sustainable development goals in research across countries. There is a growing body of research and policy dedicated to finding and implementing strategies to solve climate change issues. These strategies are often linked to sustainable development goals, highlighting the intersection between climate action and sustainable development.

Secondly, through CATAR, this study identified 19 clusters intersecting with climate change and SDGs (as shown in Table  2 ), among which the top five clusters in terms of proportion are related to agricultural and food systems, water and soil resources, energy, economy, ecosystem, and sustainable management, accounting for 53% of the documents. On the other hand, Fig.  1 also shows that some clusters are highly related (same color). Combined with Table  2 for further explanation, the key topics in the green block include adaptation and mitigation strategies, integration of knowledge and collaboration, and the urban and community context. The important topics in the yellow block are corporate sustainable development and biodiversity investment (especially focusing on the ocean). The important topics in the blue block include urban planning, sustainable governance, due to land degradation and the increased frequency of extreme weather events (such as droughts and floods) damaging ecosystems.

Thirdly, whether the data period is from 2015 to 2022 or just in 2022, China, India, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia are the countries with the most research on the link between climate change and sustainable development goals. This is due to their economic influence, population size, influence in science and technology, and policy and international leadership. Specifically, in 2022, the number of publications in China and India grew at the fastest rate, while the growth trend in the UK and the US was slightly slower. Furthermore, Environmental Sciences & Ecology is the field with the most publications.

Fourthly, by observing Figs. 5 , 6 , and 7 , we can see the continuation and transformation of key topics in literature discussing the link between climate change and sustainable development goals. In the early period (2015–2017), the focus was on 'the impact of climate change on public health and its adaptation strategies'. By the mid-term (2018–2020), topics expanded to include 'efficient use and management of food supply to water resources', 'sustainable ecosystem management and sustainable land use under climate change', 'agricultural adaptation strategies and sustainable development strategies under climate change', and 'development of renewable energy'.

In the later period (2021–2022), under the context of popular initiatives like net zero and CBAM (Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism), there was increased emphasis on renewable energy, as well as protection of ecosystem services, life cycle assessment, food security, agriculture in Africa, sustainable management, synergies of various policies, remote sensing technology, and desertification among others. This shows an increasingly diversified range of important topics being discussed in relation to climate change and sustainable development goals.

The interconnections among the identified Clusters highlight the complex and interrelated nature of climate change and the 17 SDGs. Understanding these interconnections can help researchers, policymakers, and practitioners develop integrated and interdisciplinary approaches to address climate change and achieve the SDGs. For example, policies promoting agroforestry and sustainable agriculture can contribute to climate change mitigation, food security, and biodiversity conservation, thereby advancing multiple SDGs simultaneously.

Lastly, it is worth mentioning that the clusters that have not been part of the coalescence (as shown in the dashed circles in Fig.  1 ) do not imply that these topics are unimportant. On the contrary, these topics could potentially become the focus of emerging research in the future, serving as a reference for future researchers to conduct in-depth studies.

Data availability

The literature data used in this study were sourced from the Web of Science database.

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Hsieh, YL., Yeh, SC. The trends of major issues connecting climate change and the sustainable development goals. Discov Sustain 5 , 31 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43621-024-00183-9

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Hot Topics on Climate Change

On June 1, 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump announced he will withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement. In spite of this announcement, the fact remains that a global climate change agreement under the United Nations was adopted in December 2015 in Paris. Prior to Trump’s presidency, countries—including the United States— had submitted their “intended nationally determined contributions” (INDCs) for the next one-and-a-half decades. These INDCs lower global greenhouse gas emissions compared to existing policies. However, when projected further into the future, the INDCs still suggest a median warming of roughly 2.5 to 3.0°C by 2100. This exceeds the “well-below 2°C” aim of the Paris Agreement, and year-2030 emissions are higher than what energy-economic analyses indicate would minimize overall costs in view of the necessary long-term reductions. Should the United States really depart the Paris Agreement, which can only technically happen on November 4, 2020 (at the earliest), the situation will only get worst.

Many hot topics have marked the year when it comes to climate change. And it is very likely —more than 90 percent probability—using Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) technical language, that these topics, and many others, will continue to be increasingly hot in the United States and elsewhere during 2017 and beyond.

The Climate in 2016

Climate conditions were not that great in 2016. Last year the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that the global surface temperature was record warm in 2015. This presses the record set the year before by 0.16°C, the largest margin ever by which one year has beaten another on the records (NOAA 2016). And climate trends continued to break marks in 2016, according to NASA (2016).

Only in the course of this year will we know for certain, but a preliminary November 2016 WMO report assessed that 2016 will likely be the hottest year on record, with global temperatures reaching even higher marks than the record-breaking temperatures of 2015 (WMO 2016). Global average temperature by the end of 2016 was already running 1.2°C above pre-industrial levels, a number perilously close to the 1.5°C target aim of the Paris climate agreement of December 2015.

On other fronts, while global temperatures warmed, here in the United States the political climate also began to heat up. Exactly a month and a half after the landmark Paris Agreement officially took effect on November 4, 2016—when one hundred nations, accounting for 69 percent of global greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions, had formally joined the treaty (UNFCCC 2016)—Mr. Donald John Trump was formally elected by the United States Electoral College on December 19, 2016 as the country´s 45th President. 

The hot topic here is that, on various recent occasions, President Trump expressed his skepticism about human-induced climate change. This included a tweet expressing a view that “the concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive,” and various other public manifestations. Trump stated that with his “America First Energy Plan” he would revert all of President Obama´s policies on climate change, which would include cancelling the country’s participation in the Paris Agreement, ending U.S. funding of the United Nations climate change programs, and abandoning the Clean Power Plan—in order to bring back the coal industry. 

Mr. Trump’s leadership choices for the Department of Energy, the Department of Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency—the three most important, energy-policy-related Federal State institutions—have either denied or strongly challenged the science of climate change. In fact, at the same time that many world leaders are creating dedicated policies to support climate change mitigation and supporting renewable energy sources in order to open new economic sectors, some world leaders perceive this movement as a threat to existing, more conservative, economic forces, like the ones associated with the fossil-fuel industry (Nature 2016b). And indeed, on June 1, 2017, when President Trump proclaimed that the United States was quitting the Paris Climate Agreement, he very much pleased some of the forces within his administration that goaded him to do so.

The Paris Agreement: The Starting Point of a Three-Year Process

Under the December 2015 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Paris Agreement, more than 190 nations committed to take ambitious action 1) to hold the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, 2) to pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C, and 3) to achieve net zero emissions in the second half of this century (UNFCCC 2016a). This means that, from emissions of roughly 50 GtCO2eq/yr today, in the second half this century these emissions will not only need to be zeroed completely, but turned negative. 

This will only be possible with massive carbon sequestration, which is the process of removing carbon from the atmosphere and depositing it in a reservoir. The candidate sectors for this process are the land use sector, with the afforestation and reforestation of large areas of the globe, and the power sector, with the use of carbon dioxide removal technologies, such as fossil-fuel-based and biomass-based power plants with carbon capture and sequestration facilities. 

Already earlier, in preparation of the agreement, countries had submitted their “intended nationally determined contributions” (INDCs) for the agreed 2025 to 2030 period, promising to lower global GHG emissions compared to already existing policies. These INDCs outline national plans to address climate change after 2020. They address a range of issues of which targets and actions for mitigating GHG emissions are a core component. 

The Paris Agreement is a general document, with a framework and overarching goals for global climate action. It is the beginning of a longer process. Some of its loose ends were tied up during the 22nd Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 22) in Marrakech in November of 2016  (UNFCCC 2016b)—which served as the first meeting of the governing body of the Agreement. But ironing out Paris Agreement details will take some time. Countries participating in COP 22 aim to have the process established by 2018, with a review of progress planned for this same year. But the only concrete outcomes of COP 22 were procedural in nature, with parties to the Convention adopting work plans for further discussions.

However, the real result of the Paris Agreement and of COP 22 (and their long-term success) will depend on assessments of whether or not the already committed pledges, and the ones to come, will have the expected effect on reducing aggregate GHG emissions. Success will mean that the world achieved the temperature objective of holding global warming to well below 2°C and is continuing to “pursue efforts“ to limit it to 1.5°C.

Temperature Increase as a Consequence of the INDCs

It should come as no surprise that limiting global warming to any level implies that the total amount of GHG emissions that can ever be emitted into the atmosphere is finite, given the technical and economic limitations of carbon sequestration possibilities to compensate for that. For example, for a higher than 66 percent chance (meaning “likely”) of limiting global warming to below the internationally agreed temperature limit of 2°C, carbon budget estimates range around 590 to1,240 Gt CO2 from 2015 onward (Rogelj et al 2016b). 

According to IPCC language, a statement that an outcome is “likely” means that the probability of this outcome can range from ≥66 percent (fuzzy boundaries implied) to 100 percent probability. This implies that all alternative outcomes are “unlikely” (0 to 33 percent probability). To put this carbon-budged range in perspective, given current annual emissions of about 40 Gt CO2 globally, this means that the world has a budget of no more than 15 to 60 years of CO2 emissions left at the level of today´s emissions to limiting global warming to 2°C. Only the successful deployment of carbon sequestration practices and technologies could extend this time frame. 

More specifically, for keeping warming to below 2°C, some two thirds of the total CO2 budget have already been emitted, with an urgent need for global CO2 emissions to start to decline, so as not to foreclose the possibility of holding warming to below 2°C. The Paris Agreement acknowledges both of these insights and aims, on the one hand, to reach global peaking of GHG emissions as soon as possible and, on the other hand, to achieve “a balance” between anthropogenic emissions and removals of GHGs in the second half of this century (UNFCCC 2016a).

The purpose of this digest is to assess the extent to which the proposed INDCs impact global GHG emissions by 2030, and explore the consistency of these reductions with the “well below 2°C” objective of the Paris Agreement. This analysis draws heavily on a previous published work (Rogelj et al 2016a), in which I was one of the authors, and where we updated and expanded INDC modelling results that were collected in the framework of the 2015 UNEP Emissions Gap Report (UNEP 2015), in which I was also one of the authors.

The number of INDCs considered by the studies we assessed ranged from the initial 118 INDCs submitted by October 1, 2015 to the final 160 INDCs from the different parties submitted by December 12, 2015 (Rogelj et al 2016a). These INDCs cover emissions from Parties to the Convention responsible for roughly 85 to 88 percent to more than 96 percent of global emissions in 2012. Furthermore, we look at projections of global-mean temperature increase over the twenty-first century that would be consistent with the INDCs, and at post-2030 implications of the INDCs for limiting warming to no more than 2°C.

We used four scenario groups to frame the implications of the INDCs for global GHGs in 2030: 1) no-policy baseline scenarios, 2) current-policy scenarios, 3) INDC scenarios, and 3) least-cost 2°C scenarios:

• No-policy baseline scenarios are emissions projections that assume that no new climate policies have been put into place from 2005 onwards. In this analysis, the no-policy baseline scenarios are selected from the scenario database that accompanied the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) (available at: https://tntcat.iiasa.ac.at/AR5DB/ ) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) By design, these no-policy baseline scenarios exclude climate policies, but may include other policies that can influence emissions and are implemented for other reasons, like some energy efficiency or energy security policies.
• Current-policy scenarios consider the most recent estimates of global emissions and take into account implemented policies. These scenarios were drawn from three global INDC analyses (see Rogelj et al 2016a for more details).  Not all countries and sectors are covered by these official and independent country-specific data sources. If this is the case, the median estimate of the three global studies for the ‘current-policy baseline’ for that country or sector is assumed.
• INDC scenarios are at the core of this analysis. They project how global GHG emissions would evolve under the INDCs. These projections are based on the eight global INDC analyses (see Rogelj et al 2016a for more details), which in their calculations use official estimates from the countries themselves.
• 2°C scenarios are idealized global scenarios which are consistent with limiting warming to well below 2°C, keeping open the option of strengthening the global temperature target to 1.5°C. These scenarios are based on a subset of scenarios from the IPCC AR5 Scenario Database that meet the following criteria: they have a greater than 66 per cent chance of keeping warming to below 2°C by 2100; until 2020, they assume that the actions countries pledged earlier under the UNFCCC Cancun Accord are fully implemented; and after 2020, they distribute emission reductions across regions, gases and sectors in such a way that the total discounted costs of the necessary global reductions are minimised, often referred to as least-cost or cost-optimal trajectories.

All scenarios are here expressed in terms of billion tons of global annual CO2 equivalent emissions (Gt CO2e/yr), with. CO2 equivalence of other GHGs calculated by means of 100-year global warming potentials (GWP-100) (Rogelj et al 2016a).

INDC Aggregate Emissions Impact

Different countries report their INDCs differently. Some provide ranges instead of a single number of emissions reductions. Many INDCs lack necessary details, including clarity on sectors and gases covered, on the base year or a reference from which reductions would be measured, or accounting practices related to land use and the use of specific market mechanisms. Also, some of the actions listed in INDCs are, implicitly or explicitly, conditional on other factors, like the availability of financial or technological support. The interpretation of all these factors influences the range of possible outcomes. So, conditional and unconditional INDC scenarios have to be distinguished from each other, although some argue that, implicitly, all INDCs are conditional, with “some being more conditional than others.” This is because, even if a country submits an unconditional INDC, later in time facts out of a country’s control may change its future priorities. Even so, we will keep here a distinction between conditional and unconditional INDCs.

Unconditionally, the INDCs are expected to result in global GHG emissions of about 55 (52 to 57; 10 to 90 percent range) billion tons of annual CO2 equivalent emissions (Gt CO2e/yr; see four scenerio groups above and Figure 1 below) in 2030. This is a reduction of around 9 (7 to 13) Gt CO2e/yr by 2030 relative to the median no-policy baseline scenario estimate and around 4 (2 to 8) Gt CO2e/yr relative to the median current-policy scenario estimate. To have these numbers in context, global GHG emissions in 2010 are estimated at about 48 (46 to 50) Gt CO2e/yr (UNEP 2015), and our median no-policy baseline estimate reaches about 65 Gt CO2e/yr by 2030.

A number of countries place conditions on all or part of their INDC. Some included a range of reduction targets in their INDC and attached conditions to the implementation of the more ambitious end. Others indicate that their entire INDC is conditional. Of the INDCs submitted, roughly half came with both conditional and unconditional components, a third was conditional only, and the rest did not make any distinction. 

For a number of countries, the targets included in their INDC submission suggest achieving emission levels above the estimated no-policy baseline or their current-policy scenario. These countries are thus expected to overachieve their INDC climate targets by default.

Uncertainties in the Estimates and Optimal 2°C Pathways

There is a wide range of possible estimates of future emissions under nominally similar scenarios. These differences are a result of a number of factors, including modeling methods, input data, and assumptions regarding country intent. In fact, four confounding factors in this respect can be identified: 1) global and national sectors coverage, 2) uncertainties in projections, 3) land-use emissions, and 4) historical emissions and metrics.

Once the GHG implications of the INDCs by 2030 are quantified, the question that remains is whether these levels are consistent with the Paris Agreement’s aim of holding warming to well below 2°C. The Paris Agreement’s aim of reaching net-zero GHG emissions in the second half of the century goes even further. For some non-CO2 emissions, only limited mitigation options have been identified. Therefore, net-zero CO2 emissions are always achieved before achieving net-zero GHG emissions. The Scenario Database that accompanied the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Chang (IPCC) is used to explore cost-optimal 2°C pathways from 2020 onward (four scenerios).

The comparison of these cost-optimal 2°C scenarios to the INDC projections shows a large discrepancy (Fig. 1). The median cost-optimal path towards keeping warming to below 2°C (starting reductions in 2020) and the emissions currently implied by the unconditional INDCs differ by about 14 (10–16) Gt CO2e/yr in 2030. Even if the conditions that are linked to some INDCs are met, this difference remains of the order of 11 Gt CO2e/yr. As they stand now, the INDCs clearly do not lead the world to a pathway towards limiting warming to well below 2°C.

Implications of INDCs Post 2030

A large share of the potential warming until 2100 is determined not just by the INDCs until 2025 or 2030, but also by what happens afterwards. Different approaches can be followed to extend INDCs into the future, which basically assume that climate action stops, continues, or accelerates. Stopping action is often modelled by assuming that emissions return to a no-climate-policy trajectory after 2030; continuing action by assuming that the level of post-2030 action is similar to pre-2030 action on the basis of a metric of choice; and accelerating action by post-2030 action that goes beyond such a level. Because of the path-dependence and inertia of the global energy system, the INDCs have a critical role in preparing what can come afterwards.

Each approach may lead to different global temperature outcomes, even when starting from the same INDC assessment for 2025 to 2030. As a conservative interpretation of the Paris Agreement, the assumption made here is that climate action continues after 2030 at a level of ambition that is similar to that of the INDCs. The assumption that climate action will continue or accelerate over time is supported by the Agreement’s requirement that the successive nationally determined contribution (NDC) of each country must represent a progression beyond the earlier contributions, and reflect the highest possible ambition of that country.

Under these assumptions of continued climate action, the 2030 unconditional-INDC emission range is roughly consistent with a median warming relative to pre-industrial levels of 2.6 to 3.1°C (median, 2.9°C; full scenario projection uncertainty, 2.2 to 3.5°C; Table 1), with warming continuing its increase afterwards. This is an improvement on the current-policy and no-policy baseline scenarios, whose median projections suggest about 3.2°C and more than 4°C of temperature rise by 2100, respectively.

The successful implementation of all conditional INDCs would decrease the median estimate by an additional 0.2°C, but keeps the outcome far from the targets the Paris Agreement is aiming for, with well-below 2°C and 1.5°C of warming. Moreover, all above-mentioned values represent median projections coming out of emission scenarios, which in themselves are a function of uncertain assumptions with respect to population growth (more growth, more emissions), economic growth (here too, more growth, more emissions) and even rates of technological improvements (more improvements, less emissions).

Because the climate response to GHG emissions remains uncertain, it is also possible that substantially higher temperatures will materialize with compelling likelihoods (Table 1). For example, at the 66th percentile level, warming under the unconditional INDCs is projected to be about 0.3 °C higher (3.2°C, with a range of 2.9 to 3.4°C). Finally, the INDC cases that are discussed here will exceed the available carbon budget for keeping warming to below 2°C by 2030 with 66 percent probability (that is, roughly 750 to 800 Gt CO2e implied emissions under the INDCs during the 2011 to 2030 period compared to the 750 to 1,400 Gt CO2e available).

The question thus arises whether global temperature rise can be kept to well below 2°C with accelerated action after 2030. Global scenarios that aim to keep warming to below 2°C and that achieve this objective from 2030 GHG emissions similar to those from the INDC range have been assessed in detail by recent large-scale model-comparison projects (Clarke et al 2014 and Riahi et al 2015), but show that even with accelerated action after 2030 options to keep warming to well below 2°C from current INDCs are severely limited, particularly if some key mitigation technologies, such as Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) or CCS with biomass energy (BECCS), for example, do not scale up as anticipated.

Scenarios in which global warming is successfully contained show rapidly declining emissions after 2030, with global CO2 emissions from energy- and industry-related sources reaching net-zero levels between 2060 and 2080. The global economy is thus assumed to fully decarbonize in the time span of three to five decades and from 2030 levels that are higher than today’s. Furthermore, about two-thirds of these scenarios achieve a balance of global GHG emissions between 2080 and 2100. Because some non-CO2 emissions are virtually impossible to eliminate entirely (for example those from specific agricultural or animal agricultural sources), reaching such a balance will involve net-negative CO2 emissions at a global scale to compensate for any residual non-CO2 emissions, limiting global-average temperatures increase over time.

Exploring futures in which a global balance of GHG emissions can be achieved in the second half of this century with technically feasible and societally acceptable technologies represents a major research challenge emerging from the Paris Agreement. This challenge is particularly relevant to policy, because limiting emissions in 2030 does not only increase the chances of attaining the 2°C target, but also reduces the need to rely on unproven, potentially risky or controversial technologies in the future (Clark et al 2014 and Riahi et al 2015).

Final Considerations

The world has made its decision on Climate Change, despite some recent setbacks here and there. As a recent Editorial of the New York Times put it very clearly, “It´s hard to know how Mr. Trump will change climate policy, but it is almost certain that he won’t advance it” (The New York Times 2016). And indeed, if it is true that the United States will leave the Paris Agreement, for sure it will lose the ability to pressure other countries, including the large emerging economies like Brazil, China and India, to do more.

On the global front, as discussed here, actions may still be too slow and/or too weak, but we can be optimistic and say that, in spite of some hurdles on the way, momentum is building. Covering more than 90 percent of the world’s GHG emissions with climate plans in the form of INDCs was a historic achievement. Now that the Paris Agreement came into force, and that the original INDCs are not simply “Intended” anymore (so, they are no longer INDCs but now Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs), it will continue with NDCs, subject to strong transparency of individual contributions and a global stock-take, in the light of equity and science, every five years.

However, the optimism accompanying this process has to be carefully balanced against the important challenges that current INDCs imply for post-2030 emissions reductions. Even starting now limiting warming to no more than 2°C relative to preindustrial levels constitutes an enormous societal challenge. While the contributions open a new era for climate policy under the Paris agreement, they also represent both an invitation and call, if not a need, for further action. Furthering deeper reductions in the coming decade, as well as preparing for a global transformation until mid-century are critical. In absence of incrementally stronger policy signals over the coming five years to a decade, the likelihood that our society will be able to meet the challenge of limiting warming to below 2°C with less than even odds will become extremely small.

Therefore, let us put this clear: Should the United States’ new administration, indeed step back from the previous administration commitment, two possibilities could arise. First, other major emitting nations could also follow suit, turning the Paris Agreement an absolutely irrelevant effort of international negotiation, driving the planet towards unknown climate consequences. Second, because the United States is the second largest GHG emitter, with some 15 percent of world´s total emissions, any climate-change global agreement to succeed would probably also require to have the United States on board, something that is now under a question mark. Therefore, the latter in itself is already a problem even if the former does not materialize. Interestingly enough, the very structure of the Paris Agreement, like the Kyoto Protocol, was designed largely to United States specifications, and also an answer to United States’ prayers.

The problem is that, in fact, political upsets could stall coordinated international mitigation action, with long-term consequences, eventually even rendering the 2°C target unachievable (Sanderson et at 2016). Interesting enough, although the governments of the world have requested the IPCC to assess, through a Special Report due in 2018 (IPCC 2016), the impacts of 1.5°C of warming, as well as ways to prevent temperatures from rising higher, many scientists have practically already written off the chances of limiting warming to 1.5 °C (Rogelj et al 2016b and Luderer et al 2016).

As discussed before, the Paris Agreement commits governments to keeping average global surface temperatures to between 1.5°C and 2°C above the preindustrial level, but warming has already passed the 1°C mark (WMO 2016). If the 2°C goal is already seen implausible by some, given a lack of more effective actions and current politics, let alone the even more ambitions 1.5°C target (Nature 2016a), let us hope that the economies of the world will be able to do their homework on time. We cannot travel the last mile with quick fixes, which would be too dependent on extremely risky and uncertain technologies, such as geoengineering, as some have begun to consider (Hubert et al 2016). Unfortunately, the recent move of the current United States Administration with respect to the Paris Agreement is not going to be of much help in that respect.

T his digest has been inspired by from Rogelj et al (2016a), of which Roberto Schaeffer is one of the authors. The author wishes to acknowledge extremely helpful comments from a reviewer of an earlier draft. Any remaining errors are the responsibility of the author alone.

Roberto Schaeffer

Clarke, L. et al. in Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (eds O. Edenhofer et al.) Ch. 6, 413-510 (Cambridge University Press, 2014). Hubert, AM., Kruger, T. Rayner, S. Code of conduct for geoengineering. Nature 537, 488 (2016). IPCC. Scoping Meeting for the IPCC Special Report on the Impacts of global warming of 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways. Geneva, Switzerland, 15-16 August. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sr15/ , accessed on 30 December (2016). Luderer, G., Kriegler, E., Delsa, L., Edelenbosch, O. Y., Emmerling, J., Krey, V., McCollum, D. L., Pachauri, S., Riahi, K., Saveyn, B., Tavoni, M., Vrontisi, Z., van Vuuren, D. P., Arent, D., Arvesen, A., Fujimori, S., Iyer, G. Keppo, I., Kermeli, K., Mima, S., Ó Broin, E., Pietzcker, R. C., Sano, F., Scholz, Y., van Ruijven, B. & Wilson, C. Deep decarbonisation towards 1.5 °C – 2 °C stabilisation. Policy findings from the ADVANCE project (first edition, 2016). NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/climate-trends-continue-to-bre… , accessed on 20 December (2016). Nature. Climate ambition. Nature 537, 585-586, 29 September (2016a). Nature. Let reason prevail. Nature 538, 289, 20 October (2016b). NOAA. http://www.noaa.gov/climate , accessed on 20 December (2016). Riahi, K. et al. Locked into Copenhagen pledges — Implications of short-term emission targets for the cost and feasibility of long-term climate goals. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 90, Part A, 8-23, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2013.09.016 (2015). Rogelj, J., den Elzen, M., Hohne, N., Fransen, T., Fekete, H., Winkler, H., Schaeffer, R., Sha, F., Riahi, K. & Meinshausen, M. Paris Agreement climate proposals need a boost to keep warming well below 2 °C. Nature 534, 631-639, doi:10.1038/nature18307 (2016a). Rogelj, J., Schaeffer, M., Friedlingstein, P., Gillett, N. P., van Vuuren, D. P., Riahi, K., Allen, M. & Knutti, R. Differences between carbon budget estimates unravelled. Nature Climate Change 6, 245-252-, doi: 10.1038/nclimate2868 (2016b). Sanderson, B. M. & Knutti, R. Delays in US mitigation could rulled out Paris targets. Nature Climate Change, advance publication, published online on 26 December, http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nclimate3193.html , accessed on 28 December (2016). The New York Times. States Will Lead on Climate Change in the Trump Era. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/26/opinion/states-will-lead-on-climate-ch… , accessed on 26 December (2016). UNEP. The Emissions Gap Report 2015. 98 (UNEP, Nairobi, Kenya, 2015). UNFCCC. Adoption of the Paris Agreement. Report No. FCCC/CP/2015/L.9/Rev.1, http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2015/cop21/eng/109r01.pdf , accessed on 20 December (2016a). UNFCCC. http://unfccc.int/meetings/marrakech_nov_2016/session/9676.php , assessed on 27 December (2016b). WMO. https://public.wmo.int/en/media/press-release/provisional-wmo-statement-… , accessed on 20 December (2016).  

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Research Article

How relevant is climate change research for climate change policy? An empirical analysis based on Overton data

Roles Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliations Science Policy and Strategy Department, Administrative Headquarters of the Max Planck Society, Munich, Germany, Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart, Germany

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart, Germany

Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation SciTech Strategies, Inc., Albuquerque, NM, United States of America

Roles Conceptualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Roles Conceptualization, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC), Berlin, Germany

• Lutz Bornmann, 
• Robin Haunschild, 
• Kevin Boyack, 
• Werner Marx, 
• Jan C. Minx

• Published: September 22, 2022
• https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0274693
• Reader Comments

Climate change is an ongoing topic in nearly all areas of society since many years. A discussion of climate change without referring to scientific results is not imaginable. This is especially the case for policies since action on the macro scale is required to avoid costly consequences for society. In this study, we deal with the question of how research on climate change and policy are connected. In 2019, the new Overton database of policy documents was released including links to research papers that are cited by policy documents. The use of results and recommendations from research on climate change might be reflected in citations of scientific papers in policy documents. Although we suspect a lot of uncertainty related to the coverage of policy documents in Overton, there seems to be an impact of international climate policy cycles on policy document publication. We observe local peaks in climate policy documents around major decisions in international climate diplomacy. Our results point out that IGOs and think tanks–with a focus on climate change–have published more climate change policy documents than expected. We found that climate change papers that are cited in climate change policy documents received significantly more citations on average than climate change papers that are not cited in these documents. Both areas of society (science and policy) focus on similar climate change research fields: biology, earth sciences, engineering, and disease sciences. Based on these and other empirical results in this study, we propose a simple model of policy impact considering a chain of different document types: The chain starts with scientific assessment reports (systematic reviews) that lead via science communication documents (policy briefs, policy reports or plain language summaries) and government reports to legislative documents.

Citation: Bornmann L, Haunschild R, Boyack K, Marx W, Minx JC (2022) How relevant is climate change research for climate change policy? An empirical analysis based on Overton data. PLoS ONE 17(9): e0274693. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0274693

Editor: Alberto Baccini, University of Siena, Italy, ITALY

Received: March 21, 2022; Accepted: September 1, 2022; Published: September 22, 2022

Copyright: © 2022 Bornmann et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: The data underlying the results presented in the study are available from https://doi.org/10.17617/3.DUY0LD .

Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Introduction

People have long believed that nature is so vast and powerful that mankind has not the potential for any major and lasting effect on the earth’s climatic system. One century ago, Arrhenius [ 1 ], one of the discoverers of the greenhouse effect, even welcomed a hotter climate for Northern Europe. According to Weart [ 2 ], the World Climate Conference in Geneva in 1979 and the reports of the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1983 are important milestones at the beginning of the climate debate, particularly beyond the scientific community.

In the 1960s many experts assumed that swings of the global mean temperature take tens of thousands of years; in the 1970s, they assumed thousands of years. Meanwhile, ice core data from the last Glacial Period show that abrupt global warming is possible and can happen within a few decades or even within a few years as a climate shock [see 3 , climate change beyond 2100, irreversibility and abrupt changes]. In the 1980s, climate change was no longer a theoretical problem. It was widely agreed among experts that global warming could be a concrete threat. A growing number of well-respected climate researchers (like Roger Revelle, Stephen Schneider, James Hansen, Bert Bolin) were deeply concerned and pointed out that the earth was getting noticeably warmer. A series of meetings of meteorologists held in Villach, Austria, led to a growing conviction that global warming may not be a problem of the far future but might become serious within the scientists’ own lifetimes. Subsequently, scientists took an active stance and prompted governments to act soon, because the rate and degree of future warming could be influenced by governmental policy [see 2 , breaking into policy].

The year 1988 marked an important turning point for climate science and policy. Supported by governments around the globe, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was founded under the roof of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) as a unique science-policy interface. The panel, i.e., participating governments, tasked a set of elected scientists to assess the state of climate science in dedicated reports, i.e., to review and synthesize scientific information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of climate change and of its risk, its environmental, political, and economic impacts and possible response options (see https://www.ipcc.ch/reports/ ). The latest report is from 2021 [ 4 ].

These assessments follow strict principles and procedures (see https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/09/ipcc-principles.pdf and https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/09/ipcc-principles-appendix-a-final.pdf ) to ensure policy relevance without being policy prescriptive. Hundreds of scientists and other experts contribute to the assessment in diverse author teams from a wide range of disciplines including climate physics, engineering, economics, geography, political science, psychology, sociology or urban science and from different world regions to ensure balanced findings. Review is another critical element of IPCC reports. Authors have to respond to tens of thousands of submitted comments by experts and governments in two rounds of review. Important for the dignity of IPCC assessments in the political sphere is the formal acceptance of the reports by the 195 member countries and the line-by-line approval of the summary for policymakers [ 5 – 8 ].

IPCC has been designed and used as the prime scientific input to international climate diplomacy under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change–and as such contributed to international climate agreements–most importantly, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement. Meanwhile, climate policy has become an integral part of most national policy programs. These programs include political actions that governments take to achieve the goal of limiting climate change and its consequences [see 9 ].

In its summary for policymakers, the Climate change 2014 synthesis report [ 3 ] states that “human influence on the climate system is clear, and recent anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases are the highest in history. Recent climate changes have had widespread impacts on human and natural systems” (p. 2). A recent study found that detectable and attributable climate impacts are documented in tens of thousands of scientific studies affecting 80% of the world’s land area, where 85% of the world population resides [ 10 ]. As such, it is unsurprising that the topic of climate change has become a hot topic in political and public debates and now features widely on political agendas across many different fields.

In this study, we deal with the question of how research on climate change and policy are connected. According to Yin, Gao [ 11 ], the systematic understanding of the connection between science and policy is still limited, since reliable data are missing on a global scale. In 2019, however, the new Overton database of policy documents was released including links to research papers that are cited by policy documents. Yang, Huang [ 9 ] define policy documents in this context as “‘carriers’ of policies … [that] provide a channel through which policy science researchers can study the main contents of policies, policymaking processes and policy instruments”. Using Overton data, Yin, Gao [ 11 ] analyzed the connection between science and policy with respect to COVID-19. They found that “many policy documents in the COVID-19 pandemic substantially access recent, peer-reviewed, and high-impact science. And policy documents that cite science are especially highly cited within the policy domain. At the same time, there is a heterogeneity in the use of science across policy-making institutions. The tendency for policy documents to cite science appears mostly concentrated within intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), such as the World Health Organization (WHO), and much less so in national governments, which consume science largely indirectly through the IGOs” (p. 128).

Impact measurement of scientific papers on the policy area is part of a new branch in scientometrics: measurement of societal impact [ 12 ]. Whereas science impact measurements of papers were restricted to citation analyses (using Web of Science, WoS, or Scopus data) until recently, societal impact measurements are focused on impact analyses of papers on other parts of society than science [ 13 ]. One part of the society is of special interest in this respect: the policy area. The policy area is permanently required to find answers on certain societal demands (such as COVID-19 or climate change). Since science permanently produces research results that can (and should) be used in the response to these demands, it is interesting to know, whether and to what extent this happens. Fang, Dudek [ 14 ] defines the term ‘policy impact’ in this respect as impact that “tells the story of how research outputs provide concrete evidence to support policy-making processes, which can be reflected by the references to research outputs in policy documents”. The use of research findings in the policy-making process is denoted as evidence-based policy-making [ 15 ] or science-based policy-making [ 16 ]. OPENing UP [ 17 ] regards “informing policy and influencing decisions … as one of the most notable effects of scientific research” (p. 24).

Overview of studies on policy impact

The overview of studies dealing with the use of scientific information/publications in policy making by Vilkins and Grant [ 18 ] reveals that a number of studies exists that are based on interviews and surveys (with policymakers). These studies show, e.g., that the use of scientific publications in policy documents seems to depend on organizational culture and perspectives towards their use. Furthermore, some policy areas (such as information technology) use scientific information more frequently than others (e.g., immigration or justice). The use of scientific information in policy might be distinguished according to three stylized purposes: “‘instrumental’ use is direct and measurable for policy; ‘conceptual’ use … [is] indirect but rather affects thinking over a longer period of time; ‘symbolic’ use is when specific findings are selected for rhetorical or political argument” [ 18 ]. Sources of scientific information preferred by policymakers are the internet, meetings, and emailing colleagues. Yang, Huang [ 9 ] reviewed some studies that have analyzed networks of policymaking institutions to gain insights into their relationships. These studies focused on policymaking organizations’ networks, public service organizations’ networks, and policy collaboration networks.

In the area of altmetrics research, a recent overview of studies on measuring policy impact using altmetric data can be found in Fang, Dudek [ 14 ] and Yang, Huang [ 9 ]. A number of studies has used policy impact data from Altmetric ( https://www.altmetric.com ) or PlumX ( https://plumanalytics.com ) [see 19 , 20 ]. Very recent studies used Overton data [e.g., 11]. In the following, we summarize some of these policy impact studies chronologically. One of the first studies in this new altmetrics area was published by Bornmann, Haunschild [ 21 ] using an extensive publication set of climate change papers. The authors were interested in the question of how intensively policy documents have cited science publications. Although climate change is an ongoing policy topic worldwide, they found that only 1.2% out of 191,276 papers on climate change in the dataset have at least one policy citation (using data from Altmetric). The results of Bornmann, Haunschild [ 21 ] revealed that review papers were more frequently cited in policy documents than articles. In order to investigate whether the percentage of 1.2% can be thought of as high or low, two of the authors investigated the percentage of papers indexed in the WoS that are mentioned in policy-related documents [ 22 ]. They found that less than 0.5% are mentioned at least once. Thus, the results show that although only 1.2% of climate change papers were relevant for policy documents, this percentage is substantially higher than the percentage among all papers from the database.

Vilkins and Grant [ 18 ] did not use data from Altmetric or PlumX for their empirical study, but used publications from policy-focused Australian Government departments. The authors were interested in the research and reference practices of Australian policymakers. The study is based on 4,649 cited references in 80 government publications from eight departments. They found that mostly peer-reviewed journal articles, federal government reports, and Australian business information have been cited. The study also revealed “a possible increased chance for academic research to be cited if it was open access. Despite criticisms of citation analysis, at least in the field of research utilisation we cannot solely rely on interview or survey data, as cited evidence use differs from reported evidence use” [ 18 ].

Tattersall and Carroll [ 23 ] used Altmetric policy documents data to investigate policy impact of papers published by authors at the University of Sheffield. They found that 0.65% of the papers were cited by at least one policy document. This percentage is slightly higher than that mentioned by Haunschild and Bornmann [ 22 ] for the WoS database. The field-specific policy-impact analysis revealed that “the research topics with the greatest policy impact are medicine, dentistry, and health, followed by social science and pure science” [ 23 ]. In a more recent study, Yang, Huang [ 9 ] used the Chinese database iPolicy that includes policy documents issued by the Chinese government since 1949. The authors used the data to construct networks of policy-making ministries and government departments. They were interested in identifying core policymakers in China and possible changes of their positions in the networks. Yang, Huang [ 9 ] present 15 ministries in China with the highest eigenvector centrality as core government ministries in the policy networks.

Fang, Costas [ 24 ] focused on hot research topics reflected by citations in policy documents (using Altmetric.com data). The study is based on more than 10 million WoS papers published in various disciplines. The authors identified the hot topics in various broad disciplines. For example, they found that infectious diseases were typically of concern to policy-makers, but also topics that focus on industry and finance as well as child and education. In addition, “potential health-threatening environment problems (e.g., ‘ambient air pollution’, ‘environmental tobacco smoke’, ‘climate change’, etc.) drew high levels of attention from policy-makers too” [ 24 ].

Hicks and Isett [ 25 ] published a case study that investigated the policy impact of papers published in the area of quantitative studies of science. The authors speculated that many papers in this area have limited policy impact, but some papers such as the papers selected for their case study received a lot of policy impact. Hicks and Isett [ 25 ] explain in detail the policy impact of the selected papers. For example, the authors selected the well-known study by Mansfield [ 26 ], Mansfield [ 27 ] that estimated the social rate of return to public research spending. Hicks and Isett [ 25 ] describe the diverse policy impact reached by this paper using several sources.

In the most recent study, Pinheiro, Vignola-Gagné [ 28 ] used publication data from Framework Programmes (FPs) for Research and Technological Development. The authors investigated the relationship of cross-disciplinarity on the paper level and policy impact measured by policy citation data from the Overton database. Pinheiro, Vignola-Gagné [ 28 ] conclude as follows: “Our approach enables testing in a general way the assumption underlying many funding programs, namely that cross-disciplinary research will increase the policy relevance of research outcomes. Findings suggest that research assessments could benefit from measuring uptake in policy-related literature, following additional characterization of the Overton database; of the science-policy interactions it captures; and of the contribution of these interactions within the larger policymaking process” (p. 616).

Dataset used

For many years, policy documents’ and policy citations’ data were aggregated only by the companies Altmetric and PlumX. Recently, however, the Overton database (see https://www.overton.io ) was launched with the goal of becoming the largest database of policy documents and citations [ 29 ]. In Overton, policy documents are defined “very broadly as documents written primarily for or by policymakers” (see http://help.overton.io/en/articles/3823271-what-s-your-definition-of-a-policy-document ). Overton includes documents from governments, think tanks (i.e., research institutions that perform research and advocacy in climate change), non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and intergovernmental organizations (IGOs, i.e., organizations that are composed of states) (see http://help.overton.io/en/articles/5062448-which-publications-does-overton-collect ). The database includes not only various bibliographic information on policy documents (e.g., title and appearance), but also the citation links that exist between policy and science as well as among the policy documents in the database themselves. The citation relations are identified by Overton by using text-mining methods. According to Yin, Gao [ 11 ], the Overton database “includes all major economies and large population centers, with a notable exception of mainland China” (p. 128). The database is updated on a weekly basis. In December 2020, the database includes 799,716 policy documents with citation relations to either other policy documents or scientific papers in 66 different languages from 168 countries (including the European Union and IGOs) and more than 1250 different policy sources.

Yin, Gao [ 11 ] studied the reliability of the science-policy citations in the Overton database, by comparing them with the citation links provided by the Microsoft Academic Graph database (see https://academic.microsoft.com/home ). The results show that “although the two datasets are collected for different purposes using different approaches and technologies, the measurements carried out independently across the two datasets show remarkable consistencies” (p. SI). Since the results by Yin, Gao [ 11 ] confirm the reliability of the Overton data, we decided to use the data for the current study on climate change. Overton provided a snapshot (dated December 04, 2020) of their database to some of us (LB and RH). This snapshot has been imported into a local PostgreSQL database at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research (Stuttgart, Germany). After an analysis of publication dates of policy documents and consultation with Euan Adie (Overton), we excluded the policy documents with the publication dates ‘1970-01-01’, ‘1970-01-02’, and ‘2002-07-01’ from our analysis because they were confirmed as ‘dummy’ publication dates by Euan Adie or contained many policy documents published later than the specified date (see https://help.overton.io/article/why-am-i-seeing-unknown-date-instead-of-a-publication-date ). We used PostgreSQL and R [ 30 ] commands including the R package ‘tidyverse’ [ 31 ] for data analysis.

We searched in the fields ‘title’, ‘translated title’, and ‘snippet’ for climate-change-related terms in the Overton snapshot. We searched for ‘climate change’ and ‘global warming’ (note that both terms were truncated on both sides and a single arbitrary character was allowed instead of the white space between the words) to cover the bulk of policy documents that are related to climate change. The search strategy is based on keyword analyses in connection with search queries of previous climate change related papers [ 21 , 22 ]. We found 10,846 policy documents that met the climate change search criteria out of 799,716 policy documents with any citation relation to a scientific paper or another policy document.

The Overton database includes links to scientific publications via digital object identifiers (DOIs)–“scholarly” references in Overton must have a DOI. There are 8,533,973 citation relations from 492,958 policy documents to 3,242,626 scientific papers. We used the SciTech Strategies’ in-house version of Scopus containing 52.04 million items indexed as of May 2020 and published between 1996 and 2019 as a database for scientific papers. 76.7% of these items have a DOI. We were able to match 2,071,085 DOIs cited in Overton to Scopus papers. Thus, nearly 4.98% of Scopus items with a DOI have been cited by policy documents indexed in the Overton database. This is substantially higher than the 1.12% mentioned in Fang, Costas [ 24 ].

We used the journal metric CiteScore to measure the citation impact of journals [ 32 ]. It is the mean number of citations for papers published in a journal. For the current study, CiteScore values were downloaded from https://www.scopus.com/sources.uri on November 10, 2020. The most current CiteScore values from 2019 were used for our analyses.

Policy documents

This study is based on 10,846 climate change policy documents covered in the Overton database. This corresponds to 1.36% of all policy documents in the database. Fig 1 shows the distribution of the climate change policy documents across publication years. For a better interpretation of this distribution, we also included distributions for all policy documents in the Overton database and the papers on climate change in the Scopus database. The comparison of climate change with all policy documents reveals that the climate change policy documents reached a plateau in 2015 whereas all policy documents steadily increased until 2018. Since the scientific paper distribution also shows a steadily increasing trend, it seems that the discussion of climate change in the policy area reached its maximum several years ago (at least temporarily).

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Policy documents can be published by various types of institutions. Based on the classification of these institution types used in Overton, Fig 2 shows the percentage of policy documents published by think tanks, governments, and IGOs. The comparison of climate change policy documents with all policy documents in Fig 2 reveals that climate change documents were published by think tanks and IGOs at higher than expected rates given their overall share of policy documents; fewer climate change documents were published by governments than expected.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0274693.g002

This substantially lower share of climate documents issued by governments could be a reflection of their hesitance in dealing with the problem of climate change as documented in continued emissions growth [ 33 – 35 ] as well as the gap between long-term ambition and short-term actions [ 36 , 37 ]. NGOs and IGOs might be particularly active in the field of climate change. IGOs, for example, may consider climate change as a problem of international coordination in nature.

Fig 3 analyzes sectors publishing policy documents in more detail by considering single institutions. The figure shows the relationship for single institutions between number of policy documents and number of climate change policy documents. On the one hand, the results reveal those institutions (with high output) that are focused on climate change and those institutions that deal with climate change besides other topics. For example, due to its focus on a sector that is highly vulnerable to climate change, documents by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations cover frequently the topic of climate change (please see the interactive version of Fig 3 ).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0274693.g003

This is different in the field of health. Policy documents by the World Health Organization often do not cover climate change, even though this is starting to change now. This corresponds to the comparatively small share of publications in the field of medicine related to climate change research [ 38 ]–even though there is a sizable and fast-growing number of research papers on climate and health in absolute terms [ 39 ]. On the other hand, the colors of the institutional dots in Fig 3 point out the relatively high number of think tanks and IGOs with a focus on climate change–of which some like the Global Warming Policy Foundation are alleged to focus on global warming misinformation and ‘climate sceptic’ contents ( https://www.desmog.com/climate-disinformation-database/ ).

Papers cited in policy documents

In this section, we additionally consider the literature cited by climate change policy documents. We would like to know, for example, (1) whether these documents focus on recently published or older science literature and (2) the research institutions that seem to be very important for the policy area (since they were frequently cited). Fig 4 shows the document types of the publications cited by climate change policy documents. In order to facilitate the interpretation of the results, the results for all policy documents have been added. We have aggregated “article in progress” with “article”. The type “other” contains empty document type entries, “abstract”, and “missing”. The results in the figure show that most policy documents reference “articles”, followed by “reviews” and “conference papers”. The other document types play a minor role. The referencing behavior seems rather similar in policy documents in general and in policy documents that are related to climate change.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0274693.g004

Yin, Gao [ 11 ] found that “the COVID-19 policy frontier appears to be deeply grounded in extremely recent, peer-reviewed scientific insights” (p. 129). We expect there to be a similarly short time lag for climate change research on the one hand; but we can imagine a “classics” effect that certain foundational papers are referred to over and over again on the other hand (some of the policy documents might actually reiterate outdated findings/outliers as well). For scientific papers that cite other scientific papers, the results indicate a “classics” effect: If we look at cited references in papers, the average reference age is 13.1 years for all items in Scopus from 1996 to 2019. However, on average, climate change papers (published between 2010 and 2019) cite other scientific papers that are on average 9.7 years old. In this study, we also investigated the time between appearance of the policy document and its cited scientific papers. This difference is on average 5.8 years for climate change policy documents and 6.7 years for all policy documents. Both differences are significantly shorter than the average references ages in scientific papers and correspond to the results by Yin, Gao [ 11 ].

Fig 5 shows the proportions of accumulated citations of scientific papers in climate change policy documents over time. These proportions are compared with the proportions in all policy documents. We expected that climate change policy documents cite more recently published papers than other policy documents because of the great societal relevance of the topic. The results in Fig 5 show that this is indeed the case: The distribution for climate change policy documents increases faster than the distribution that refers to all policy documents. Yin, Gao [ 11 ] found a similar result for COVID-19 policy documents–another topic with high societal relevance.

The publication year differences are the time between publication year of the policy document and publication year of the scientific paper.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0274693.g005

We expected that policy documents preferentially cite papers published in reputable journals. The most valuable papers can be expected to be published in these journals. The results by Yin, Gao [ 11 ] show, for example, that “COVID-19 policy documents disproportionately reference peer-reviewed insights, drawing especially heavily on top medical journals, both general (such as Lancet) and specialized (such as Clinical Infectious Diseases)” (p. 129). In this study, we used CiteScore as the indicator for measuring reputation. Fig 6 shows the correlation between number of policy document citations received by papers in various scientific journals and the CiteScore of these journals. With a Spearman rank correlation coefficient of 0.24 (on the journal level), the relationship between journal reputation and policy citations is quite low.

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One reason for the low correlation might be that Citescore values at the top of the distribution are very spread out. If one were to use journal ranks rather than using Citescore, the coefficient would likely be much higher. In fact, this is the argument made in Fig 7 . We found that scientific literature cited in policy documents is frequently published in high-impact journals: 69.31% of the papers with at least one policy citation were published in first-quartile journals. Thus, one can expect that policy citations of scientific papers correlate with citations of these papers in the scientific literature.

In the first journal quartile, e.g., are those journals that belong to the 25% of the journals with the highest CiteScore in their subject areas. For about 7% of the journals, a CiteScore was not available.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0274693.g007

The results by Yin, Gao [ 11 ] for COVID-19 policy documents show that “the coronavirus research used by policy-makers aligns with what scientists heavily engage with themselves” (p. 129). In this study, the Spearman rank correlation coefficient between Scopus citations and policy citations of papers (n = 2,071,085) that were cited by policy documents at least once is 0.16. The correlation coefficient is slightly higher (0.20) between Scopus citations and policy citations of papers (n = 102,372) that were cited by climate change policy documents at least once. However, climate change papers that are cited in climate change policy documents received significantly more citations (between 3.3 and 5.6 times) on average than climate change papers that are not cited in these documents (see Fig 8 ).

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Fig 9 includes the journal perspective to show the correlation between the number of climate change policy document citations and Scopus citations. The Spearman rank correlation between both citation counts is high at 0.81. The results in the figure point out that some journals receive more policy citations than can be expected based on science citations such as Climatic Change and Nature Climate Change . These climate change specific journals have emerged more recently. We speculate that the scientific communities of some highly specialized research topics are comparatively small, thereby limiting the mean number of citations per paper. Nature and Science papers received many citations in both areas of science and policy.

The size of the circles reflects the CiteScore of the journals (Spearman rank correlation = 0.81; an interactive version can be viewed at: https://s.gwdg.de/4weLvb ).

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The journal analyses in the previous figures could not reveal the field-specific orientation of the papers cited in climate change policy documents. The journals that are labeled in the figures are mostly multi-disciplinary journals such as Science or Nature or are directly related to climate change. In order to explore the fields in which papers cited in climate change policy documents were published, we produced so called overlay maps that are presented in Fig 10 . The overlay maps were created using the global mapping process outlined in Boyack and Klavans [ 40 ]. Here, clustering was done on 46.14 million Scopus-indexed documents (1996–2019) and 27.23 million non-indexed documents cited at least twice with over 1.1 billion citation links using the Leiden algorithm [ 41 ]. Graph layout was then done on the resulting 104,677 clusters using OpenOrd/DrL [ 42 ] and cluster-level relatedness based on the bm25 text relevance measure, which has been shown to produce better clustering than a simple tf-idf measure [ 43 – 45 ].

The maps include (1) all papers, (2) climate change papers, (3) climate change papers with at least one policy citation, (4) all papers in Scopus with at least one policy citation.

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Over 11% of Scopus-indexed documents were not included in clusters or the map because they had no references and were not cited. Each cluster is represented as a dot on the map and was assigned to its dominant field (and colored) using the journal-to-field assignments from the UCSD map of science [ 46 ]. Clusters with similar topical content are close to each other on the map. Aggregations of clusters can be perceived as discipline-level structures; local areas that contain clusters of many colors are multidisciplinary. Although dot sizes for overlays are based on the number of documents matching overlay criteria, the intent is to provide a qualitative (gestalt) visual view of the data, e.g. to show where result sets are concentrated or if they are evenly spread throughout the map.

Fig 10 shows four maps for comparison: (1) All papers from Scopus, (2) Climate change papers in total, (3) Climate change papers with at least one policy citation, and (4) Papers with at least one policy citation. Comparing map (2) with map (3), for example, one can see that there are areas with climate change papers (such as computer science, pink in map 2) that are not well cited by climate change policy documents–there is far less pink in map 3 than in map 2.

Similar to all papers from the Scopus database shown in map (1) of Fig 10 , papers with at least one policy citation extend across all scientific fields [see map (4) of Fig 10 ]. However, some major fields appear less pronounced in map 4: in particular chemistry, physics, computer sciences, and engineering. Biology, disease sciences, and health sciences are accentuated, indicating that in general these fields are more policy relevant. The fields of climate change papers in map 2 of Fig 10 are concentrated in biology, earth sciences, engineering, disease sciences, and physics (less pronounced). Climate change papers with at least one policy citation [see map 3 of Fig 10 ] show a field-specific pattern similar to the overall climate change policy papers in map 2. It seems that politics does not have a specific field, but reflects the field-specific orientation of climate change research.

For COVID-19 research, Yin, Gao [ 11 ] investigated the temporal shift of the literature cited in policy documents concerning the field-specific distribution (compared to the whole policy literature). Their results reveal “a clear shift from drawing primarily on the biomedical literature to citing economics, society, and other fields of study, which is consistent with overall shifts in policy focus” [ 11 ]. In this study, we also investigated whether there is a field-specific shift using the 27 high-level ASJC journal categories. Fig 11 shows the field-specific orientation of papers (with policy citations) over the entire period (1996–2019). For better readability of the figure, we used the top 10 ASJCs of both sets of papers (Scopus papers with policy citations and Scopus papers that were cited by climate change policy documents) and obtained twelve ASJCs as common top 10 ASJCs (the interactive version of the figure shows the same analysis with all 27 ASJCs). Fig 11 demonstrates that there are some subtle shifts but the early years (2000–2010) suffer from small number effects relative to the most recent decade. Climate change policy documents cite different fields than the whole. The large shifts shown in Yin, Gao [ 11 ] aren’t seen here, but COVID-19 is a rather unique situation where social concerns followed after the medical ones on a short time scale.

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Scientific institutions and policy sources involved in political climate change discussions

In the final section of the empirical results, we focus on the scientific institutions and policy sources that are involved in the political climate change discussions. We are interested in the policy sources that are very active in political climate change discussions (and decisions) and science institutions that provide research results as inputs for the discussions. Table 1 shows the policy sources with the highest number of climate change policy documents. The table also reveals the number of scientific papers cited by these institutions and the number of climate change papers (the number in brackets is the number of policy documents citing the climate change papers). The results show that Publications Office of the European Union and World Bank are the institutions with the most climate change policy documents. According to Euan Adie (founder and director of Overton) the Publications Office of the European Union is a special case as it aggregates documents from many different EU agencies. Cross-regional institutions such as European Union and World Bank are best-suited for dealing with global issues and thus are focused on major problems such as global warming.

The table also reveals the number of scientific papers cited by these institutions and the number of climate change papers (the number in brackets is the number of policy documents citing the climate change papers).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0274693.t001

Table 2 focuses on policy sources that are rooted in climate change research. The results in the table reveal that IPCC is the source that referenced the largest number of papers. Considering the large amount of scientific information collected and presented in the various IPCC reports over many years, this is not surprising as the assessment of the scientific literature on climate change is its core mandate.

The table shows policy sources that cited more than 4.000 papers.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0274693.t002

We differentiated the results in Table 2 further by specifically looking at government, IGO, and think tank sources: We show policy sources in Table 3 that cite science for governments, IGOs, and think tanks. Yin, Gao [ 11 ] reveal the results of similar analyses based on COVID-19 datasets. The results show that governments and IGOs are of similar importance, both with regard to the overall number of policy documents and climate change related policy documents. The top ranked think tanks produced about half of the overall number of policy documents compared to the top ranked governmental organizations and IGOs. Their share of climate change research related documents is roughly the same.

The table differentiates between all documents of the sources citing these papers and documents focussing on climate change.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0274693.t003

Table 4 is related to the cited institution side of the science-policy link: Which science institutions received the most citations from policy documents? The table presents reputable institutions of climate change research or research units located at universities, with the University of East Anglia with its long-lasting tradition in climate change research and meteorology at the top.

The table includes all institutions with more than 2000 papers cited.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0274693.t004

It is noteworthy that throughout Tables 2 to 4 , we find institutions that are alleged to focus on climate misinformation according to the Climate Disinformation Database ( https://www.desmog.com/climate-disinformation-database/ ) like the Heartland Institute, the Foundation for Economic Education, the Heritage Foundation, and Acton Institute; those are very active publishers of policy documents. The Acton Institute also features among the most prolific think thanks publishing policy documents related to climate change. In the overall climate change dataset, we found 17 policy organizations that are listed in the Climate Disinformation Database. The organizations produced 99 policy documents (that cited any Scopus paper) within our dataset; these documents cited 6507 Scopus papers. That is 1.4% of the policy documents and 4.1% of the cited Scopus papers in our dataset.

The use of results and recommendations from research on climate change might be reflected in citations of scientific papers in policy documents. Studies analyzing the impact of research on policy belong to the area of societal impact measurements in scientometrics [ 13 ]. According to Vilkins and Grant [ 18 ], “capturing this impact on policy has significant potential benefits, including showing the impact of research on real-world settings, and building a better case for support for researchers and institutions or even broader research directions” (p. 1682). For Yin, Gao [ 11 ] policy-science citations may occur “for different reasons … including (i) instrumental uses (knowledge directly applied to solve problems); (ii) conceptual uses (research influences or informs the way policymakers think); (iii) tactical uses (citing research to support or challenge an idea) among others, suggesting the need to understand the semantics of the policy science citations” (p. SI).

This study focusses on the connection of climate change research and policy. The study is based on data from the (new) Overton database including policy documents (10,846 climate change policy documents covered in the database) and their citations of scientific publications. With this study, we followed other studies using Overton data investigating links between policy and research (e.g., on COVID-19). Although the Overton database captures a large collection of policy documents, potential biases in coverage and data sample cannot be excluded [ 11 ]. For example, the Overton providers will not have access to many governmental archives, and if they have access, it will be restricted to only a part of the existing documents. Other shortcomings of Overton are mentioned by Yang, Huang [ 9 ]: “the metadata of such policy documents cannot reveal the semantic information contained in the policy process. At the same time, some policy documents have unstructured features, so attribute identification and labeling may be required”.

Overton uses a very broad definition of policy documents, i.e., “documents primarily written by and for policy makers”. The idea behind this is to cover not only text that documents the policy or legislation itself in the corpus, but also documents that were written to inform or influence decisions. Our analyses do not distinguish between those two fundamentally different classes of policy documents. Documents written for policymakers are often written with the purpose to inform or influence documents authored by policymakers and are as such fundamentally different from documents authored by scientists. Moreover, under this wide umbrella definition there are very different types of documents: scientific assessments by the scientific community, legislations, policy reports by IGOs and NGOs, policy briefs, speeches etc.

The different nature of these documents explains some of the results here. For example, it is the main purpose of scientific assessments as those by IPCC to assess the state of knowledge in climate change research and inform international climate diplomacy and national climate policy with robust evidence. In nature, these assessments are comprehensive reviews of the literature with tens of thousands of references. On the other hand, policy briefs are designed for communications and often deliberately strip out literature sources. The policy impact analysis in this study, therefore to some extent simply highlights different policy document types. Any interpretation of policy impact of research can only be undertaken based on such an important caveat.

In this study, we empirically targeted several aspects of the connection between climate change research and policy. Focusing on the time trend of this connection reveals that the discussion of climate change in policy seems to have had its peak some years ago. Although we suspect a lot of uncertainty related to the coverage of policy documents in Overton, there seems to be an impact of international climate policy cycles on policy document publication. We observe local peaks in climate policy documents around major decisions in international climate diplomacy. For example, we observe temporal peaks in policy documents around the failed Copenhagen Summit in 2009 and the Paris Agreement; there is a growth in policy documents from IPCC’s Fifth Assessment in 2013/2014 with a peak in 2015 when the Paris Agreement was made. IPCC reports might play a particular role as they are usually released 2–3 years ahead of major international climate diplomacy events and could trigger substantial co-publication activities. In 2023, the first Global Stocktake on progress with the Paris Agreement is scheduled with IPCC AR6 being released during 2021 and 2022. We might thus expect to see increases in climate change policy documents and citations to the scientific literature in the 2–3 years following.

Various types of institutions publish policy documents. Our results point out that IGOs and think tanks–with a focus on climate change–have published more climate change policy documents than expected given their overall share of policy documents (this result may be partly driven by the biased coverage of the Overton database). The policy documents published by the different types of institutions have especially cited more recent publications. Since climate change is of great societal relevance worldwide, research activities are on a high level (compared to other topics) that can be picked up in a timely manner by the policy area. Although one might expect that policy and science impact correlate (what is relevant for the scientific discourse might be equally relevant for the policy discourse), we found the opposite: The correlation between policy citations and science citations and the correlation between policy citations and the impact factor of the journals publishing the papers are both low. Thus, it seems that both areas of society (science and policy) focus on different papers from climate change research. If the scientific discourse and the policy discourse are scarcely related in terms of citation counts, one might expect that they focus on different fields. Our results reveal, however, that this is not the case: Climate change papers with at least one policy citation are concentrated on similar fields as all climate change papers (biology, earth sciences, engineering, and disease sciences). Since field differences scarcely exist between both publication sets of interest, it would be interesting to explore in future studies how the differences can be characterized by other means.

What are the policy sources that are very active in the political climate change discourse and which scientific institutions provide the necessary scientific information? Our results show that the Publication Offices of the European Union, World Health Organization, and World Bank have published the most climate change policy documents. Since climate change is a worldwide problem and demand, it comes as no surprise that these cross-regional institutions have the highest publication output. The relevant science institutions for policy sources are mostly institutions with high reputation in science–this might be in contrast to the low correlation between science and policy citations on the single paper level. On the institutional level, policy sources seem to trust scientific institutions being renowned for reputable research on climate change (e.g., the University of East Anglia).

In this study, we found that some research outcomes seem to be more relevant for the scientific discourse and some outcomes that seem to be more relevant for the policy area. This discrepancy has been found also in other studies. One reason for the differences might be barriers to academic outcomes from policy institutions such as access to climate change publications [ 18 ]. Another reason might be missing summaries of research results that are understandable for people outside academia. Bornmann and Marx [ 47 ] recommend therefore that researchers should write assessment reports (such as the IPCC) summarizing “the status of the research on a certain subject … Societal impact is given when the content of a report is addressed outside of science (in a government document, for example)” (p. 211).

Our analyses revealed the challenges in measuring policy impact via citation patterns. In fact, the closer a document is related to actual decision-making the fewer citations it may contain. For example, scientific assessments of the literature contain large numbers of citations, but they are not directly used in policy-making. Instead they are further built upon and “translated” in policy briefs, policy reports, briefing notes or ministerial expertise. The final political decision–usually a legal text–usually does not contain any citations. As we move towards real decisions it therefore gets increasingly challenging to measure impact in this way. Future work may therefore be organized around a simple model of policy impact considering a chain of different document types. Scientific assessment reports, systematic reviews or meta-analyses–as recommended by Bornmann and Marx [ 47 ]–may be the starting point as rigorous syntheses of the available summaries. Next might be science communication documents such as policy briefs, policy reports or plain language summaries. Government reports might be compiled to directly inform particular decisions and, finally, legislative documents cover the policies themselves. In this context, Isett and Hicks [ 48 ] speak about knowledge intermediaries in document chains. Future research could attempt measuring the impact on policy along such a document chain. As citations would be expected to fade away as you move down the chain, it will become increasingly relevant to use text mining or other methods from natural language processing (e.g., text similarity approaches; argumentation mining) to measure impact.

Finally, as primary studies are very dependent on their specific research design, data and methods applied, there is a widespread argument that policy should be informed by the most robust scientific evidence and as such be built from secondary research (reviews) whenever possible [ 49 ]. Therefore, future scientometric research may explore to what extent primary and secondary research is used in policy documents and how this varies across different sectors.

Acknowledgments

The bibliometric data used in this paper are from an in-house database developed and maintained by SciTech Strategies, Inc. derived from Scopus, prepared by Elsevier BV (Amsterdam, The Netherlands). The policy document data were shared with us by Overton on December 04, 2020.

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337 Climate Change Research Topics & Examples

You will notice that there are many climate change research topics you can discuss. Our team has prepared this compilation of 185 ideas that you can use in your work.

📝 Key Points to Use to Write an Outstanding Climate Change Essay

🏆 best climate change title ideas & essay examples, 🥇 most interesting climate change topics to write about, 🎓 simple & easy research titles about climate change, 👍 good research topics about climate change, 🔍 interesting topics to write about climate change, ⭐ good essay topics on climate change, ❓ climate change essay questions.

A climate change essay is familiar to most students who learn biology, ecology, and politics. In order to write a great essay on climate change, you need to explore the topic in great detail and show your understanding of it.

This article will provide you with some key points that you could use in your paper to make it engaging and compelling.

First of all, explore the factors contributing to climate change. Most people know that climate change is associated with pollution, but it is essential to examine the bigger picture. Consider the following questions:

• What is the mechanism by which climate change occurs?
• How do the activities of large corporations contribute to climate change?
• Why is the issue of deforestation essential to climate change?
• How do people’s daily activities promote climate change?

Secondly, you can focus on solutions to the problems outlined above.

Climate change essay topics often provide recommendations on how individuals and corporations could reduce their environmental impact. These questions may help to guide you through this section:

• How can large corporations decrease the influence of their operations on the environment?
• Can you think of any examples of corporations who have successfully decreased their environmental footprint?
• What steps can people take to reduce pollution and waste as part of their daily routine?
• Do you believe that trends such as reforestation and renewable energy will help to stop climate change? Why or why not?
• Can climate change be reversed at all, or is it an inescapable trend?

In connection with these topics, you could also discuss various government policies to address climate change. Over the past decades, many countries enacted laws to reduce environmental damage. There are plenty of ideas that you could address here:

• What are some famous national policies for environmental protection?
• Are laws and regulations effective in protecting the environment? Why or why not?
• How do environmentally-friendly policies affect individuals and businesses?
• Are there any climate change graphs that show the effectiveness of national policies for reducing environmental damage?
• How could government policies on climate change be improved?

Despite the fact that there is definite proof of climate change, the concept is opposed by certain politicians, business persons, and even scientists.

You could address the opposition to climate change in your essay and consider the following:

• Why do some people think that climate change is not real?
• What is the ultimate proof of climate change?
• Why is it beneficial for politicians and business persons to argue against climate change?
• Do you think that climate change is a real issue? Why or why not?

The impact of ecological damage on people, animals, and plants is the focus of most essay titles on global warming and climate change. Indeed, describing climate change effects in detail could earn you some extra marks. Use scholarly resources to research these climate change essay questions:

• How has climate change impacted wildlife already?
• If climate change advances at the same pace, what will be the consequences for people?
• Besides climate change, what are the impacts of water and air pollution? What does the recent United Nations’ report on climate change say about its effects?
• In your opinion, could climate change lead to the end of life on Earth? Why or why not?

Covering at least some of the points discussed in this post will help you write an excellent climate change paper! Don’t forget to search our website for more useful materials, including a climate change essay outline, sample papers, and much more!

• Climate Change – Problems and Solutions It is important to avoid cutting trees and reduce the utilization of energy to protect the environment. Many organizations have been developed to enhance innovation and technology in the innovation of eco-friendly machines.
• Causes and Effects of Climate Changes Climate change is the transformation in the distribution patterns of weather or changes in average weather conditions of a place or the whole world over long periods.
• Is Climate Change a Real Threat? Climate change is a threat, but its impact is not as critical as wrong political decisions, poor social support, and unstable economics.
• Climate Change: Human Impact on the Environment This paper is an in-depth exploration of the effects that human activities have had on the environment, and the way the same is captured in the movie, The Eleventh Hour.
• Global Warming as Serious Threat to Humanity One of the most critical aspects of global warming is the inability of populations to predict, manage, and decrease natural disruptions due to their inconsistency and poor cooperation between available resources.
• The Role of Technology in Climate Change The latter is people’s addiction, obsession, and ingenuity when it comes to technology, which was the main cause of climate change and will be the primary solution to it as well.
• Climate Change and Its Impacts on the UAE Currently, the rise in temperature in the Arctic is contributing to the melting of the ice sheets. The long-range weather forecast indicates that the majority of the coastal areas in the UAE are at the […]
• Climate Change Causes and Predictions These changes are as a result of the changes in the factors which determine the amount of sunlight that gets to the earth surface.
• Climate Change and Extreme Weather Conditions The agreement across the board is that human activities such as emissions of the greenhouse gases have contributed to global warming.
• Climate Change: Mitigation Strategies To address the latter views, the current essay will show that the temperature issue exists and poses a serious threat to the planet.
• Climate Change, Development and Disaster Risk Reduction However, the increased cases of droughts, storms, and very high rainfalls in different places are indicative of the culmination of the effects of climate change, and major disasters are yet to follow in the future.
• The Role of Science and Technology in International Relations Regarding Climate Change This paper examines the role of science and technology as it has been used to address the challenge of climate change, which is one of the major issues affecting the global societies today.
• Global Warming and Human Impact: Pros and Cons These points include the movement of gases in the atmosphere as a result of certain human activities, the increase of the temperature because of greenhouse gas emissions, and the rise of the oceans’ level that […]
• Climate Change – Global Warming For instance, in the last one century, scientists have directly linked the concentration of these gases in the atmosphere with the increase in temperature of the earth.
• The Impact of Climate Change on Food Security Currently, the world is beginning to encounter the effects of the continuous warming of the Earth. Some of the heat must be reflected in space to ensure that there is a temperature balance in the […]
• Climate Change Impacts on Ocean Life The destruction of the ozone layer has led to the exposure of the earth to harmful radiation from the sun. The rising temperatures in the oceans hinder the upward flow of nutrients from the seabed […]
• Climate Change for Australian Magpie-Lark Birds Observations in the northern parts of Australia indicate that Magpie-lark birds move to the coast during the dry season and return back during the wet season.
• Climate Change Impact on Bangladesh Today, there are a lot of scientists from the fields of ecology and meteorology who are monitoring the changes of climate in various regions of the world.
• Transportation Impact on Climate Change It is apparent that the number of motor vehicles in the world is increasing by the day, and this translates to an increase in the amount of pollutants produced by the transportation industry annually.
• Global Warming and Climate Change: Annotated Bibliography The author shows the tragedy of the situation with climate change by the example of birds that arrived too early from the South, as the buds begin to bloom, although it is still icy.
• Technology Influence on Climate Change Undoubtedly, global warming is a portrayal of climate change in the modern world and hence the need for appropriate interventions to foster the sustainability of the environment.
• Climate Change’s Negative Impact on Biodiversity This essay’s primary objective is to trace and evaluate the impact of climate change on biological diversity through the lens of transformations in the marine and forest ecosystems and evaluation of the agricultural sector both […]
• Climate Change in Communication Moreover, environmental reporting is not accurate and useful since profits influence and political interference affect the attainment of truthful, objective, and fair facts that would promote efficiency in newsrooms on environmental reporting.
• Global Warming and Effects Within 50 Years Global warming by few Scientists is often known as “climate change” the reason being is that according to the global warming is not the warming of earth it basically is the misbalance in climate.
• Negative Impacts of Climate Change in the Urban Areas and Possible Strategies to Address Them The current essay is an attempt to outline the problems caused by the negative impacts of climate change in the urban areas.
• Climate Change and Renewable Energy Options The existence of various classes of world economies in the rural setting and the rise of the middle class economies has put more pressure on environmental services that are highly demanded and the use of […]
• The Climate Change Articles Comparison In a broader sense, both articles address the concept of sustainability and the means of reinforcing its significance in the context of modern global society to prevent further deterioration of the environment from happening.
• Climate Change and Its Effects on Tourism in Coastal Areas It is hereby recommended that governments have a huge role to play in mitigating the negative effects of climate change on coastal towns.
• Climate Change Definition and Description The wind patterns, the temperature and the amount of rainfall are used to determine the changes in temperature. Usually, the atmosphere changes in a way that the energy of the sun absorbed by the atmosphere […]
• Technology’s Impact on Climate Change To examine the contribution of technology to climate change; To present a comprehensive review of technologically-mediated methods for responding to global flooding caused by anthropogenic climate change; To suggest the most effective and socially just […]
• Climate Change: The Complex Issue of Global Warming By definition, the greenhouse effect is the process through which the atmosphere absorbs infrared radiation emitted from the Earth’s surface once it is heated directly by the sun during the day.
• How Aviation Impacts Climate Change A measurement of the earth’s radiation budget imbalance brought on by changes in the quantities of gases and aerosols or cloudiness is known as radiative forcing.
• Maize Production and Climate Change in South Africa Maize farming covers 58% of the crop area in South Africa and 60% of this is in drier areas of the country.
• Global Warming and Climate Change: Fighting and Solutions The work will concentrate on certain aspects such as the background of the problem, the current state of the problem, the existing literature on the problem, what has already been attempted to solve the problem, […]
• Climate Change Impacts on the Aviation Industry The last two research questions focus on investigating the challenges experienced by stakeholders in the aviation industry in reducing the carbon blueprint of the sector and discussing additional steps the aviation industry can take to […]
• Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) in Reducing the Effects of Climate Change The concept remains relevant since it provides fundamental incentives that enable managers to determine the feasibility nature of a project and its viability.
• Starbucks: Corporate Social Responsibility and Global Climate Change Then in the 90s and onwards to the 21st century, Starbucks coffee can be seen almost anywhere and in places where one least expects to see a Starbucks store.
• Saving the Forest and Climate Changes The greenhouse gases from such emissions play a key role in the depletion of the most essential ozone layer, thereby increasing the solar heating effect on the adjacent Earth’s surface as well as the rate […]
• Climate Change and Threat to Animals In the coming years, the increase in the global temperatures will make many living populations less able to adapt to the emergent conditions or to migrate to other regions that are suitable for their survival.
• Evidence of Climate Change The primary reason for the matter is the melting of ice sheets, which adds water to the ocean. The Republic of Maldives is already starting to feel the effects of global sea-level rise now.
• Climate Change in Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi is an emirate in the country and it could suffer some of the worst effects of climate change in the UAE.
• Energy Conservation for Solving Climate Change Problem The United States Environmental Protection Agency reports that of all the ways energy is used in America, about 39% is used to generate electricity.
• Global Warming and Its Effects on the Environment This paper explores the impacts of global warming on the environment and also suggests some of the measures that can be taken to mitigate the impact of global warming on the environment.
• The Key Drivers of Climate Change The use of fossil fuel in building cooling and heating, transportation, and in the manufacture of goods leads to an increase in the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere.
• Research Driven Critique: Steven Maher and Climate Change The ravaging effects of Covid-19 must not distract the world from the impending ramifications of severe environmental and climatic events that shaped the lives of a significant portion of the population in the past year.
• Global Warming: People Impact on the Environment One of the reasons for the general certainty of scientists about the effects of human activities on the change of climate all over the globe is the tendency of climate change throughout the history, which […]
• Organisational Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy Porter and Kramer are of the opinion that an organisation has to create a set of effective share values between the society and the firm in order to enhance organisational performance.
• The Negative Effects of Climate Change in Cities This is exemplified by the seasonal hurricanes in the USA and the surrounding regions, the hurricanes of which have destroyed houses and roads in the past.
• Tourism and Climate Change Problem There are a number of factors that propelled the growth of tourism and these factors include the improvement of the standards of living in many developed nations, good work polices allowing more time for vacations […]
• Anthropogenic Climate Change Since anthropogenic climate change occurs due to the cumulative effect of greenhouse gases, it is imperative that climatologists focus on both immediate and long term interventions to avert future crises of global warming that seem […]
• Climate Change’s Impact on Crop Production I will address the inefficiencies of water use in our food production systems, food waste, and the impact of temperature on crop yield.
• Climate Change and Role of Government He considers that the forest’s preservation is vital, as it is the wellspring of our human well-being. As such, the legislature can pass policies that would contribute to safeguarding our nation’s well-being, but they do […]
• Climate Change: The Day After Tomorrow In the beginning of the film “The Day After Tomorrow”, the main character, Professor Jack Hall, is trying to warn the world of the drastic consequences of a changing climate being caused by the polluting […]
• Moral Obligations to Climate Change and Animal Life To be able to become a rational person, it is essential to think critically about the concepts and domains that the individual faces and the way it will be sensible to react to them.
• Climate Change as a Global Security Threat It is important to stress that agriculture problems can become real for the USA as well since numerous draughts and natural disasters negatively affect this branch of the US economy.
• Climate Change: Causes and Effects Orbital variations lead to changes in the levels of solar radiation reaching the earth mainly due to the position of the sun and the distance between the earth and the sun during each particular orbital […]
• China Climate Change Majority of developed and developing countries for example, the U.S.and China have failed to heed to the call of the need to save Mother Nature through implementation of pollution mitigating measures, for example, the Kyoto […]
• Impact of Food Waste on Climate Change In conclusion, I believe that some of the measures that can be taken to prevent food waste are calculating the population and their needs.
• Climate Change and Resource Sustainability in Balkan: How Quickly the Impact is Happening In addition, regarding the relief of the Balkans, their territory is dominated by a large number of mountains and hills, especially in the west, among which the northern boundary extends to the Julian Alps and […]
• Climate Change: Renewable Energy Sources Climate change is the biggest threat to humanity, and deforestation and “oil dependency” only exacerbate the situation and rapidly kill people. Therefore it is important to invest in the development of renewable energy sources.
• Climate Change and the Allegory of the Cave Plato’s allegory of the cave reflects well our current relationship with the environment and ways to find a better way to live in the world and live with it.
• Climate Change, Economy, and Environment Central to the sociological approach to climate change is studying the relationship between the economy and the environment. Another critical area of sociologists ‘ attention is the relationship between inequality and the environment.
• The Three Myths of Climate Change In the video, Linda Mortsch debunks three fundamental misconceptions people have regarding climate change and sets the record straight that the phenomenon is happening now, affects everyone, and is not easy to adapt.
• Terrorism, Corruption, and Climate Change as Threats Therefore, threats affecting countries around the globe include terrorism, corruption, and climate change that can be mitigated through integrated counter-terror mechanisms, severe punishment for dishonest practices, and creating awareness of safe practices.
• Climate Change’s Impact on Hendra Virus Transmission to humans occurs once people are exposed to an infected horse’s body fluids, excretions, and tissues. Land clearing in giant fruit bats’ habitats has exacerbated food shortages due to climate change, which has led […]
• Global Climate Change and Environmental Conservation There may be a significantly lesser possibility that skeptics will acknowledge the facts and implications of climate change, which may result in a lower desire on their part to adopt adaptation. The climate of Minnesota […]
• Beef Production’s Impact on Climate Change This industry is detrimental to the state of the planet and, in the long term, can lead to irreversible consequences. It is important to monitor the possible consequences and reduce the consumption of beef.
• Cities and Climate Change: Articles Summary The exponential population growth in the United States of America and the energy demands put the nation in a dilemma. Climate change challenges are experienced as a result of an increase in greenhouse gas emissions […]
• The Impact of Climate Change on Vulnerable Human Populations The fact that the rise in temperatures caused by the greenhouse effect is a threat to humans development has focused global attention on the “emissions generated from the combustion” of fossil fuels.
• Food Waste Management: Impact on Sustainability and Climate Change How effective is composting food waste in enhancing sustainability and reducing the effects of climate change? The following key terms are used to identify and scrutinize references and study materials.”Food waste” and sustain* “Food waste” […]
• Protecting the Environment Against Climate Change The destruction of the ozone layer, which helps in filtering the excessive ray of light and heat from the sun, expose people to some skin cancer and causes drought.
• The Global Warming Problem and Solution Therefore, it is essential to make radical decisions, first of all, to reduce the use of fossil fuels such as oil, carbon, and natural gas. One of the ways of struggle is to protest in […]
• Climate Change and Immigration Issues Due to its extensive coverage of the aspects of climate migration, the article will be significant to the research process in acquiring a better understanding of the effects of climate change on different people from […]
• Global Warming: Speculation and Biased Information For example, people or organizations that deny the extent or existence of global warming may finance the creation and dissemination of incorrect information.
• Impacts of Climate Change on Ocean The development of phytoplankton is sensitive to the temperature of the ocean. Some marine life is leaving the ocean due to the rising water temperature.
• Impact of Climate Change on the Mining Sector After studying the necessary information on the topic of sustainability and Sustainability reports, the organization was allocated one of the activities that it performs to maintain it.
• Climate Change: Historical Background and Social Values The Presidential and Congress elections in the US were usually accompanied by the increased interest in the issue of climate change in the 2010s.
• Communities and Climate Change Article by Kehoe In the article, he describes the stringent living conditions of the First Nations communities and estimates the dangers of climate change for these remote areas.
• Discussion: Reverting Climate Change Undertaking some of these activities requires a lot of finances that have seen governments setting aside funds to help in the budgeting and planning of the institutions.
• Was Climate Change Affecting Species? It was used because it helps establish the significance of the research topic and describes the specific effects of climate change on species.
• Climate Change Attitudes and Counteractions The argument is constructed around the assumption that the deteriorating conditions of climate will soon become one of the main reasons why many people decide to migrate to other places.
• How Climate Change Could Impact the Global Economy In “This is How Climate Change Could Affect the World Economy,” Natalie Marchand draws attention to the fact that over the next 30 years, global GDP will shrink by up to 18% if global temperatures […]
• Effective Policy Sets to Curb Climate Change A low population and economic growth significantly reduce climate change while reducing deforestation and methane gas, further slowing climate change. The world should adopt this model and effectively increase renewable use to fight climate change.
• Climate Change: Social-Ecological Systems Framework One of the ways to understand and assess the technogenic impact on various ecological systems is to apply the Social-Ecological Systems Framework.
• The Climate Change Mitigation Issues Indeed, from the utilitarian perspective, the current state of affairs is beneficial only for the small percentage of the world population that mostly resides in developed countries.
• The Dangers of Global Warming: Environmental and Economic Collapse Global warming is caused by the so-called ‘Greenhouse effect’, when gases in Earth’s atmosphere, such as water vapor or methane, let the Sun’s light enter the planet but keep some of its heat in.
• Wildfires and Impact of Climate Change Climate change has played a significant role in raise the likelihood and size of wildfires around the world. Climate change causes more moisture to evaporate from the earth, drying up the soil and making vegetation […]
• Aviation, Climate Change, and Better Engine Designs: Reducing CO2 Emissions The presence of increasing levels of CO2 and other oxides led to the deterioration of the ozone layer. More clients and partners in the industry were becoming aware and willing to pursue the issue of […]
• Climate Change as a Problem for Businesses and How to Manage It Additionally, some businesses are directly contributing to climate change due to a lack of measures that will minimise the emission of carbon.
• Climate Change and Disease-Carrying Insects In order to prevent the spreading of the viruses through insects, the governments should implement policies against the emissions which contribute to the growth of the insects’ populations.
• Aspects of Global Warming Global warming refers to the steadily increasing temperature of the Earth, while climate change is how global warming changes the weather and climate of the planet.
• David Lammy on Climate Change and Racial Justice However, Lammy argues that people of color living in the global south and urban areas are the ones who are most affected by the climate emergency.
• Moral Aspects of Climate Change Addresses However, these approaches are anthropocentric because they intend to alleviate the level of human destruction to the environment, but place human beings and their economic development at the center of all initiatives.
• Feminism: A Road Map to Overcoming COVID-19 and Climate Change By exposing how individuals relate to one another as humans, institutions, and organizations, feminism aids in the identification of these frequent dimensions of suffering.
• Global Warming: Moral and Political Challenge That is, if the politicians were to advocate the preservation of the environment, they would encourage businesses completely to adopt alternative methods and careful usage of resources.
• Climate Change: Inconsistencies in Reporting An alternative route that may be taken is to engage in honest debates about the issue, which will reduce alarmism and defeatism.
• Climate Change: The Chornobyl Nuclear Accident Also, I want to investigate the reasons behind the decision of the USSR government to conceal the truth and not let people save their lives.
• “World on the Edge”: Managing the Causes of Climate Change Brown’s main idea is to show the possibility of an extremely unfortunate outcome in the future as a result of the development of local agricultural problems – China, Iran, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and others – […]
• The Straw Man Fallacy in the Topic of Climate Change The straw man fallacy is a type of logical fallacy whereby one person misrepresents their opponent’s question or argument to make it easier to respond.
• Gendering Climate Change: Geographical Insights In the given article, the author discusses the implications of climate change on gender and social relations and encourages scholars and activists to think critically and engage in debates on a global scale.
• Climate Change and Its Consequences for Oklahoma This concept can be defined as a rise in the Earth’s temperature due to anthropogenic activity, resulting in alteration of usual weather in various parts of the planet.
• Climate Change Impacts in Sub-Saharan Africa This is why I believe it is necessary to conduct careful, thorough research on why climate change is a threat to our planet and how to stop it.
• Climate Change: Global Warming Intensity Average temperatures on Earth are rising faster than at any time in the past 2,000 years, and the last five of them have been the hottest in the history of meteorological observations since 1850.
• The Negative Results of Climate Change Climate change refers to the rise of the sea due to hot oceans expanding and the melting of ice sheets and glaciers.
• Addressing Climate Change: The Collective Action Problem While all the nations agree that climate change is a source of substantial harm to the economy, the environment, and public health, not all countries have similar incentives for addressing the problem. Addressing the problem […]
• Health Issues on the Climate Change However, the mortality rate of air pollution in the United States is relatively low compared to the rest of the world.
• Collective Climate Change Responsibility The fact is that individuals are not the most critical contributors to the climate crisis, and while ditching the plastic straw might feel good on a personal level, it will not solve the situation.
• Climate Change and Challenges in Miami, Florida The issue of poor environment maintenance in Miami, Florida, has led to climate change, resulting in sea-level rise, an increase of flood levels, and droughts, and warmer temperatures in the area.
• Global Perspectives in the Climate Change Strategy It is required to provide an overview of those programs and schemes of actions that were used in the local, federal and global policies of the countries of the world to combat air pollution.
• Climate Change as Systemic Risk of Globalization However, the integration became more complex and rapid over the years, making it systemic due to the higher number of internal connections.
• Impact of Climate Change on Increased Wildfires Over the past decades, America has experienced the most severe fires in its history regarding the coverage of affected areas and the cost of damage.
• Creating a Policy Briefing Book: Climate Change in China After that, a necessary step included the evaluation of the data gathered and the development of a summary that perfectly demonstrated the crucial points of this complication.
• Natural Climate Solutions for Climate Change in China The social system and its response to climate change are directly related to the well-being, economic status, and quality of life of the population.
• Climate Change and Limiting the Fuel-Powered Transportation When considering the options for limiting the extent of the usage of fuel-powered vehicles, one should pay attention to the use of personal vehicles and the propensity among most citizens to prefer diesel cars as […]
• Climate Change Laboratory Report To determine the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere causing global warming in the next ten decades, if the estimated rate of deforestation is maintained.
• Climate Change: Causes, Impact on People and the Environment Climate change is the alteration of the normal climatic conditions in the earth, and it occurs over some time. In as much as there are arguments based around the subject, it is mainly caused by […]
• Climate Change and Stabilization Wages The more the annual road activity indicates that more cars traversed throughout a fiscal year, the higher the size of the annual fuel consumption. The Carbon Capture and Storage technology can also reduce carbon emissions […]
• UK Climate Change Act 2008 The aim of the UK is to balance the levels of greenhouse gases to circumvent the perilous issue of climate change, as well as make it probable for people to acclimatize to an inevitable climate […]
• Sustainability, Climate Change Impact on Supply Chains & Circular Economy With recycling, reusing of materials, and collecting waste, industries help to fight ecological issues, which are the cause of climate change by saving nature’s integrity.
• Climate Change Indicators and Media Interference There is no certainty in the bright future for the Earth in the long-term perspective considering the devastating aftereffects that the phenomenon might bring. The indicators are essential to evaluate the scale of the growing […]
• Climate Change: Sustainability Development and Environmental Law The media significantly contributes to the creation of awareness, thus the importance of integrating the role of the news press with sustainability practices.
• How Climate Change Affects Conflict and Peace The review looks at various works from different years on the environment, connections to conflict, and the impact of climate change.
• Toyota Corporation: The Effects of Climate Change on the Word’s Automobile Sector Considering the broad nature of the sector, the study has taken into account the case of Toyota Motor Corporation which is one of the firms operating within the sector.
• The Impact of Climate Change on Agriculture However, the move to introduce foreign species of grass such as Bermuda grass in the region while maintaining the native grass has been faced by challenges related to the fiscal importance of the production.
• Health and Climate Change Climate change, which is a universal problem, is thought to have devastating effects on human and animal health. However, the precise health effects are not known.
• The Issue of Climate Change The only confirmed facts are the impact of one’s culture and community on willingness to participate in environmental projects, and some people can refuse to join, thereby demonstrating their individuality.
• Climate Change as a Battle of Generation Z These issues have attracted the attention of the generation who they have identified climate change as the most challenging problem the world is facing today.
• Climate Change and Health in Nunavut, Canada Then, the authors tend to use strict and formal language while delivering their findings and ideas, which, again, is due to the scholarly character of the article. Thus, the article seems to have a good […]
• Climate Change: Anticipating Drastic Consequences Modern scientists focus on the problem of the climate change because of expecting the dramatic consequences of the process in the future.
• The Analysis of Process of Climate Change Dietz is the head of the Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
• The Way Climate Change Affects the Planet It can help analyze past events such as the Pleistocene ice ages, but the current climate change does not fit the criteria. It demonstrates how slower the change was when compared to the current climate […]
• Polar Bear Decline: Climate Change From Pole to Pole In comparison to 2005 where five of the populations were stable, it shows that there was a decline in stability of polar bear population.
• Preparing for the Impacts of Climate Change The three areas of interest that this report discusses are the impacts of climate change on social, economic and environmental fronts which are the key areas that have created a lot of debate and discussion […]
• Strategy for Garnering Effective Action on Climate Change Mitigation The approach should be participatory in that every member of the community is aware of ways that leads to climate change in order to take the necessary precaution measures. Many member nations have failed to […]
• Impact of Global Climate Change on Malaria There will be a comparison of the intensity of the changes to the magnitude of the impacts on malaria endemicity proposed within the future scenarios of the climate.
• Climate Change Economics: A Review of Greenstone and Oliver’s Analysis The article by Greenstone and Oliver indicates that the problem of global warming is one of the most perilous disasters whose effects are seen in low agricultural output, poor economic wellbeing of people, and high […]
• Rainforests of Victoria: Potential Effects of Climate Change The results of the research by Brooke in the year 2005 was examined to establish the actual impacts of climate change on the East Gippsland forest, especially for the fern specie.
• Pygmy-Possum Burramys Parvus: The Effects of Climate Change The study will be guided by the following research question: In what ways will the predicted loss of snow cover due to climate change influence the density and habitat use of the mountain pygmy-possum populations […]
• Climate Change and the Occurrence of Infectious Diseases This paper seeks to explore the nature of two vector-borne diseases, malaria, and dengue fever, in regards to the characteristics that would make them prone to effects of climate change, and to highlight some of […]
• Links Between Methane, Plants, and Climate Change According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, it is the anthropogenic activities that has increased the load of greenhouse gases since the mid-20th century that has resulted in global warming. It is only the […]
• United Nations Climate Change Conference In the Kyoto protocol, members agreed that nations needed to reduce the carbon emissions to levels that could not threaten the planet’s livelihoods.
• The Involve of Black People in the Seeking of Climate Change Whereas some researchers use the magnitude of pollution release as opposed to closeness to a hazardous site to define exposure, others utilize the dispersion of pollutants model to comprehend the link between exposure and population.
• Climate Change Dynamics: Are We Ready for the Future? One of the critical challenges of preparedness for future environmental changes is the uncertainty of how the climate system will change in several decades.
• How Climate Change Impacts Ocean Temperature and Marine Life The ocean’s surface consumes the excess heat from the air, which leads to significant issues in all of the planet’s ecosystems.
• Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Plan for Abu Dhabi City, UAE Abu Dhabi is the capital city of the UAE and the Abu Dhabi Emirate and is located on a triangular island in the Persian Gulf.
• Global Pollution and Climate Change Both of these works address the topic of Global pollution, Global warming, and Climate change, which are relevant to the current situation in the world.
• Climate Change: The Key Issues An analysis of world literature indicates the emergence in recent years of a number of scientific publications on the medical and environmental consequences of global climate change.
• Climate Change Is a Scientific Fallacy Even in the worst-case scenario whereby the earth gives in and fails to support human activities, there can always be a way out.
• Climate Change: Change Up Your Approach People are becoming aware of the relevance of things and different aspects of their life, which is a positive trend. However, the share of this kind of energy will be reduced dramatically which is favorable […]
• Climate Change: The Broken Ozone Layer It explains the effects of climate change and the adaptation methods used. Vulnerability is basically the level of exposure and weakness of an aspect with regard to climate change.
• Climate Change and Economic Growth The graph displays the levels of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the years before our time with the number 0 being the year 1950.
• Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence The point of confluence in the cattle raids in East Africa and the planting of opium in the poor communities is the struggle to beat the effects of climatic changes.
• Personal Insight: Climate Change To my mind, economic implications are one of the most concerning because the economy is one of the pillars of modern society.
• A Shift From Climate Change Awareness Under New President Such statements raised concerns among American journalists and general population about the future of the organization as one of the main forces who advocated for the safe and healthy environment of Americans and the global […]
• Human Influence on Climate Change Climate changes are dangerous because they influence all the living creatures in the world. Thus, it is hard to overestimate the threat for humankind the climate changes represent.
• Environmental Studies: Climate Changes Ozone hole is related to forest loss in that the hole is caused by reaction of different chemicals that are found in the atmosphere and some of these gases, for example, the carbon dioxide gas […]
• Global Warming: Negative Effects to the Environment The effect was the greening of the environment and its transformation into habitable zones for humans The second system has been a consequence of the first, storage.
• Global Warming Problem Overview: Significantly Changing the Climate Patterns The government is not in a position to come up with specific costs that are attached to the extent of environmental pollution neither are the polluters aware about the costs that are attached to the […]
• Desert, Glaciers, and Climate Change When the wind blows in a relatively flat area with no vegetation, this wind moves loose and fine particles to erode a vast area of the landscape continuously in a process called deflation.
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• CO2 Emission and Climate Change Misconceptions
• Geoengineering as a Possible Response to Climate Change
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• United Nation and Climate Change
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• Climate Change: Anthropological Concepts and Perspectives
• Climate Change Impacts on Business in Bangladesh
• Environmental Risk Perception: Climate Change Viewpoints
• Pollution & Climate Change as Environmental Risks
• Climate Change: Nicholas Stern and Ross Garnaut Views
• Challenges Facing Humanity: Technology and Climate Change
• Climate Change Potential Consequences
• Climate Change in United Kingdom
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• Climate Change Effects on World Economy
• Climate Change Vulnerability in Scotland
• Global Warming and Climate Change
• Responsible Factors for Climate Change
• The Effect of Science on Climate Change
• “Climate Change: Turning Up the Heat” by Barrie Pittock
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• Anthropogenic Climate Change
• The Implementation of MOOCs on Climate Change
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• Does Climate Change Affect Entrepreneurs?
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• Does Risk Communication Really Decrease Cooperation in Climate Change Mitigation?
• Does Risk Perception Limit the Climate Change Mitigation Behaviors?
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• Why Climate Change Affects Us?
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• Why the Climate Change Debate Has Not Created More Cleantech Funds in Sweden?
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• Flood Essay Topics
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IvyPanda. (2024, March 2). 337 Climate Change Research Topics & Examples. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/climate-change-essay-examples/

"337 Climate Change Research Topics & Examples." IvyPanda , 2 Mar. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/topic/climate-change-essay-examples/.

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Causes and Effects of Climate Change

Fossil fuels – coal, oil and gas – are by far the largest contributor to global climate change, accounting for over 75 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 90 per cent of all carbon dioxide emissions.

As greenhouse gas emissions blanket the Earth, they trap the sun’s heat. This leads to global warming and climate change. The world is now warming faster than at any point in recorded history. Warmer temperatures over time are changing weather patterns and disrupting the usual balance of nature. This poses many risks to human beings and all other forms of life on Earth.

Causes of Climate Change

Generating power

Generating electricity and heat by burning fossil fuels causes a large chunk of global emissions. Most electricity is still generated by burning coal, oil, or gas, which produces carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide – powerful greenhouse gases that blanket the Earth and trap the sun’s heat. Globally, a bit more than a quarter of electricity comes from wind, solar and other renewable sources which, as opposed to fossil fuels, emit little to no greenhouse gases or pollutants into the air.

Manufacturing goods

Manufacturing and industry produce emissions, mostly from burning fossil fuels to produce energy for making things like cement, iron, steel, electronics, plastics, clothes, and other goods. Mining and other industrial processes also release gases, as does the construction industry. Machines used in the manufacturing process often run on coal, oil, or gas; and some materials, like plastics, are made from chemicals sourced from fossil fuels. The manufacturing industry is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.

Cutting down forests

Cutting down forests to create farms or pastures, or for other reasons, causes emissions, since trees, when they are cut, release the carbon they have been storing. Each year approximately 12 million hectares of forest are destroyed. Since forests absorb carbon dioxide, destroying them also limits nature’s ability to keep emissions out of the atmosphere. Deforestation, together with agriculture and other land use changes, is responsible for roughly a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Using transportation

Most cars, trucks, ships, and planes run on fossil fuels. That makes transportation a major contributor of greenhouse gases, especially carbon-dioxide emissions. Road vehicles account for the largest part, due to the combustion of petroleum-based products, like gasoline, in internal combustion engines. But emissions from ships and planes continue to grow. Transport accounts for nearly one quarter of global energy-related carbon-dioxide emissions. And trends point to a significant increase in energy use for transport over the coming years.

Producing food

Producing food causes emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases in various ways, including through deforestation and clearing of land for agriculture and grazing, digestion by cows and sheep, the production and use of fertilizers and manure for growing crops, and the use of energy to run farm equipment or fishing boats, usually with fossil fuels. All this makes food production a major contributor to climate change. And greenhouse gas emissions also come from packaging and distributing food.

Powering buildings

Globally, residential and commercial buildings consume over half of all electricity. As they continue to draw on coal, oil, and natural gas for heating and cooling, they emit significant quantities of greenhouse gas emissions. Growing energy demand for heating and cooling, with rising air-conditioner ownership, as well as increased electricity consumption for lighting, appliances, and connected devices, has contributed to a rise in energy-related carbon-dioxide emissions from buildings in recent years.

Consuming too much

Your home and use of power, how you move around, what you eat and how much you throw away all contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. So does the consumption of goods such as clothing, electronics, and plastics. A large chunk of global greenhouse gas emissions are linked to private households. Our lifestyles have a profound impact on our planet. The wealthiest bear the greatest responsibility: the richest 1 per cent of the global population combined account for more greenhouse gas emissions than the poorest 50 per cent.

Based on various UN sources

Effects of Climate Change

Hotter temperatures

As greenhouse gas concentrations rise, so does the global surface temperature. The last decade, 2011-2020, is the warmest on record. Since the 1980s, each decade has been warmer than the previous one. Nearly all land areas are seeing more hot days and heat waves. Higher temperatures increase heat-related illnesses and make working outdoors more difficult. Wildfires start more easily and spread more rapidly when conditions are hotter. Temperatures in the Arctic have warmed at least twice as fast as the global average.

More severe storms

Destructive storms have become more intense and more frequent in many regions. As temperatures rise, more moisture evaporates, which exacerbates extreme rainfall and flooding, causing more destructive storms. The frequency and extent of tropical storms is also affected by the warming ocean. Cyclones, hurricanes, and typhoons feed on warm waters at the ocean surface. Such storms often destroy homes and communities, causing deaths and huge economic losses.

Increased drought

Climate change is changing water availability, making it scarcer in more regions. Global warming exacerbates water shortages in already water-stressed regions and is leading to an increased risk of agricultural droughts affecting crops, and ecological droughts increasing the vulnerability of ecosystems. Droughts can also stir destructive sand and dust storms that can move billions of tons of sand across continents. Deserts are expanding, reducing land for growing food. Many people now face the threat of not having enough water on a regular basis.

A warming, rising ocean

The ocean soaks up most of the heat from global warming. The rate at which the ocean is warming strongly increased over the past two decades, across all depths of the ocean. As the ocean warms, its volume increases since water expands as it gets warmer. Melting ice sheets also cause sea levels to rise, threatening coastal and island communities. In addition, the ocean absorbs carbon dioxide, keeping it from the atmosphere. But more carbon dioxide makes the ocean more acidic, which endangers marine life and coral reefs.

Loss of species

Climate change poses risks to the survival of species on land and in the ocean. These risks increase as temperatures climb. Exacerbated by climate change, the world is losing species at a rate 1,000 times greater than at any other time in recorded human history. One million species are at risk of becoming extinct within the next few decades. Forest fires, extreme weather, and invasive pests and diseases are among many threats related to climate change. Some species will be able to relocate and survive, but others will not.

Not enough food

Changes in the climate and increases in extreme weather events are among the reasons behind a global rise in hunger and poor nutrition. Fisheries, crops, and livestock may be destroyed or become less productive. With the ocean becoming more acidic, marine resources that feed billions of people are at risk. Changes in snow and ice cover in many Arctic regions have disrupted food supplies from herding, hunting, and fishing. Heat stress can diminish water and grasslands for grazing, causing declining crop yields and affecting livestock.

More health risks

Climate change is the single biggest health threat facing humanity. Climate impacts are already harming health, through air pollution, disease, extreme weather events, forced displacement, pressures on mental health, and increased hunger and poor nutrition in places where people cannot grow or find sufficient food. Every year, environmental factors take the lives of around 13 million people. Changing weather patterns are expanding diseases, and extreme weather events increase deaths and make it difficult for health care systems to keep up.

Poverty and displacement

Climate change increases the factors that put and keep people in poverty. Floods may sweep away urban slums, destroying homes and livelihoods. Heat can make it difficult to work in outdoor jobs. Water scarcity may affect crops. Over the past decade (2010–2019), weather-related events displaced an estimated 23.1 million people on average each year, leaving many more vulnerable to poverty. Most refugees come from countries that are most vulnerable and least ready to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

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• DOI: 10.3389/ffgc.2024.1351189
• Corpus ID: 270517393

Research trends of nature-based solutions: from urban to climate change

• Hyunyoung Yang , Jeongyeon Chae , +1 author Eunho Choi
• Published in Frontiers in Forests and… 14 June 2024
• Environmental Science

62 References

Analysis of nature-based solutions research trends and integrated means of implementation in climate change, climate change 2022 – impacts, adaptation and vulnerability, a bibliometric review of nature-based solutions on urban stormwater management, the iucn global standard for nature-based solutions™ as a tool for enhancing the sustainable development of marine aquaculture, how would nature design and implement nature-based solutions, tiger sharks support the characterization of the world’s largest seagrass ecosystem, exploring the links between the use of nbs, mindshifts and transformative urban coalitions to promote climate resilience within an ongoing reurbanization process. the case of villa 20, buenos aires, meaning-making in a context of climate change: supporting agency and political engagement, integrated approaches to nature-based solutions in africa: insights from a bibliometric analysis, the use of envi-met for the assessment of nature-based solutions’ potential benefits in industrial parks—a case study of argales industrial park (valladolid, spain), related papers.

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• 05 January 2022

How researchers can help fight climate change in 2022 and beyond

You have full access to this article via your institution.

Devastating floods that hit Germany last July were made more likely by the warming climate. Credit: Christof Stache/AFP/Getty

Late last year, the major climate summit in Glasgow, UK — the 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations climate convention (COP26) — injected much-needed momentum into the political and business community in the fight to stop climate change. The year ahead represents an opportunity for scientists of all stripes to offer up expertise and ensure that they have a voice in this monumental effort.

Science is already baked into the UN’s formal climate agenda for 2022. In February, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is scheduled to release its assessment of the latest research into how climate warming is affecting people and ecosystems; a month later, the panel is set to provide an analysis of the options for curbing emissions and halting global warming. Combined with last year’s report on climate science , the governments of the world will have a solid review of the state-of-the-art of research on climate change. But the research community’s work stretches far beyond the IPCC.

At the top of governments’ climate agenda is innovation. Existing technologies such as wind and solar power, whose price has plummeted over the past decade, and more-efficient lighting, buildings and vehicles will help to reduce emissions. But if green energy is to push out fossil fuels and fulfil the rising demand for reliable power in low-income countries, scientists and engineers will be needed to solve a range of problems. These include finding ways to cut the price of grid-scale electricity storage and to address technical challenges that arise when integrating massive amounts of intermittent renewable energy. Research will also be required to provide a new generation of affordable vehicles powered by electricity and hydrogen, and low-carbon fuels for those that are harder to electrify, such as aircraft.

Even in the most optimistic scenarios, such clean-energy deployments are unlikely to be enough to enable countries to keep their climate commitments. More innovation will also be needed — for example, in the form of technologies that can pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. These have yet to be tested and demonstrated at any significant scale. Governments and funders also need to support scientists in efforts to understand the safety and efficacy of various controversial geoengineering technologies — methods for artificially cooling the planet, such as the addition of particles to the stratosphere to reflect sunlight back into space — if only to determine whether there is sense in even contemplating such alternatives.

Give research into solar geoengineering a chance

There are signs of renewed support for research and innovation in helping to address climate change. In Glasgow, 22 countries, as well as the European Commission (EC), announced plans to cooperate on innovation focused on greening cities, curbing industrial emissions, promoting CO 2 capture and developing renewable fuels, chemicals and materials. The EC has also announced efforts to drive new funds into demonstration projects to help commercialize low-carbon technologies. And China, currently the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, is creating a vast research infrastructure focused on technologies that will help to eliminate carbon emissions.

China creates vast research infrastructure to support ambitious climate goals

In the United States, under President Joe Biden, the Democrats have also made innovation a linchpin of efforts to address climate change. A bipartisan bill enacted in November will expand green-infrastructure investments, as well as providing nearly US$42 billion for clean-energy research and development at the US Department of Energy over the next 5 years, roughly doubling the current budget, according to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a think tank in Washington DC. Another $550 billion for climate and clean-energy programmes is included in a larger budget bill that Democrats hope to pass this year. Economic modelling suggests that the spending surge could help to lower emissions in the coming decade while teeing up technologies that will be crucial to eliminating greenhouse-gas emissions in the latter half of the century.

In addition to enabling green innovation, scientists have an important part to play in evaluating climate policies and tracking commitments made by governments and businesses. Many of the initiatives that gained traction at COP26 need science to succeed. That includes evaluating how climate finance — money that wealthy nations have committed to help low-income nations to curb emissions and cope with climate change — is spent. Research is also needed to understand the impacts of carbon offsets and carbon trading, for which new rules were agreed at COP26.

COP26 climate pledges: What scientists think so far

Climate science, too, must continue apace, helping governments and the public to understand the impact of climate change. From floods in Germany to fires in Australia, the evolving field of climate attribution has already made it clear that global warming is partly to blame for numerous tragedies. Attribution science will also feed into an ongoing geopolitical debate about who should pay for the rising costs of climate-related natural disasters, as many low-income countries seek compensation from wealthy countries that are responsible for the bulk of the greenhouse-gas emissions so far.

These and other issues will be discussed again in November at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, where it will be crucial to make sure that everyone has a voice and that research supports climate monitoring and innovation everywhere, not just in richer nations.

A new agreement made at COP26 that requires governments to report annually on their climate progress should help to maintain pressure on them to act on climate change. But science and innovation will be equally important to driving ever-bolder climate policies.

Nature 601 , 7 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-03817-4

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• Published: 11 June 2024

Health science students’ preparedness for climate change: a scoping review on knowledge, attitudes, and practices

• Fabricio Ccami-Bernal   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3172-2113 1 ,
• Fernanda Barriga-Chambi   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-6824-0092 1 ,
• Carlos Quispe-Vicuña   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-0076-0985 2 ,
• Daniel Fernandez-Guzman   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9441-1067 3 ,
• Rodolfo Arredondo-Nontol   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3333-2741 4 , 5 ,
• Miriam Arredondo-Nontol   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-6269-7593 4 , 5 &
• David Rojas-Rueda   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5854-2484 6 , 7  

BMC Medical Education volume  24 , Article number:  648 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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Introduction

Climate change (CC) is a global public health issue, and the role of health professionals in addressing its impact is crucial. However, to what extent health professionals are prepared to deal with CC-related health problems is unclear. We aimed to evaluate the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of health students about the CC.

We conducted a scoping review through systematic searches in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Proquest, and EBSCO. We included original scientific research with no language or time restrictions. Two authors independently reviewed and decided on the eligibility of the studies, then performed data extraction.

21 studies were included, with a total of 9205 undergraduate nursing, medical, pharmacy, and public health students mainly. Most health science students (> 75%) recognized human activities as the main cause of CC. However, they perceived a lack of knowledge on how to address CC. Moreover, we found inadequate coverage or limited development of CC in related curricula that may contribute to incomplete learning or low confidence in the theoretical and practical concepts of students.

The findings of our scoping review suggest that while health sciences students possess a general understanding of CC, there is a significant gap in their knowledge regarding its specific health impacts. To address this gap, there is a need for targeted education and training for future health care professionals that emphasizes the health effects of CC.

Peer Review reports

The increasing use of fossil fuels and the release of greenhouse gases have led to an increase in the temperature of the environment and variations in climatic phenomena. Thus, climate change (CC) is one of the main public health problems with global reach [ 1 ] as it plays an important role in several environmental determinants of health, such as air and water pollution, as well as food shortages, and droughts, among others [ 2 ]. In addition, CC favors the development of communicable and non-communicable diseases, either directly or indirectly [ 3 ]. Such is the impact of CC that, in the last 20 years, it has been attributed to more than 5 million deaths worldwide [ 4 ]. By 2030, approximately 250,000 deaths are expected, generating annual public health expenditures of nearly US$4 billion [ 5 ].

All these threats highlight the need for multilevel strategies to prevent future fatal events and the loss of country economies [ 6 ]. Health professionals have a key role in addressing CC threats to health [ 7 , 8 ] because they are directly confronted with its impact, as is the case of the increase in cases of infectious diseases each year, or the increased mortality of patients with chronic diseases during a heat wave [ 9 ]. In the field of health sciences, medical education on climate change seems variable, as on the one hand there is evidence of incomplete knowledge despite the fact that students would like to learn more and on the other hand it is reported that most of the teaching given comes from individual initiatives rather than from a formal status in their syllabus [ 10 ]. Therefore, public health measures at different levels and by health institutions to mitigate the effects of CC are necessary to address this problem [ 11 ]. To this end, it is essential to teach future health professionals about CC and its impacts on health to better face these challenges and consequences [ 12 , 13 ].

Many students may become future public health decision-makers, and thus, their training should ensure knowledge about CC. However, it has been reported that about 13% of students receive an environmental health education within the curricula of their professional schools [ 14 ]. On the other hand, the curricular structure of the courses taught is likely not the most adequate to face the challenges that arise or come as a result of CC [ 15 , 16 ], indicating that health professionals will not be prepared to face the challenges that CC poses [ 17 ]. This scenario could lead to serious public health consequences, as health professionals will play a key role in addressing the challenges and health threats caused by CC [ 17 ].

Among the main solutions is the need to promote public awareness of CC and advocate for the population’s health by communicating opportunities and threats to public policymakers [ 8 ]. Despite this, it is not entirely clear to what extent health professionals are prepared to act and respond adequately to the health impacts of CC. In that sense, a university education would be an appropriate starting point to prepare health professionals, as higher education is one of the pillars of sustainable development in the world [ 18 , 19 ] and moreover, It has been reported that the concern and awareness of medical and nursing students about causes of CC may be influenced by the knowledge acquired, especially in its causes [ 20 , 21 ]. . It should also be added that although there are previous reviews that evaluate education on the environment and climate change in medical student populations (human medicine, nursing, etc.) [ 10 , 22 , 23 ], these only perform a superficial analysis without highlighting the knowledge, attitude or practice of each student in each study. Therefore, this scoping review assessed knowledge, attitudes, mitigation practices against CC of health students and the students’ perspectives regarding the incroporation of CC in the academic curriculum. These findings will provide an updated overview of the problem and serve as a basis for stimulating and implementing topics related to CC in curricular plans.

A scoping review was conducted following the guidelines of the 2018 Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Analysis and Meta-Analysis for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) extension [ 24 ], and the methodology described by the Joanna Briggs Institute [ 25 ]. The review protocol has been publicly disclosed and is accessible online [ 26 ]. The primary objective of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to climate change among students in health sciences. As a secondary aim, we examined the students’ perspectives regarding the incrorporation of this topic into their curricula was evaluated.

Eligibility criteria

In this scoping review, we included original scientific research published in scientific journals, without language or time restriction, that assessed knowledge, attitudes, practices, or related attributes of health science students about CC. We included students of health sciences from professional schools or formal educational programs in medicine, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, and psychology.

Literature search

The following databases were searched: (1) PubMed, (2) Scopus, (3) Web of Science (Core collection), (4) Proquest (Health & Medical Collection, Public Health Database, Education Database, Environmental Science Database, Psychology Database, Nursing, and Allied database) and (5) EBSCO (Dentistry & Oral Sciences Source, GreenFILE, Psychology, and Behavioral Sciences Collection). The search was conducted on May 4, 2022. The complete search strategy for each database can be found in Supplementary Material 1 .

Study selection

Articles from the databases were imported into Rayyan Software, and duplicates were manually removed. Subsequently, two authors (C.Q.V., D.F.G.) independently screened by title and abstract to sift potentially includable articles. Then, two authors (M.A.N., R.A.N.) independently screened full-text studies for compliance with the selection criteria. Discrepancies were resolved at a meeting with a third author (F.C.B. or D.F.G.). The screening and selection flowchart are shown in Fig.  1 .

Flow diagram summarizing the process of literature search and selection

Data extraction

We designed a Microsoft Excel sheet to extract the data. This process was performed independently by two authors (F.C.B., M.B.C.). We extracted the following variables from the studies included: name of the first author, date of publication, region, the characteristics of the study (type and focus of the study, the instruments or methods used to assess the knowledge, attitudes, practices (KAPs), and their validity), the gross national income of the country of the study population as established by the World Bank [ 27 ], the characteristics of the students (type of students, year of study, and sample size). KAPs on the following items were extracted: Knowledge (causes of CC, effects on the environment and human health, perception of the level of knowledge and sources of information), attitudes according to the definition used in the primary studies (importance of CC and role as a health professional) and mitigation practices against CC (eco-friendly practices by the health system and at home) and the inclusion of CC in the academic curriculum. In the case of longitudinal studies, data were extracted from the baseline data.

Synthesis of results

A scoping rather than a systematic review was proposed because it is necessary to identify and map the evidence on the topic addressed, the types of studies, and the concepts used to examine how research in this field is conducted [ 28 ]. The synthesis of the results was narrative, applying a qualitative thematic analysis approach to categorize and present the key themes in our data. The contents of the studies were synthesized in an evidence map, identifying common themes, and synthesizing the logical link between them, as well as the research gaps identified.

Of a total of 1020 studies identified, 21 including 9205 students were finally included [ 13 , 21 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 ] (Fig.  1 ). Sixteen (76.2%) were cross-sectional, and four (19.0%) were qualitative studies. Of the 35 countries studied, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia were the most studied regions with 14 (40%), 10 (28.5%), and 5 (14.3%) respectively, the remaining 6 studies (17.2) belong to the USA, Africa, and Australia (Fig.  2 ), with high-income countries being the most studied. Fourteen studies (66.7%) included nursing students, ten (47.6%) medical students, two (9.5%) pharmacy students, two (9.5%) public health students, and four (19%) included other health students (physician assistants, medical laboratory technology, environmental health, health officers, psychiatry nursing, dentistry, midwifery). The students were mostly fourth-year (10 studies), third-year (10 studies), first-year (9 studies), and second-year (7 studies). 50% of the articles used instruments developed by the authors, and the questionnaire most commonly used was the Sustainability Attitudes in Nursing Survey (SANS) questionnaire (33.3%) (Table  1 ).

Geographic representation of the countries studied in the studies included ( n  = 35)

Table  2 and the evidence map (Fig.  3 ) summarize the KAPs assessed. Attitudes, practices, and opinions regarding the curriculum were studied more by nursing students, while knowledge was assessed more by medical students. Of the 11 studies that included medical students, 10 assessed knowledge, 8 attitudes, and 2 practices. Of the 14 studies that included nursing students, 6 assessed knowledge, 14 attitudes, and 9 practices. Of the 6 that evaluated students from other careers (pharmacy, public health, physician assistant, medical laboratory technology, environmental health, health officer, psychiatry nursing, dentist, midwifery), 5 evaluated knowledge, 4 attitudes, and 2 practices.

Evidence map

Thirteen studies reported knowledge of CC [ 21 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 38 , 39 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 ]. Eight assessed the knowledge of the causes of CC. In one study, the majority of nursing students (65.4%) considered CC to be a balance between natural and human causes [ 42 ], unlike the rest of the studies [ 21 , 32 , 34 , 39 , 43 , 44 , 45 ] in which more than 75% of the students identified the contribution of human activities (industrial and vehicular pollution, deforestation, unsustainable consumption of resources, CO 2 emissions) as a cause of CC. Only one study assessed knowledge about pollution produced by the area of health, with less than half of the students correctly identifying that “10% of gas emissions come from the health sector”, and with less knowledge among medical students [ 33 ].

The 13 studies assessed knowledge about the effects of CC on the environment and health. The effects on the environment most frequently identified were lack of food and water [ 30 , 31 , 45 ], changes in air quality and heat shocks [ 27 ], and an increase in poverty and migration [ 30 ]. Regarding health effects, more than 90% of students identified the interruption in the delivery of health services [ 21 , 33 , 34 ] and diseases related to air quality [ 33 , 34 , 45 ]. More than 60% of students linked skin cancer to increased ultraviolet radiation [ 32 , 45 ]. Other effects identified to a lesser extent were vector-related infectious diseases [ 38 , 39 , 43 ], malnutrition, water quality [ 38 ], mental health conditions [ 33 , 38 ], and cold-related illness [ 21 ].

In four studies, most students reported feeling that they do not have the information or knowledge necessary to appropriately address the impact of CC on health [ 13 , 34 , 42 , 43 ] and one was associated with a lack of adequate teacher orientation and/or inadequate practical training one study described a lack of adequate teacher orientation and/or inadequate practical training [ 34 ]. In addition, when CC information sources were consulted, the internet was the most popular source in a study conducted by medical and nursing students (95%) [ 34 ], in contrast to other health students among whom only 45% used internet as a main source of information [ 34 ]. The second most used source of information was the television and radio [ 34 , 38 , 40 ].

Eighteen studies assessed attitudes toward CC [ 13 , 21 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 33 , 34 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 45 , 46 , 47 ]. In the studies that used the SANS questionnaire for nursing students; two reported that students mildly agreed with the statement. “Climate change is an important issue for nursing” [ 36 , 37 ], four stated that they somewhat agreed [ 29 , 40 , 41 , 47 ] and another study reported that 55% agreed with the statement to some degree [ 46 ]. Similarly, the majority (> 80%) of students consider CC to be a serious, important, and current problem [ 21 , 34 , 38 ]. In qualitative studies, nursing students have a pessimistic view of the future concerning CC [ 30 ], and medical students believe the health impact will be massive [ 43 ].

Students believe the topic is important and can help their patients, but medical students believe it to a lesser extent than nursing students (60.5% vs. 81.1%) [ 33 ]. Similarly, medical students were more likely to say that CC is not an area of personal interest to them (57.4% vs. 39.6%) [ 33 ]. Although students consider that they should have an educational role in their patients and the public about the impacts of CC [ 31 ], medical students consider it to a lesser extent (69.8% vs. 86.8%) [ 33 ]. Moreover, when asked if they feel prepared for CC, 2 out of 3 medical students believe they are not prepared in to deal with CC [ 13 ].

Regarding the responsibilities that health professionals should assume in CC, approximately 90% are concerned about the health effects of CC and recognize that they are responsible for conserving resources and preventing contamination within their professional practice [ 33 , 34 ]. Similarly, in the qualitative studies, students stated that health professionals should be role models for patients and society regarding CC [ 30 , 43 , 45 ]. However, this professional responsibility was less assumed in the case of medical students [ 31 ] and about 80% of health science students consider pollution prevention and natural resource conservation outside their responsibility [ 33 , 38 ].

Ten studies reported on practices related to CC [ 29 , 31 , 36 , 37 , 40 , 41 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 ]. Regarding eco-friendly practices within the health care system, 95% of students agreed on reducing unnecessary material used in health care [ 33 ]. More than 80% of students recognized the importance of promoting measures such as transparency of the environmental footprint of the health care industry and optimization of supplies, procedures, and medical devices [ 33 ].

Of the studies on nursing students, in two, the mean areed with the statement: “They apply sustainability principles in nursing practice” [ 40 , 41 ], and in two studies the meanwas neutral [ 36 , 37 ]. On eco-friendly practices in the home, the average mildly agreed [ 37 , 46 , 47 ] and somewhat agree [ 29 , 40 , 41 ] with the statement: “they apply sustainability principles at home.” 77% of nursing students choose eco-friendly products [ 45 ]. Similarly, in the case of medical students, about 75% perform eco-friendly actions such as avoiding the consumption of plastic [ 31 ] or energy saving [ 44 ], and, to a lesser extent (30%), recycling or use of alternative energies [ 44 ].

Ten studies analyzed the opinions of including CC in the curriculum [ 29 , 33 , 34 , 36 , 37 , 40 , 41 , 45 , 46 , 47 ]. The mean of the nursing students agreed to some degree with including CC and sustainability to the nursing curriculum [ 29 , 40 , 41 , 46 , 47 ], in contrast to the rest of the studies in which the mean was neutral [ 36 , 37 ]. This is similar to other studies on medical and nursing students, among whom 90% consider the need to include CC in the curriculum [ 33 , 34 ]. However, one out of three studied mentioned that there might not be time to learn about this topic because of the pre-existing academic load [ 33 ].

With respect to how to include CC in the curriculum, students preferred that the topics should be addressed during classes in a stand-alone or existing course [ 33 , 34 , 45 ] focused on clinical knowledge and skills related to CC in a practical and clinically integrated manner [ 34 ]. Therefore, they stated that the knowledge should be reinforced in a clinical setting [ 21 ]; this opinion was higher among nursing students and physician assistants (71.7%) than in medical students (57.4%) [ 33 ].

Our study found that most health science students (> 75%) recognized human activities as the main cause of CC. However, while they were aware of the health consequences of CC, they perceived a lack of knowledge on how to address them. Moreover, we found inadequate coverage or limited development of CC in related curricula, which may contribute to the incomplete learning or low confidence in the theoretical and practical concepts of students on the subject. Despite this, researchers are increasingly interested in understanding the KAP. of health care professionals, especially those who provide direct patient care and are involved in community activities such as nursing. We found that nursing students were more predominant in the studies we evaluated than medical or other health professionals.

Although a university education is an essential pillar for building student knowledge and skills, learning scenarios (courses, workshops, seminars, etc.) on CC and health are either not included in the related curricula or developed only to a limited extent [ 16 , 48 , 49 ]. Nonetheless, student initiatives are leading the way to addressing the issue in the educational setting [ 50 ], which provides an opportunity to propose programs that can strengthen education and equip health professionals to face the threats of CC in health [ 51 ]. Students agreed that CC is an important problem for their professions and future patients, but medical students expressed less concern compared to nursing or other professionals. This concern and awareness of the relevance of CC were also observed in other university students [ 52 ] and health professionals who have already graduated [ 53 , 54 ]. Conversely, physicians in India have expressed more interest in learning about and addressing climate change and its effects on health than other professionals [ 55 ]. This could be due to the practical setting, in which graduating physicians better perceive the knowledge gap needed to address this problem with their patients [ 56 ].

Regarding practices, most students recognized the importance of complying with eco-friendly practices within the health care system and in their homes. Promoting such behaviors is crucial, as the health sector is one of the primary greenhouse gas emitters [ 57 ]. Health professionals have enormous potential to shift quickly from being consumers of sectors that degrade the environment to drivers of the green revolution, as they have an ethical mandate not to harm [ 57 ].

Finally, most students believe that CC teaching should be included in their curricula, with a practical, clinical approach that does not add to the academic load of other courses. A study evaluating the teaching of CC to medical students using didactic and experiential elements showed a significant increase in their self-reported sense of readiness to discuss the importance of CC with their patients [ 13 ]. Therefore, efforts should be continued to adequately include CC in the curriculum. Similarly, international student organizations, such as the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations, advocate a multi-pronged approach to incorporate the teaching of CC in the medical curriculum and across the entire spectrum of the curricula of health professions [ 58 ].

This scoping review has certain limitations that need to be acknowledged. Firstly, only studies in English were included, which may have resulted in overlooking some relevant studies. In addition, we did not formally assess the methodological quality of the studies included, which might affect the reliability of the results reported. Secondly, this review followed the methodological recommendations of JBI [ 25 ] and PRISMA [ 24 ], which may have limited the scope of the review. Thirdly, the studies included primarily represented students from middle- to high-income countries, which restricts the generalizability of the findings to middle- to low-income countries. Caution should be exercised when generalizing the findings to all students, as this scoping review did not undertake quantitative synthesis. Nevertheless, this review is the first to synthesize and provide an overview of the literature in this study area, which is a significant strength of the study.

The findings of our scoping review suggest that while health sciences students possess a general understanding of climate change (CC), there is a significant gap in their knowledge regarding the specific health impacts of CC. To address this gap, there is a need for targeted education and training of future health care professionals that emphasizes the health effects of CC. Such training should also focus on practical, applicable approaches to managing and mitigating the impacts of CC on patient health. Additionally, our review highlights the strong desire of students for CC education to be integrated into their curricula in a more experiential, hands-on way. Ultimately, the results of our study underscore the importance of addressing these gaps in knowledge and training among health science students to equip them to better meet the challenges of CC in their future careers.

Data availability

All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr. Isabel Silva-Ocas for her help and advice in the search for the studies.

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Fabricio Ccami-Bernal & Fernanda Barriga-Chambi

Sociedad Científica San Fernando, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Perú

Carlos Quispe-Vicuña

Carrera de Medicina Humana, Universidad Científica del Sur, Panamericana Sur km 19, Lima, Perú

Daniel Fernandez-Guzman

Escuela Profesional de Medicina Humana de la Universidad Nacional de Tumbes, Tumbes, Perú

Rodolfo Arredondo-Nontol & Miriam Arredondo-Nontol

Hospital Carlos Alberto Cortez Jiménez Essalud Tumbes, Tumbes, Perú

Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA

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Colorado School of Public Health, Colorado State University, 1601 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, CO, 80523, USA

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F.C.B. participated in the conceptualization of the study. F.C.B., and D.F.G. designed the study. F.C.B., F.B.C., C.Q.V., D.F.G., R.A.N., and M.A.N. participated in the data collection. F.C.B., and F.B.C. performed the data analyses. F.C.B., F.B.C., C.Q.V., D.F.G., R.A.N., M.A.N., and D.R.R. discussed and drafted the paper. D.R.R. substantially revised the paper. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Ccami-Bernal, F., Barriga-Chambi, F., Quispe-Vicuña, C. et al. Health science students’ preparedness for climate change: a scoping review on knowledge, attitudes, and practices. BMC Med Educ 24 , 648 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-024-05629-2

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Climate Change: Evidence and Causes: Update 2020 (2020)

Chapter: conclusion, c onclusion.

This document explains that there are well-understood physical mechanisms by which changes in the amounts of greenhouse gases cause climate changes. It discusses the evidence that the concentrations of these gases in the atmosphere have increased and are still increasing rapidly, that climate change is occurring, and that most of the recent change is almost certainly due to emissions of greenhouse gases caused by human activities. Further climate change is inevitable; if emissions of greenhouse gases continue unabated, future changes will substantially exceed those that have occurred so far. There remains a range of estimates of the magnitude and regional expression of future change, but increases in the extremes of climate that can adversely affect natural ecosystems and human activities and infrastructure are expected.

Citizens and governments can choose among several options (or a mixture of those options) in response to this information: they can change their pattern of energy production and usage in order to limit emissions of greenhouse gases and hence the magnitude of climate changes; they can wait for changes to occur and accept the losses, damage, and suffering that arise; they can adapt to actual and expected changes as much as possible; or they can seek as yet unproven “geoengineering” solutions to counteract some of the climate changes that would otherwise occur. Each of these options has risks, attractions and costs, and what is actually done may be a mixture of these different options. Different nations and communities will vary in their vulnerability and their capacity to adapt. There is an important debate to be had about choices among these options, to decide what is best for each group or nation, and most importantly for the global population as a whole. The options have to be discussed at a global scale because in many cases those communities that are most vulnerable control few of the emissions, either past or future. Our description of the science of climate change, with both its facts and its uncertainties, is offered as a basis to inform that policy debate.

A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The following individuals served as the primary writing team for the 2014 and 2020 editions of this document:

• Eric Wolff FRS, (UK lead), University of Cambridge
• Inez Fung (NAS, US lead), University of California, Berkeley
• Brian Hoskins FRS, Grantham Institute for Climate Change
• John F.B. Mitchell FRS, UK Met Office
• Tim Palmer FRS, University of Oxford
• Benjamin Santer (NAS), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
• John Shepherd FRS, University of Southampton
• Keith Shine FRS, University of Reading.
• Susan Solomon (NAS), Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Kevin Trenberth, National Center for Atmospheric Research
• John Walsh, University of Alaska, Fairbanks
• Don Wuebbles, University of Illinois

Staff support for the 2020 revision was provided by Richard Walker, Amanda Purcell, Nancy Huddleston, and Michael Hudson. We offer special thanks to Rebecca Lindsey and NOAA Climate.gov for providing data and figure updates.

The following individuals served as reviewers of the 2014 document in accordance with procedures approved by the Royal Society and the National Academy of Sciences:

• Richard Alley (NAS), Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University
• Alec Broers FRS, Former President of the Royal Academy of Engineering
• Harry Elderfield FRS, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge
• Joanna Haigh FRS, Professor of Atmospheric Physics, Imperial College London
• Isaac Held (NAS), NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory
• John Kutzbach (NAS), Center for Climatic Research, University of Wisconsin
• Jerry Meehl, Senior Scientist, National Center for Atmospheric Research
• John Pendry FRS, Imperial College London
• John Pyle FRS, Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge
• Gavin Schmidt, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
• Emily Shuckburgh, British Antarctic Survey
• Gabrielle Walker, Journalist
• Andrew Watson FRS, University of East Anglia

The Support for the 2014 Edition was provided by NAS Endowment Funds. We offer sincere thanks to the Ralph J. and Carol M. Cicerone Endowment for NAS Missions for supporting the production of this 2020 Edition.

F OR FURTHER READING

For more detailed discussion of the topics addressed in this document (including references to the underlying original research), see:

• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2019: Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate [ https://www.ipcc.ch/srocc ]
• National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), 2019: Negative Emissions Technologies and Reliable Sequestration: A Research Agenda [ https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25259 ]
• Royal Society, 2018: Greenhouse gas removal [ https://raeng.org.uk/greenhousegasremoval ]
• U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), 2018: Fourth National Climate Assessment Volume II: Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States [ https://nca2018.globalchange.gov ]
• IPCC, 2018: Global Warming of 1.5°C [ https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15 ]
• USGCRP, 2017: Fourth National Climate Assessment Volume I: Climate Science Special Reports [ https://science2017.globalchange.gov ]
• NASEM, 2016: Attribution of Extreme Weather Events in the Context of Climate Change [ https://www.nap.edu/catalog/21852 ]
• IPCC, 2013: Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) Working Group 1. Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis [ https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg1 ]
• NRC, 2013: Abrupt Impacts of Climate Change: Anticipating Surprises [ https://www.nap.edu/catalog/18373 ]
• NRC, 2011: Climate Stabilization Targets: Emissions, Concentrations, and Impacts Over Decades to Millennia [ https://www.nap.edu/catalog/12877 ]
• Royal Society 2010: Climate Change: A Summary of the Science [ https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/publications/2010/climate-change-summary-science ]
• NRC, 2010: America’s Climate Choices: Advancing the Science of Climate Change [ https://www.nap.edu/catalog/12782 ]

Much of the original data underlying the scientific findings discussed here are available at:

• https://data.ucar.edu/
• https://climatedataguide.ucar.edu
• https://iridl.ldeo.columbia.edu
• https://ess-dive.lbl.gov/
• https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/
• https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/
• http://scrippsco2.ucsd.edu
• http://hahana.soest.hawaii.edu/hot/

Climate change is one of the defining issues of our time. It is now more certain than ever, based on many lines of evidence, that humans are changing Earth's climate. The Royal Society and the US National Academy of Sciences, with their similar missions to promote the use of science to benefit society and to inform critical policy debates, produced the original Climate Change: Evidence and Causes in 2014. It was written and reviewed by a UK-US team of leading climate scientists. This new edition, prepared by the same author team, has been updated with the most recent climate data and scientific analyses, all of which reinforce our understanding of human-caused climate change.

Scientific information is a vital component for society to make informed decisions about how to reduce the magnitude of climate change and how to adapt to its impacts. This booklet serves as a key reference document for decision makers, policy makers, educators, and others seeking authoritative answers about the current state of climate-change science.

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New study finds Earth warming at record rate, but no evidence of climate change accelerating

A woman is silhouetted against the setting sun as triple-digit heat indexes continue in the Midwest, Aug. 20, 2023, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

FILE - A woman is silhouetted against the setting sun as triple-digit heat indexes continue in the Midwest, Aug. 20, 2023, in Kansas City, Mo. The rate Earth is warming hit an all-time high in 2023 with 92% of last year’s surprising record-shattering heat caused by humans, top scientists calculated. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

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FILE - People suffering from heat related ailments crowd the district hospital in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh state, India, June 20, 2023. The rate Earth is warming hit an all-time high in 2023 with 92% of last year’s surprising record-shattering heat caused by humans, top scientists calculated. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh, File)

FILE - Braxton Hicks, 7, of Livingston, Texas, holds his face to a portable fan to cool off during the DYB, formerly Dixie Youth Baseball, Little League tournament in Ruston, La., Aug. 9, 2023. The rate Earth is warming hit an all-time high in 2023 with 92% of last year’s surprising record-shattering heat caused by humans, top scientists calculated. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

FILE - A scuba diver swims near bleached coral, left, and healthy coral at the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, off the coast of Galveston, Texas, Sept. 15, 2023. The rate Earth is warming hit an all-time high in 2023 with 92% of last year’s surprising record-shattering heat caused by humans, top scientists calculated. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)

FILE - A man takes a shower on a beach on a hot day in Ostia, near Rome, Aug. 23, 2023. The rate Earth is warming hit an all-time high in 2023 with 92% of last year’s surprising record-shattering heat caused by humans, top scientists calculated. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)

FILE - Taylor Swift fans wait for the doors of Nilton Santos Olympic stadium to open for her Eras Tour concert amid a heat wave in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Nov. 18, 2023. The rate Earth is warming hit an all-time high in 2023 with 92% of last year’s surprising record-shattering heat caused by humans, top scientists calculated. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo, File)

FILE - A girl walks holding hands with a man carrying an electric fan on his back on a hot evening in Bucharest, Romania, July 25, 2023. The rate Earth is warming hit an all-time high in 2023 with 92% of last year’s surprising record-shattering heat caused by humans, top scientists calculated. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru, File)

The rate Earth is warming hit an all-time high in 2023 with 92% of last year’s surprising record-shattering heat caused by humans, top scientists calculated.

The group of 57 scientists from around the world used United Nations-approved methods to examine what’s behind last year’s deadly burst of heat . They said even with a faster warming rate they don’t see evidence of significant acceleration in human-caused climate change beyond increased fossil fuel burning.

Last year’s record temperatures were so unusual that scientists have been debating what’s behind the big jump and whether climate change is accelerating or if other factors are in play.

“If you look at this world accelerating or going through a big tipping point, things aren’t doing that,” study lead author Piers Forster, a Leeds University climate scientist, said. “Things are increasing in temperature and getting worse in sort of exactly the way we predicted.”

People suffering from heat related ailments crowd the district hospital in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh state, India, June 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

It’s pretty much explained by the buildup of carbon dioxide from rising fossil fuel use, he and a co-author said.

Last year the rate of warming hit 0.26 degrees Celsius (0.47 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade — up from 0.25 degrees Celsius (0.45 degrees Fahrenheit) the year before. That’s not a significant difference, though it does make this year’s rate the highest ever, Forster said.

Still, outside scientists said this report highlights an ever more alarming situation.

“Choosing to act on climate has become a political talking point but this report should be a reminder to people that in fact it is fundamentally a choice to save human lives,” said University of Wisconsin climate scientist Andrea Dutton, who wasn’t part of the international study team. “To me, that is something worth fighting for.”

A scuba diver swims near bleached coral, left, and healthy coral at the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, off the coast of Galveston, Texas, Sept. 15, 2023. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

The team of authors — formed to provide annual scientific updates between the every seven- to eight-year major U.N. scientific assessments — determined last year was 1.43 degrees Celsius warmer than the 1850 to 1900 average with 1.31 degrees of that coming from human activity. The other 8% of the warming is due mostly to El Nino , the natural and temporary warming of the central Pacific that changes weather worldwide and also a freak warming along the Atlantic and just other weather randomness.

On a larger 10-year time frame, which scientists prefer to single years, the world has warmed about 1.19 degrees Celsius (2.14 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times, the report in the journal Earth System Science Data found.

The report also said that as the world keeps using coal, oil and natural gas, Earth is likely to reach the point in 4.5 years that it can no longer avoid crossing the internationally accepted threshold for warming: 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit ).

That fits with earlier studies projecting Earth being committed or stuck to at least 1.5 degrees by early 2029 if emission trajectories don’t change. The actual hitting of 1.5 degrees could be years later, but it would be inevitable if all that carbon is used, Forster said.

It’s not the end of the world or humanity if temperatures blow past the 1.5 limit, but it will be quite bad, scientists said. Past U.N. studies show massive changes to Earth’s ecosystem are more likely to kick in between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius of warming, including eventual loss of the planet’s coral reefs, Arctic sea ice, species of plants and animals — along with nastier extreme weather events that kill people.

Taylor Swift fans wait for the doors of Nilton Santos Olympic stadium to open for her Eras Tour concert amid a heat wave in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Nov. 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Last year’s temperature rise was more than just a little jump. It was especially unusual in September, said study co-author Sonia Seneviratne, head of land-climate dynamics at ETH Zurich, a Swiss university.

The year was within the range of what was predicted, albeit it was at the upper edge of the range, Seneviratne said.

“Acceleration if it were to happen would be even worse, like hitting a global tipping point, it would be probably the worst scenario,” Seneviratne said. “But what is happening is already extremely bad and it is having major impacts already now. We are in the middle of a crisis.”

University of Michigan environment dean Jonathan Overpeck and Berkeley Earth climate scientist Zeke Hausfather, neither of whom were part of the study, said they still see acceleration. Hausfather pointed out the rate of warming is considerably higher than 0.18 degrees Celsius (0.32 Fahrenheit) per decade of warming that it was between 1970 and 2010.

Scientists had theorized a few explanations for the massive jump in September , which Hausfather called “gobsmacking.” Wednesday’s report didn’t find enough warming from other potential causes. The report said the reduction of sulfur pollution from shipping — which had been providing some cooling to the atmosphere — was overwhelmed last year by carbon particles put in the air from Canadian wildfires.

A girl walks holding hands with a man carrying an electric fan on his back on a hot evening in Bucharest, Romania, July 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)

The report also said an undersea volcano that injected massive amounts of heat-trapping water vapor into the atmosphere also spewed cooling particles with both forces pretty much canceling each other out.

Texas Tech climate scientist and chief scientist at the Nature Conservancy Katharine Hayhoe said “the future is in our hands. It’s us — not physics, but humans — who will determine how quickly the world warms and by how much.”

Read more of AP’s climate coverage at http://www.apnews.com/climate-and-environment

Follow Seth Borenstein on X at @borenbears

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org .

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‘Hanging by a Thread’: U.N. Chief Warns of Missing a Key Climate Target

His comments came as the world body’s weather agency said it expected Earth to soon surpass the record high temperatures experienced in 2023.

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By Raymond Zhong

With the planet in the grips of its highest temperatures in more than 100,000 years, scientists with the United Nations weather agency have crunched the numbers and come to a stark conclusion: More record-hot years are all but inevitable.

In the next five years, there’s a nearly 90 percent chance Earth will set yet another record for its warmest year, surpassing the scorching highs experienced in 2023, the World Meteorological Organization said in a report Wednesday .

The chances are almost as great that, in at least one of these five calendar years, the average global temperature will be 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, higher than it was at the dawn of the industrial age. That’s the level of warming that countries set out to avoid under the 2015 Paris Agreement.

“The target of limiting long-term global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is hanging by a thread,” the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, said in a speech on Wednesday at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. He called for urgent action in a number of areas, including slashing carbon dioxide emissions and adopting renewable energy, helping poor countries finance their climate plans, and clamping down on the fossil fuel industry.

On the last subject, Mr. Guterres reiterated past exhortations to end taxpayer subsidies for oil and gas . But he also turned his attention to a new target: He urged governments to ban advertising by fossil-fuel companies, comparing oil and coal producers to the tobacco industry, which faces advertising restrictions worldwide. And he urged the news media and tech companies to stop displaying their ads.

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