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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

Declarations.

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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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Newsroom Post

Climate change widespread, rapid, and intensifying – ipcc.

GENEVA, Aug 9 – Scientists are observing changes in the Earth’s climate in every region and across the whole climate system, according to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report, released today. Many of the changes observed in the climate are unprecedented in thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years, and some of the changes already set in motion—such as continued sea level rise—are irreversible over hundreds to thousands of years.

However, strong and sustained reductions in emissions of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and other greenhouse gases would limit climate change. While benefits for air quality would come quickly, it could take 20-30 years to see global temperatures stabilize, according to the IPCC Working Group I report, Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis , approved on Friday by 195 member governments of the IPCC, through a virtual approval session that was held over two weeks starting on July 26.

The Working Group I report is the first instalment of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), which will be completed in 2022.

“This report reflects extraordinary efforts under exceptional circumstances,” said Hoesung Lee, Chair of the IPCC. “The innovations in this report, and advances in climate science that it reflects, provide an invaluable input into climate negotiations and decision-making.”

Faster warming

The report provides new estimates of the chances of crossing the global warming level of 1.5°C in the next decades, and finds that unless there are immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting warming to close to 1.5°C or even 2°C will be beyond reach.

The report shows that emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities are responsible for approximately 1.1°C of warming since 1850-1900, and finds that averaged over the next 20 years, global temperature is expected to reach or exceed 1.5°C of warming. This assessment is based on improved observational datasets to assess historical warming, as well progress in scientific understanding of the response of the climate system to human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.

“This report is a reality check,” said IPCC Working Group I Co-Chair Valérie Masson-Delmotte. “We now have a much clearer picture of the past, present and future climate, which is essential for understanding where we are headed, what can be done, and how we can prepare.”

Every region facing increasing changes

Many characteristics of climate change directly depend on the level of global warming, but what people experience is often very different to the global average. For example, warming over land is larger than the global average, and it is more than twice as high in the Arctic.

“Climate change is already affecting every region on Earth, in multiple ways. The changes we experience will increase with additional warming,” said IPCC Working Group I Co-Chair Panmao Zhai.

The report projects that in the coming decades climate changes will increase in all regions. For 1.5°C of global warming, there will be increasing heat waves, longer warm seasons and shorter cold seasons. At 2°C of global warming, heat extremes would more often reach critical tolerance thresholds for agriculture and health, the report shows.

But it is not just about temperature. Climate change is bringing multiple different changes in different regions – which will all increase with further warming. These include changes to wetness and dryness, to winds, snow and ice, coastal areas and oceans. For example:

• Climate change is intensifying the water cycle. This brings more intense rainfall and associated flooding, as well as more intense drought in many regions.
• Climate change is affecting rainfall patterns. In high latitudes, precipitation is likely to increase, while it is projected to decrease over large parts of the subtropics. Changes to monsoon precipitation are expected, which will vary by region.
• Coastal areas will see continued sea level rise throughout the 21st century, contributing to more frequent and severe coastal flooding in low-lying areas and coastal erosion. Extreme sea level events that previously occurred once in 100 years could happen every year by the end of this century.
• Further warming will amplify permafrost thawing, and the loss of seasonal snow cover, melting of glaciers and ice sheets, and loss of summer Arctic sea ice.
• Changes to the ocean, including warming, more frequent marine heatwaves, ocean acidification, and reduced oxygen levels have been clearly linked to human influence. These changes affect both ocean ecosystems and the people that rely on them, and they will continue throughout at least the rest of this century.
• For cities, some aspects of climate change may be amplified, including heat (since urban areas are usually warmer than their surroundings), flooding from heavy precipitation events and sea level rise in coastal cities.

For the first time, the Sixth Assessment Report provides a more detailed regional assessment of climate change, including a focus on useful information that can inform risk assessment, adaptation, and other decision-making, and a new framework that helps translate physical changes in the climate – heat, cold, rain, drought, snow, wind, coastal flooding and more – into what they mean for society and ecosystems.

This regional information can be explored in detail in the newly developed Interactive Atlas interactive-atlas.ipcc.ch as well as regional fact sheets, the technical summary, and underlying report.

Human influence on the past and future climate

“It has been clear for decades that the Earth’s climate is changing, and the role of human influence on the climate system is undisputed,” said Masson-Delmotte. Yet the new report also reflects major advances in the science of attribution – understanding the role of climate change in intensifying specific weather and climate events such as extreme heat waves and heavy rainfall events.

The report also shows that human actions still have the potential to determine the future course of climate. The evidence is clear that carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) is the main driver of climate change, even as other greenhouse gases and air pollutants also affect the climate.

“Stabilizing the climate will require strong, rapid, and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and reaching net zero CO 2 emissions. Limiting other greenhouse gases and air pollutants, especially methane, could have benefits both for health and the climate,” said Zhai.

For more information contact:

IPCC Press Office [email protected] , +41 22 730 8120

Katherine Leitzell [email protected]

Nada Caud (French) [email protected]

Notes for Editors

Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

The Working Group I report addresses the most updated physical understanding of the climate system and climate change, bringing together the latest advances in climate science, and combining multiple lines of evidence from paleoclimate, observations, process understanding, global and regional climate simulations. It shows how and why climate has changed to date, and the improved understanding of human influence on a wider range of climate characteristics, including extreme events. There will be a greater focus on regional information that can be used for climate risk assessments.

The Summary for Policymakers of the Working Group I contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) as well as additional materials and information are available at https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/

Note : Originally scheduled for release in April 2021, the report was delayed for several months by the COVID-19 pandemic, as work in the scientific community including the IPCC shifted online. This is first time that the IPCC has conducted a virtual approval session for one of its reports.

AR6 Working Group I in numbers

234 authors from 66 countries

• 31 – coordinating authors
• 167 – lead authors
• 36 – review editors
• 517 – contributing authors

Over 14,000 cited references

A total of 78,007 expert and government review comments

(First Order Draft 23,462; Second Order Draft 51,387; Final Government Distribution: 3,158)

More information about the Sixth Assessment Report can be found here .

About the IPCC

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the UN body for assessing the science related to climate change. It was established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988 to provide political leaders with periodic scientific assessments concerning climate change, its implications and risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation strategies. In the same year the UN General Assembly endorsed the action by the WMO and UNEP in jointly establishing the IPCC. It has 195 member states.

Thousands of people from all over the world contribute to the work of the IPCC. For the assessment reports, IPCC scientists volunteer their time to assess the thousands of scientific papers published each year to provide a comprehensive summary of what is known about the drivers of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and how adaptation and mitigation can reduce those risks.

The IPCC has three working groups: Working Group I , dealing with the physical science basis of climate change; Working Group II , dealing with impacts, adaptation and vulnerability; and Working Group III , dealing with the mitigation of climate change. It also has a Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories that develops methodologies for measuring emissions and removals. As part of the IPCC, a Task Group on Data Support for Climate Change Assessments (TG-Data) provides guidance to the Data Distribution Centre (DDC) on curation, traceability, stability, availability and transparency of data and scenarios related to the reports of the IPCC.

IPCC assessments provide governments, at all levels, with scientific information that they can use to develop climate policies. IPCC assessments are a key input into the international negotiations to tackle climate change. IPCC reports are drafted and reviewed in several stages, thus guaranteeing objectivity and transparency. An IPCC assessment report consists of the contributions of the three working groups and a Synthesis Report. The Synthesis Report integrates the findings of the three working group reports and of any special reports prepared in that assessment cycle.

About the Sixth Assessment Cycle

At its 41st Session in February 2015, the IPCC decided to produce a Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). At its 42nd Session in October 2015 it elected a new Bureau that would oversee the work on this report and the Special Reports to be produced in the assessment cycle.

Global Warming of 1.5°C , an IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty was launched in October 2018.

Climate Change and Land , an IPCC special report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems was launched in August 2019, and the Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate was released in September 2019.

In May 2019 the IPCC released the 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories , an update to the methodology used by governments to estimate their greenhouse gas emissions and removals.

The other two Working Group contributions to the AR6 will be finalized in 2022 and the AR6 Synthesis Report will be completed in the second half of 2022.

For more information go to www.ipcc.ch

The website includes outreach materials including videos about the IPCC and video recordings from outreach events conducted as webinars or live-streamed events.

Most videos published by the IPCC can be found on our YouTube and Vimeo channels.

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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Human activity affects global surface temperatures by changing Earth ’s radiative balance—the “give and take” between what comes in during the day and what Earth emits at night. Increases in greenhouse gases —i.e., trace gases such as carbon dioxide and methane that absorb heat energy emitted from Earth’s surface and reradiate it back—generated by industry and transportation cause the atmosphere to retain more heat, which increases temperatures and alters precipitation patterns.

Global warming, the phenomenon of increasing average air temperatures near Earth’s surface over the past one to two centuries, happens mostly in the troposphere , the lowest level of the atmosphere, which extends from Earth’s surface up to a height of 6–11 miles. This layer contains most of Earth’s clouds and is where living things and their habitats and weather primarily occur.

Continued global warming is expected to impact everything from energy use to water availability to crop productivity throughout the world. Poor countries and communities with limited abilities to adapt to these changes are expected to suffer disproportionately. Global warming is already being associated with increases in the incidence of severe and extreme weather, heavy flooding , and wildfires —phenomena that threaten homes, dams, transportation networks, and other facets of human infrastructure. Learn more about how the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report, released in 2021, describes the social impacts of global warming.

Polar bears live in the Arctic , where they use the region’s ice floes as they hunt seals and other marine mammals . Temperature increases related to global warming have been the most pronounced at the poles, where they often make the difference between frozen and melted ice. Polar bears rely on small gaps in the ice to hunt their prey. As these gaps widen because of continued melting, prey capture has become more challenging for these animals.

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global warming , the phenomenon of increasing average air temperatures near the surface of Earth over the past one to two centuries. Climate scientists have since the mid-20th century gathered detailed observations of various weather phenomena (such as temperatures, precipitation , and storms) and of related influences on climate (such as ocean currents and the atmosphere’s chemical composition). These data indicate that Earth’s climate has changed over almost every conceivable timescale since the beginning of geologic time and that human activities since at least the beginning of the Industrial Revolution have a growing influence over the pace and extent of present-day climate change .

Giving voice to a growing conviction of most of the scientific community , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was formed in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). The IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), published in 2021, noted that the best estimate of the increase in global average surface temperature between 1850 and 2019 was 1.07 °C (1.9 °F). An IPCC special report produced in 2018 noted that human beings and their activities have been responsible for a worldwide average temperature increase between 0.8 and 1.2 °C (1.4 and 2.2 °F) since preindustrial times, and most of the warming over the second half of the 20th century could be attributed to human activities.

AR6 produced a series of global climate predictions based on modeling five greenhouse gas emission scenarios that accounted for future emissions, mitigation (severity reduction) measures, and uncertainties in the model projections. Some of the main uncertainties include the precise role of feedback processes and the impacts of industrial pollutants known as aerosols , which may offset some warming. The lowest-emissions scenario, which assumed steep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions beginning in 2015, predicted that the global mean surface temperature would increase between 1.0 and 1.8 °C (1.8 and 3.2 °F) by 2100 relative to the 1850–1900 average. This range stood in stark contrast to the highest-emissions scenario, which predicted that the mean surface temperature would rise between 3.3 and 5.7 °C (5.9 and 10.2 °F) by 2100 based on the assumption that greenhouse gas emissions would continue to increase throughout the 21st century. The intermediate-emissions scenario, which assumed that emissions would stabilize by 2050 before declining gradually, projected an increase of between 2.1 and 3.5 °C (3.8 and 6.3 °F) by 2100.

Many climate scientists agree that significant societal, economic, and ecological damage would result if the global average temperature rose by more than 2 °C (3.6 °F) in such a short time. Such damage would include increased extinction of many plant and animal species, shifts in patterns of agriculture , and rising sea levels. By 2015 all but a few national governments had begun the process of instituting carbon reduction plans as part of the Paris Agreement , a treaty designed to help countries keep global warming to 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) above preindustrial levels in order to avoid the worst of the predicted effects. Whereas authors of the 2018 special report noted that should carbon emissions continue at their present rate, the increase in average near-surface air temperature would reach 1.5 °C sometime between 2030 and 2052, authors of the AR6 report suggested that this threshold would be reached by 2041 at the latest.

The AR6 report also noted that the global average sea level had risen by some 20 cm (7.9 inches) between 1901 and 2018 and that sea level rose faster in the second half of the 20th century than in the first half. It also predicted, again depending on a wide range of scenarios, that the global average sea level would rise by different amounts by 2100 relative to the 1995–2014 average. Under the report’s lowest-emission scenario, sea level would rise by 28–55 cm (11–21.7 inches), whereas, under the intermediate emissions scenario, sea level would rise by 44–76 cm (17.3–29.9 inches). The highest-emissions scenario suggested that sea level would rise by 63–101 cm (24.8–39.8 inches) by 2100.

The scenarios referred to above depend mainly on future concentrations of certain trace gases, called greenhouse gases , that have been injected into the lower atmosphere in increasing amounts through the burning of fossil fuels for industry, transportation , and residential uses. Modern global warming is the result of an increase in magnitude of the so-called greenhouse effect , a warming of Earth’s surface and lower atmosphere caused by the presence of water vapour , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxides , and other greenhouse gases. In 2014 the IPCC first reported that concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxides in the atmosphere surpassed those found in ice cores dating back 800,000 years.

Of all these gases, carbon dioxide is the most important, both for its role in the greenhouse effect and for its role in the human economy. It has been estimated that, at the beginning of the industrial age in the mid-18th century, carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere were roughly 280 parts per million (ppm). By the end of 2022 they had risen to 419 ppm, and, if fossil fuels continue to be burned at current rates, they are projected to reach 550 ppm by the mid-21st century—essentially, a doubling of carbon dioxide concentrations in 300 years.

A vigorous debate is in progress over the extent and seriousness of rising surface temperatures, the effects of past and future warming on human life, and the need for action to reduce future warming and deal with its consequences. This article provides an overview of the scientific background related to the subject of global warming. It considers the causes of rising near-surface air temperatures, the influencing factors, the process of climate research and forecasting, and the possible ecological and social impacts of rising temperatures. For an overview of the public policy developments related to global warming occurring since the mid-20th century, see global warming policy . For a detailed description of Earth’s climate, its processes, and the responses of living things to its changing nature, see climate . For additional background on how Earth’s climate has changed throughout geologic time , see climatic variation and change . For a full description of Earth’s gaseous envelope, within which climate change and global warming occur, see atmosphere .

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The Science of Climate Change Explained: Facts, Evidence and Proof

Definitive answers to the big questions.

Credit... Photo Illustration by Andrea D'Aquino

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By Julia Rosen

Ms. Rosen is a journalist with a Ph.D. in geology. Her research involved studying ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica to understand past climate changes.

• Published April 19, 2021 Updated Nov. 6, 2021

The science of climate change is more solid and widely agreed upon than you might think. But the scope of the topic, as well as rampant disinformation, can make it hard to separate fact from fiction. Here, we’ve done our best to present you with not only the most accurate scientific information, but also an explanation of how we know it.

How do we know climate change is really happening?

• How much agreement is there among scientists about climate change?
• Do we really only have 150 years of climate data? How is that enough to tell us about centuries of change?
• How do we know climate change is caused by humans?
• Since greenhouse gases occur naturally, how do we know they’re causing Earth’s temperature to rise?
• Why should we be worried that the planet has warmed 2°F since the 1800s?
• Is climate change a part of the planet’s natural warming and cooling cycles?
• How do we know global warming is not because of the sun or volcanoes?
• How can winters and certain places be getting colder if the planet is warming?
• Wildfires and bad weather have always happened. How do we know there’s a connection to climate change?
• How bad are the effects of climate change going to be?
• What will it cost to do something about climate change, versus doing nothing?

Climate change is often cast as a prediction made by complicated computer models. But the scientific basis for climate change is much broader, and models are actually only one part of it (and, for what it’s worth, they’re surprisingly accurate ).

For more than a century , scientists have understood the basic physics behind why greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide cause warming. These gases make up just a small fraction of the atmosphere but exert outsized control on Earth’s climate by trapping some of the planet’s heat before it escapes into space. This greenhouse effect is important: It’s why a planet so far from the sun has liquid water and life!

However, during the Industrial Revolution, people started burning coal and other fossil fuels to power factories, smelters and steam engines, which added more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Ever since, human activities have been heating the planet.

Where it was cooler or warmer in 2020 compared with the middle of the 20th century

Global average temperature compared with the middle of the 20th century

+0.75°C

–0.25°

30 billion metric tons

Carbon dioxide emitted worldwide 1850-2017

Rest of world

Other developed

European Union

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United States

E.U. and U.K.

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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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• Published: 18 October 2021

Research for climate adaptation

• Bruce Currie-Alder   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3224-4136 1 ,
• Cynthia Rosenzweig 2 ,
• Minpeng Chen 3 ,
• Johanna Nalau 4 ,
• Anand Patwardhan 5 &
• Ying Wang 6  

Communications Earth & Environment volume  2 , Article number:  220 ( 2021 ) Cite this article

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• Climate-change adaptation
• Climate-change impacts
• Developing world
• Environmental studies

An Author Correction to this article was published on 28 October 2021

This article has been updated

Adaptation to climate change must be ramped up urgently. We propose three avenues to transform ambition to action: improve tracking of actions and progress, upscale investment especially in critical areas, and accelerate learning through practice.

Ongoing climate impacts are outpacing global mitigation efforts. The reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) show that extreme events are increasing in frequency, intensity, and duration throughout the world. We have entered a climate beyond the range experienced in human history and we must learn to live in that emerging reality. As a result, adaptation needs to ‘increase ambition’ in the terminology of the upcoming 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Glasgow.

Adaptation is the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects. Regardless of how quickly societies decarbonize, global temperatures are already more than 1 °C above the 1850-to-1900 baseline and will continue to rise through mid-century and very likely beyond. 2021 is a year of record-breaking extremes from massive heatwaves and wildfires in the United States and Canada, to deadly floods in China and Germany. In the coming decades, climate change will go on to affect the lives, health, and livelihoods of billions of people. Along with the need to accelerate mitigation, an equally important goal of COP26 is to protect people and nature by increasing ambition for adaptation. We must seize the opportunity for research to enhance its usefulness and usability in order to rapidly upscale adaptation action, now needed more than ever.

Here we outline opportunities for research to accelerate adaptation, based on consultations and interviews with representatives of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the secretariats of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), World Meteorological Organization (WMO), United Nations University (UNU), the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and the Green Climate Fund (GCF), that is, the organizations that convene the World Adaptation Science Programme (WASP) 1 .

We identify three promising opportunities for progress. First, the Paris Agreement mechanisms to raise ambition, such as the global stocktake, requires research to establish what adaptation is being undertaken, whether it is effective, and if it is adequate in the face of a rapidly changing climate. Secondly, we need to ensure the resilience of—and resilience through—multilateral, domestic, and private investment. This will require research to make risk visible in decisions, to identify scalable and transferable practices, and to look ahead to how such investments perform into the future. Thirdly, research must accompany adaptation actions by communities and professionals, through creative and interactive co-production to enable learning by doing.

Informing the global stocktake

The global stocktake is mandated under Article 14 of the Paris Agreement with the purpose of assessing collective progress on climate change mitigation, adaptation, and the means of implementation, in the light of equity and the best available science. A global goal on adaptation is described under Article 7 as enhancing adaptive capacity, strengthening resilience, and reducing vulnerability to climate change. The first stocktake is expected in 2023 and will reoccur every 5 years.

One particular challenge for measuring actions and progress is the wide diversity of climate and socioeconomic conditions as well as of adaptation strategies undertaken by countries and communities around the globe. The knowledge base that underpins the global stocktake needs to embrace the heterogeneity that exists at the national level, and at the same time synthesize information so that global progress can be assessed. Connecting the global goal on adaptation with the myriad of practical actions on the ground, and tracking them through time, is no simple task.

We need practical, and transparent ways of assessing adaptation, underpinned by clear definitions and consistent terminology. At one level, we heard an aspiration for metrics and indicators to monitor and assess progress towards the global goal on adaptation, in a manner that enables comparison across locations and over time. Yet such efforts also raise conceptual issues regarding what counts as adaptation, what constitutes effectiveness, how to respect the diversity of local contexts, and how do they differ from climate-resilient development 2 , 3 , 4 .

Adaptation scholarship is growing in volume and sophistication, the sheer number of articles grew more than five-fold over the most recent decade. Techniques such as systematic literature reviews and machine learning promise to offer new perspective on the state of knowledge and breadth of experience 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 . Such efforts also reveal places where evidence is less readily available, whether due to lack of research or that experience is shared in local languages. This provides a rich opportunity to place increasing focus on locations where evidence is weaker, assessing and synthesising experience-based knowledge from grey literature and making practitioner experience more visible at the global scale.

Guiding climate finance

The Adaptation Gap Report estimates that the annual costs of adaptation in developing countries could range from US$140 billion to US$300 billion annually by 2030 and rise from US$280 billion to US$500 billion by 2050 9 . Addressing these costs will require a drastic increase in the flows of public and private finance. Research needs to make the business case for funding adaptation, demonstrate the returns on investment, and ensuring its delivery where it is most needed. Unlocking finance depends on prioritizing among diverse options to invest in adaptation, assessing the synergies and trade-offs between climate action and development objectives.

Actors differ with respect to what counts as useful information and in what form. Some agencies have in-house units that scan and distill the academic literature, but others require more tailored advice on project proposals. Multilateral, national, and private sources of finance all have distinct knowledge needs, risk appetites, and ways of using evidence. For example, three-quarters of global climate finance is deployed in the country in which it is sourced 10 . In the near-term, research can work with climate finance to strengthen the evidence base and appetite for adaptation-based investment. Even the relatively large Green Climate Fund still relies heavily on grant finance for adaptation and has only two approved projects that leverage private sector funding 11 .

We note some frustration regarding the burden of proof placed upon prospective adaptation investments, the requirement to provide detailed climate scenarios on specific impacts, vulnerabilities, and risks in order to receive funding. Adaptation planning and project proposals are based on understanding the specific climate hazards, the livelihoods and assets at risk, and how investment will address those hazards and create value. Scenarios can also examine how a project might fare under a range of potential climate futures, thus anticipating limits to adaptation or avoiding maladaptation. While logical enough in principle, preparing such a climate justification can become burdensome if information must be continuously redone. Streamlined approaches are needed that are founded on climate science but that can be updated as the climate system and its impacts evolve.

Our discussions also identified instances where proposals were not funded due to a lack of historical climate data. Data collection is essential to strengthen the case for adaptation, in tandem with research that collates, curates, and archives the data so that both short-term and long-term learning can ensue.

Guiding climate finance requires rigorous science as well as sending the right signals to the market and removing barriers to investment. Ultimately research has a role in ensuring all financial flows are compliant with the Paris Agreement are supported by robust evidence, not merely those flows dedicated to assisting developing countries. The research community can help local people, policymakers, farmers, and urban planners make informed decisions by co-developing climate risk information, vulnerability assessments, and adaptation pathways.

Learning through practice

Rapid climate change is now upon us. This requires ongoing engagement among research, policy and practice. Policy and action cannot wait for the slow cycle of research-to-publication-to-recommendation. This decisive decade demands embedded approaches to research, that accompany the pursuit of massively scaled-up climate action. A renewed paradigm of solution- and action-oriented research is emerging. COP26 will see the launch of a new Adaptation Research Alliance to catalyze increased investment in action-oriented research driven by end-user needs.

Research must be integrated into practice: from problem definition to solution implementation, from program design to evaluation. There are, however, multiple barriers—social, economic, political, and institutional—to embracing action research within adaptation. We need to speak to the distinct styles of communication and the incentives that motivate research and policy communities. Research is often painstakingly careful and cautious, whereas policy and practice need timely advice and are deeply grounded in political and practical considerations.

Our interviews tapped into tremendous enthusiasm for adaptation research that is embedded in action. There is an openness for research to accompany implementation of adaptation plans, to catalyze learning from the results of practice, to rapidly scale up what works and let go of what is not effective. Specific expectations raised include the potential for research to facilitate cost-effective action, to provide practical guidance and toolboxes that can be easily accessed and used, and to go further to demonstrate outcomes in practice. Researchers need to understand the decisions practitioners are facing, the information that they need, and contexts in which they operate. This does not mean making research subservient to the pursuit of climate action, but rather to bring its critical eye to refining and enhancing that practice.

Three ways to facilitate action

We have highlighted opportunities for research to inform the global stocktake, guide climate finance, and learn through practice. These three opportunities are all part of the overall shift in adaptation research to move beyond identifying climate risks and vulnerability towards providing a full suite of the knowledge required to implement solutions and improve outcomes in the light of equity and the best available science.

Increasing ambition for adaptation to the climate crisis requires collaboration and change in both the world of science and the world of policy and practice. Policymakers and practitioners need to engage more with researchers, just as researchers need to engage more with policymakers and practitioners. This deeper integration between research and society is beginning to emerge, as scientists are striving much harder to make their findings usable and useful, and policymakers and practitioners are engaging much more directly with the research community. These are the efforts that will elevate adaptation ambition and action across the globe.

Change history

28 october 2021.

A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00302-8

World Adaptation Science Programme. http://wasp-adaptation.org.

Singh, C. et al. Interrogating effectiveness in climate change adaptation. Clim. Dev. https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2021.1964937 (2021).

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Dupuis, J. et al. Comparing apples and oranges: the dependent variable problem in comparing and evaluating climate change adaptation policies. Glob. Environ. Change 23 , 1476–1487 (2013).

AC-LEG/INFO/2. Methodologies for Reviewing the Adequacy and Effectiveness of Adaptation and Support (Adaptation Committee, accessed 8 March 2021); https://unfccc.int/documents/268842.

Thomas, A. et al. Global evidence of constraints and limits to human adaptation. Reg. Environ. Change 21 , 85 (2021).

Nalau, J. et al. Mapping the evolution and current trends in climate change adaptation science. Clim. Risk Manag. 32 , 100290 (2021).

Sietsma, A. J. et al. Progress in climate change adaptation research. Environ. Res. Lett. 16 , 054038 (2021).

Vincent, K. et al. The evolution of empirical adaptation research in the global South from 2010 to 2020. Clim. Dev . https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2021.1877104 (2021).

Pauw, P. et al. Global progress on financing for adaptation in Adaptation Gap Report (UNEP, accessed 15 Jan 2021); https://www.unep.org/resources/adaptation-gap-report-2020 .

Hourcade, J.C. et al. Scaling up Climate Finance in the Context of Covid-19 (Green Climate Fund, accessed 1 June 2021); https://www.greenclimate.fund/scaling-up-climate-finance.

Binet, S. et al. Independent Evaluation of the Adaptation Portfolio and Approach of the Green Climate Fund (GCF, accessed 13 July 2021); https://ieu.greenclimate.fund/node/1171.

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Authors and affiliations.

International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada

Bruce Currie-Alder

Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

Cynthia Rosenzweig

Renmin University, Beijing, China

Minpeng Chen

Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

Johanna Nalau

University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

Anand Patwardhan

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Currie-Alder, B., Rosenzweig, C., Chen, M. et al. Research for climate adaptation. Commun Earth Environ 2 , 220 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00294-5

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Trends in climate adaptation solutions for mountain regions

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• Published: 10 September 2024
• Volume 29 , article number  74 , ( 2024 )

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• Veruska Muccione   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9773-3125 1 , 2 , 3 ,
• Julia Aguilera Rodriguez 2 ,
• Anna Scolobig 2 , 4 ,
• Rosie Witton 5 ,
• Johanna Zwahlen 6 ,
• Alex Mackey 6 ,
• Julia Barrott 5 ,
• Otto Simonett 6 ,
• Markus Stoffel 2 &
• Simon K. Allen 2 , 3  

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This study addresses the critical need for documented adaptation progress in mountain regions by reviewing recently implemented or ongoing adaptation solutions collected from the Adaptation at Altitude Solutions Portal (A@A Solution Portal). Using a data driven approach, the research explores the characteristics, feasibility, and transformative potential of these solutions. Findings reveal a predominant focus on addressing droughts and floods, aligning with the IPCC’s emphasis on water-related impacts in mountains. Notably, watershed management practices emerge as popular solutions, showcasing their capacity to address multiple concerns beyond climate impacts. Education and awareness, along with land use practices, dominate the types of solutions, reflecting their positive impact on project acceptability and low associated risk of maladaptation. Agricultural land and forests are the main ecosystems where solutions are reported, with an evident association with education and awareness and land use change solutions. Most SDGs and Sendai targets are found to be addressed by the solutions emphasising the importance of documenting project experiences as way to bridge previously reported gaps between policy frameworks and on-the-ground implementation. Despite community involvement being high in many of the solutions, challenges such as gender inequality persists. While solutions often demonstrate local relevance and depth of change, upscaling remains challenging, with limited evidence of mainstreaming and replication. Sustainability criteria are moderately met, incorporating inclusive decision-making but with uncertainty regarding long-term plans. Furthermore, findings underscore the significance of co-developing and maintaining adaptation solution portals, illustrating how this approach enriches our understanding of adaptation progress in mountains. Moreover, this research contributes to broadening the scope of systematic adaptation assessments by providing a nuanced perspective that integrates local needs and diverse knowledge systems. In essence, this study makes a valuable contribution to the evolving landscape of adaptation research, emphasizing the importance of practical insights and collaborative efforts to address the complex challenges posed by climate-related impacts and corresponding adaptation efforts.

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1 Introduction

Climate change is having a significant impact on mountain ecosystems, which are home to a quarter of the world’s population and a source of freshwater for billions of people (Adler et al. 2022 ). Mountain communities are highly dependent on natural resources for their livelihoods, and changes in the mountain environment can have significant social, economic, and cultural impacts (Huss et al. 2017 ; Mengistu et al. 2020 ; Schmeller et al. 2022 ; Reader et al. 2023a ). Alongside climate and environmental change, demographic change, land use change and urbanisation also create numerous disruptions, in particular when settlements and infrastructures appear in hazard-prone areas (Viviroli et al. 2020 ; Thornton et al. 2022 ). Therefore, adapting to climate change in mountains is essential to ensure the well-being of mountain and lowland communities, as well as the long-term sustainability of mountain ecosystems (McDowell et al. 2019b ; Adler et al. 2022 ).

Evidence from mountain specific research confirms that climate adaptation is taking place in many mountain countries, often as a reaction to realised impacts, and sporadically as part of coordinated strategies and plans (McDowell et al. 2019b ; Adler et al. 2022 ). The status quo of mountain adaptation is that of small adjustments to existing risk management strategies with limited scope and extent. Yet, as risks become ever more complex and pervasive, the need to move from small adjustments to substantial innovation and systemic changes, is becoming more pressing (Colloff et al. 2017 ; Klein et al. 2019 ; Palomo et al. 2021 ; McDowell et al. 2021 ). Indeed, in terms of the hallmark approaches taken to adaptation, those of incremental and transformational adaptation, are perhaps the two most prominent (Kates et al. 2012 ). Although, as many authors have noted, there is no fixed definition for transformative adaptation and its interpretation differs among different users and contexts (Fedele et al. 2019 ), its relevance and necessity are nevertheless widely recognized (Klein et al. 2019 ; Bentz et al. 2022 ). Such importance appears to lie in the need to move from business-as-usual or traditional incremental strategies to systemic commitments that better address the complex challenges linked to climate change risks through a shift in paradigms and values (Lonsdale et al. 2015 ). Lately, the success of adaptation, whether transformative or incremental, has become strongly interrelated to its effectiveness in reducing climate risks (Owen 2020 ; Chausson et al. 2020 ), with the feasibility of adaptation as an indication of potential barriers, limits or maladaptation (Singh et al. 2020 ; Thomas et al. 2021 ).

In the pursuit of achieving a synthetic picture of the overall landscape of adaptation, its characteristics, effectiveness and transformative potential, numerous systematic reviews and meta-analyses have emerged in the past decade (McDowell et al. 2014 , 2019b ; Berrang-Ford et al. 2015 , 2019 ; Berrang-Ford, Sietsma, et al., 2021 ). Berrang-Ford et al. 2021a combined traditional review methods with machine learning to take stock of empirical adaptation globally. Meanwhile, other reviews have focused on specific sub-topics within the adaptation literature, such as health (Berrang-Ford et al. 2021b ), equity (Araos et al. 2021 ), adaptation limits (Thomas et al. 2021 ), and government adaptation (Berrang-Ford et al. 2019 ). Systematic reviews of adaptation also exist for specific topological regions, including the Arctic (Canosa et al. 2020 ) and mountain areas (McDowell et al. 2014 , 2019b ; Terzi et al. 2019 ; Vij et al. 2021 ).

These reviews have proved extremely valuable to tracking adaptation progress, and some have played a key role in global assessments such as the IPCC (Berrang-Ford et al. 2021a ; Adler et al. 2022 ; O’Neill et al. 2022 ). Notwithstanding, they predominantly assess adaptation if evidence is reported in the academic literature. Technical and logistical challenges have been identified when attempting at systematically assessing adaptation practice from the grey literature in ways that are comparable and on pair with the academic evidence (Berrang-Ford et al. 2021a ). This is often because adaptation projects carried out in the public, NGO and private sectors are seldomly reported in peer-reviewed literature (McDowell et al. 2019b ; Berrang-Ford et al. 2021a ; Vij et al. 2021 ). In response, a number of portals have been developed over the years to track adaptation on the ground, such as Climate-Adapt of the European Environment Agency (Mattern and Jol 2018 ; Dubo et al. 2022 ), the Climate Change Knowledge Portal of the World Bank, and the Dutch adaptation web portal (Laudien et al. 2019 ). Facts and figures from these portals are starting to gain recognition by the scientific literature, and their usefulness is increasingly acknowledged (Laudien et al. 2019 ; Dubo et al. 2022 ; Jevne et al. 2023 ).

This study responds to the urgent need of shedding light on adaptation practice in mountains by compiling wide ranging facts and figures from a dedicated portal on adaptation solutions in mountain regions. It seeks to produce a comprehensive inventory of adaptation efforts taking place in mountains as part of realised and ongoing projects. The focus is placed on implemented adaptation solutions, where solutions are referred to as actual measures, approaches, or processes designed to adjust natural or human systems to current or anticipated climate-related impacts in ways that reduce climate risks and increase resilience (Haasnoot et al. 2020 ). Solutions were collected from the Adaptation at Altitude Solutions Portal (hereafter A@A Solution portal) (Adaptation at Altitude 2021 ), which was co-designed by scientists and practitioners in response to the increased needs of a more practice-oriented science of adaptation that takes into account local necessities and different knowledge systems (Muccione et al. 2019 ). We assessed 88 adaptation solutions initially featured in the A@A Solution portal, implemented across various mountain regions and countries by different organizations and project developers. We explored their characteristics, feasibility and transformative potential. By highlighting the importance of co-developing and maintaining an adaptation solution portal, we demonstrate how such an approach enriches our understanding of adaptation progress in mountains and contribute to broaden the landscape of systematic assessments ofadaptation.

2 Methods and data

The methodological approach used in this study was designed in the context of Adaptation at Altitude (hereafter A@A), launched in 2020. A@A aims to enhance the resilience and adaptive capacities of mountain communities (Adaptation at Altitude 2021 ). The programme addresses four main challenges of adaptation in mountains, namely: (1) data information and monitoring; (2) regional science-policy exchange and collaborative action; (3) knowledge generation and sharing; and (4) policy mainstreaming. To address challenge three, “knowledge generation and sharing”, an online survey was designed to systematically collect relevant information from mountain adaptation projects with the ultimate goal of building a live portal of adaptation solutions in mountains. To this end, the A@A Solution Portal collects, in one place, relevant information concerning numerous adaptation projects and their implementers around the world. The portal allows the sharing and exploring of past or ongoing tried-and-tested adaptation solutions in mountain regions. A schematic view on the methodological approach used in this study is given in Fig.  1 and explained in the next sub-sections.

Schematic overview of the methodological approach used in the paper from survey design to assessment of the solutions

2.1 Survey design

The survey employed to populate the A@A solution portal was co-designed by the partner institutions of the programme and informed by a preparatory phase that included a user needs assessment, as well as a review of existing on-line climate adaptation platforms. The user needs assessment involved eleven semi-structured interviews and one on-line workshop with international actors engaged in the funding, evaluation, planning, management and/or implementation of climate adaptation activities in mountain regions. These stakeholders included representatives from A@A partners, the World Bank, Business for Nature, and lead authors of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). More detailed information on the project and its partners can be found on the A@A website (Adaptation at Altitude 2021 ). The user needs consultation was done bottom-up and allowed participants to define the type of information most valuable to practitioners and developers of adaptation projects, as well technical gaps or shortcomings of existing platforms. In parallel, the review of on-line platforms providing climate adaptation solutions was also conducted. This review consisted of three main phases: screening, in-depth analysis of selected platforms, and gaps identification. From the 55 platforms screened, 20 were selected for in-depth analysis. This analysis revealed that more than half of the platforms (54%) showcase climate change adaptation (CCA) solutions primarily at the local scale, followed by mixed (23%, this category includes local, regional, national, international and global), national (15%) and regional (8%) level solutions. None of the analysed platforms specifically focussed on mountain regions, nor considered a comprehensive range of factors that enable or limit transformative potential. The results of the preparatory phase are described in (Scolobig A. et al. 2020 ). The final product of the preparatory phase was a survey with multiple choices and open-ended questions that served to populate the solution portal. The survey was co-developed in an iterative process involving A@A partners in eight review rounds. Along with the descriptive information, the survey collected significant supporting documentation, and the contact details of some of the principal actors involved in the planning and/or implementation processes.

An overview of the main information collected through the survey is given in Table  1 , while a copy of the survey can be found in the supplementary material. Project implementers fill in the survey through an electronic template. This process benefitted from the extensive media efforts of the A@A team that promoted the survey and ultimately the solution portal on websites of the partner institutions, Facebook, X (former Twitter) and LinkedIn, as well as in workshops, seminars, and conferences, mainly under the umbrella of the A@A programme. In addition to project implementers directly responding to the survey, the A@A team also actively collected information from project resources available online, in all cases iterating with project implementers to ensure accuracy of the information entered into the portal. Training resources for filling in the survey, such as a step-by-step guide, an example of a filled-in survey, and the inclusion of sample responses into the questionnaire were made available through the A@A website. To secure consistency and high quality of information, all completed surveys undergo a quality control evaluation, performed by the project team before the corresponding adaptation solution is published on the portal. At the time of writing this article, the A@A Solution Portal consisted of 88 solutions.

2.2 Analytical framework of the survey

For the purpose of this study, we assessed the (1) general characteristics of the solutions, namely location, climate impact addressed, type of mountain ecosystem, sectors where the solution was implemented and type of solution, (2) their feasibility and effectiveness, and (3) their transformation potential. To measure feasibility, we followed a concept developed by Singh et al. 2020 where feasibility is understood as the potential for an adaptation solution to be implemented. We measured the contribution made to the implementation of the solutions in terms of knowledge, technology, political/legal, institutional and socio-cultural factors, to which we refer as “capacities”. Such list of factors was agreed upon using existing literature (Singh et al. 2020 ) and supplemented by the user needs consultations. The analogy of feasibility with capacity is related to the concept of adaptive capacity in adaptation science, which is the ability of a systems to prepare for, or respond to potential damages, and to take advantage of new opportunities by making the appropriate adjustments. The definition of each category is provided in Table  1 . We measured each category using a qualitative scoring from 0 (not present) and 1 (very low), to 5 (very high). To capture effectiveness, we focused on the outcomes of adaptation (Singh et al. 2020 ), both as risk reduction benefits and as more extensive benefits derived from adaptation as improvement in environmental, economic or socio-political conditions (Remling and Persson 2015 ; Sharifi 2021 ).

Regarding the transformation potential of adaptation solutions, this was measured using the four key dimensions for transformations developed by the World Bank (World Bank Group 2016 ). This choice is justified by the need to focus on an approach coming from an applied or practical perspective. In a nutshell, we measured four dimensions:

Relevance – does the solution address a major constraint or problem of critical importance to sustainable development in mountain regions?

Depth of change – does the solution cause or support fundamental change in a governance system or behaviour?

Scalability of change – could the solution be feasibly scaled-up and duplicated in other mountain regions?

Sustainability – does the solution demonstrate financial, economic, and environmental sustainability?

One key difference from more academic approaches such as those that measure transformations as speed (how fast adaptation is being implemented), scope (breadth of the measures in terms of both sectorial and spatial extent), and depth (represents the novelty of adaptation actions) (Termeer et al. 2017 ; Berrang-Ford et al. 2021a ), is that we allocated a greater emphasis on the potential for scaling up, rather than on the initial scale of the solution. This enabled the inclusion of small-scale solutions (e.g., community-based approaches) that may be only in the pilot phase but offer large potential for future replication and mainstreaming. An overview on the characteristics assessed, as well as proxies to measure feasibility, effectiveness and transformation (or transformative potential) is given in Table  1 .

For the data analysis, the information included in the solution portal was downloaded from the A@A Portal website and saved in an excel sheet. The dataset was subjected to a series of pre-processing steps to ensure its suitability for subsequent analysis. The dataset was structured into a Pandas dataframe object. The dataframe serves as a two-dimensional, size-mutable, and heterogeneous tabular data structure, providing a convenient and intuitive way to perform data manipulation and analysis (Pandas 2024 ). To facilitate analysis of categorical variables, we applied one-hot encoding, converting categorical attributes into a binary representation. Such transformation is essential for preparing categorical data for certain types of analysis that require numerical input. To analyse the solution description text, we first utilize the spaCy ( https://spacy.io/ ), which is an open-source natural language processing library specifically crafted for extracting information from text corpora. Subsequently, the term-frequency times inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) technique is employed to reducing the influence of frequently occurring words that lack informative value within the corpus (Leskovec 2014 ). TF-IDF serve diverse purposes, including facilitating the visualization of words via word clouds.

The capacities were scored on a five-point scale going from very low to very high. The score for each solution and its capacities was assessed by a minimum of 2 project members to check for consistencies and discussions were held until agreement was reached on the final score. The score was also triangulated with the qualitative description of the text on the corresponding capacity, which is also stored in the solution database.

At the time of analysis, the solution portal contained 88 discrete adaptation solutions. New solutions are being uploaded to the A@A Portal on an ongoing basis. The final dataset with the 88 solutions can be found in the supplementary material and the notebooks needed to reproduce all analysis and figures are available through the https://github.com/vmuccion/Adaptation-Altitude .

3.1 General characteristics of solutions

The first entry in the database alongside the unique title, is a description of the solution. Figure  2 displays a word cloud illustrating the prevalence of the words extracted from the description text. Notably, “water” is highlighted as the most prevalent word, followed by other key words such as “community”, “land”, “local”, and “capacity”. This pattern indicated a prevalence of community and local based measures, with water being the dominant aspect, not only in terms of sector, but also concerning the typology of solutions.

World cloud of most frequent single words obtained from the summary description of the solutions

The geographical distribution of solutions in Fig.  3 (top panel) shows that there is a considerable tendency in the portal towards specific regions such as North and Southwestern South America, East Africa, and the Hindukush Himalaya (HKH) region. Moreover, there is a handful of solutions in Europe and the Caucasus, but so far, none from North America or Oceania. This is because the solution portal was mainly an effort to collect solutions from the Global South, expressed through the stakeholder needs consultation. However, efforts are underway to have a more balanced geographical coverage that includes additional regions. When it comes to the impacts addressed (Fig.  3 bottom panel), a diversity can be observed in the majority of continents, except in Europe.

Top figure shows a choropleth map of the solutions per country. The bottom figure shows the proportion of climate impacts addressed per continent. Only continents having at least one solution or more are shown

The general characteristics of the solutions are shown in Fig.  4 . Across all solutions, drought emerges as the most common climate impact addressed (63), followed by flood (39), and almost in equal proportion, landslides, altered growing seasons, and heat stress. Wildfire is addressed by only 5 solutions. In addition to these main impacts, the portal retains information on secondary impacts as well. The open nature of this question resulted in greater diversity in terms of reported impacts. In this case, water stress is the most common secondary impact, followed by land degradation, and glacier lake outburst flood. Other secondary impacts include erosion, snow scarcity, and unseasonal frost. The distribution of solution types shows that education and awareness, as well as land use practice, are the most common solution types, followed by monitoring and engineering strategies. Finance solutions are the least common. The sectorial distribution is dominated by agriculture and water, reflecting the emphasis on addressing drought and flood. A similar distribution is seen amongst other sectors, namely human health and well-being, natural hazards, plans and policy, ecosystem, and biodiversity. Tourism and transport are the least covered sectors. Finally, there is a more proportional distribution in the ecosystem types, with a prevalence of agricultural land, forest and high alpine. Urban solutions represent the lowest percentage.

Summary of the main characteristics across all solutions, from top to bottom clockwise, in orange the number of solutions per climate impact addressed, in blue the number of solutions per mountain ecosystem type, in green the number of solutions per solution type and finally in pink the number of solutions per sector

To gain deeper insights into adaptation efforts—particularly the nature, location, and methodologies of implemented solutions—we analyzed the co-occurrence of selected pairs of characteristics. As depicted in Fig.  5 , this analysis focuses on the relationships between solution types and climate impacts (left panel), as well as between solution types and ecosystems (right panel). Notably, education and awareness initiatives, along with land use practices, emerge as the predominant strategies employed to address a wide array of impacts. This includes adapting to the effects of droughts and floods, which constitute the primary climate impacts documented within our portal. Our observations reveal that solutions emphasizing education and awareness are frequently implemented in response to these challenges, complemented by the adoption of land use practices and engineering solutions. However, wildfire mitigation efforts are relatively limited, represented by only five documented solutions, thus revealing a lack of discernible co-occurrence patterns. Moreover, when examining the ecosystems wherein these solutions are enacted, it becomes evident that education and awareness types, alongside land use practices, are prevalent across diverse ecosystem types, spanning from agricultural lands to lakes and rivers. Conversely, fewer solutions are observed in ecosystems such as meadows, peatlands, and urban mountain areas, resulting in a lack of notable co-occurrence patterns within these contexts.

The heatmap on the left side represents co-occurrence between solution types and climate impact addressed; the heatmap on the right side represents co-occurrence between solution types and ecosystem types. The numbers within each cell represent the observation counts in ascending order from light blue to dark blue

3.2 Feasibility and effectiveness

Presented here are the feasibility results assessed through the lenses of five capacity categories, scored on a qualitative scale ranging from very low to very high, as shown in Fig.  6 . As can be observed, many of the solutions exhibit very high capacity in all the categories. Knowledge capacities ensure that adaptation is informed from the outset by diverse knowledge types, including scientific, evidence based, and indigenous knowledge. Overall, political/legal and technology capacities were evaluated by solution providers as less crucial than knowledge, institutional, and socio-cultural capacities in enabling the implementation of the solutions. In contrast, providers gave high evaluations to the role played by socio-cultural and institutional capacities. However, it should be noted that approximately one quarter of solutions do not report results on one or more capacities. This gap in reporting complicates the determination of whether a specific capacity is relevant for that solution or not.

The figure shows the number of self-assessed solutions with respect to the five dimensions of capacity on a qualitative scale going from very low to very high. NA means that the dimension was either not assessed or was not relevant

In order to understand the effectiveness of solutions in delivering positive changes ex-post, we explored various categories of benefits. All solutions have benefits associated to them. Our observations indicate that the majority of solutions have resulted in environmental benefits (33), followed by climate risk reduction (32). Other key benefits include social (13), economic (6), and technological (1) benefits. No solution indicates political benefits (Fig. 7 ).

Number of solutions reporting some type of benefits after implementation

3.3 Transformative potential

The last segment of the analysis focuses on the assessment of the transformative potential of solutions whereby transformation is assessed according to the indicators described in SM Fig.  1 . The file used to assess the transformative potential is uploaded as supplementary dataset. Figure 8  summarises the results, depicting the number of solutions addressing specific criteria measured by corresponding sets of indicators. As it can be observed, relevance is prevalent across almost all the solutions, except for a handful which either address only one sector or report no specific climate impacts. The depth of change also shows a similar behaviour, with most solutions showing evidence of innovation within their own context and addressing multiple SDGs and Sendai Targets. Further details on specific SDGs and Sendai Target, as well as on their relationship, is provided later in this section. Sustainability is reported in more than two thirds of the solutions, while only a few solutions provide evidence on the scalability of change. While we acknowledge the importance of tailoring adaptation solutions to local environmental, cultural, social and institutional contexts, under transformative adaptation there is an expectation to see learnings and a pathway forward as to how the basic fundamentals of the solution could be transferred to another community, village, district, country or region. Evidence of mainstreaming into wider policies and plans is reported in less than one third of the solutions, and approximately half of them offer evidence of overcoming barriers and successful replication.

Number of solutions for each indicator of transformative potential. A score of 1 is given for each of the indicators being present and 0 when there is no evidence of such. Indicators corresponding to the same dimension of transformations are grouped by colour to facilitate observations. The dimension is shown on top of each group of indicators

In line with the survey design and scope of the study, this analysis includes a review of the principal contributions that the solutions provided to the SDGs (United Nations, 2022). Likewise, the survey also sought to investigate evidence of supporting at least one of the 7 global targets set under the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. Observations indicate that most solutions address at least one SDG, while 18 solutions do not address any of the Sendai targets. Overall, all SDGs, except “life under water” (Fig. 9 ), and all of the Sendai targets (Fig. 10 ) are addressed by the solutions. Some solutions address more than one SDG or Sendai target. As it could be expected given its relevance on the matter of climate adaptation, the most common SDG addressed is Goal 13 (Climate Action), followed by Goal 15 (Life on Land), and Goal 1 (No Poverty). Goals 4 (Quality Education), 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), and 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions) are the least frequent. In the case of Sendai Targets, target B, “Substantially reduce the number of affected people globally by 2030”, is addressed by almost 2/3 of the solutions. Target A, “Substantially reduce global disaster mortality by 2030”, is the least addressed target.

The figure shows the number of solutions addressing each of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Details on the SDGs are provided on the right side of the figure

The figure shows the number of solutions addressing each of the 7 Sendai Targets. Details on the targets are provided on the right side of the figure

4 Discussions and conclusions

Documented adaptation efforts which are measurable and comparable are critical to track progress on the status of implementation (Magnan and Chalastani 2019 , Nalau 2021 ). Therefore, it is essential to assess adaptation experiences by systematically collecting and analysing information on implementation that is happening on the ground (McDowell 2019 ). To respond to this need and as testimony of increasing adaptation efforts, several adaptation portals have appeared in the past few years. These portals facilitate organized tracking of adaptation progress and are well suited for further analysis and assessments (Cebrián-Piqueras 2023 ). In this study, we analysed and assessed the recently implemented or ongoing adaptation solutions in mountain regions, that were collected from the Adaptation at Altitude Solution’s Portal.

The initial survey employed to populate the portal, was co-designed with a bottom-up process by experts and practitioners, this with the aim to capture the elements of adaptation which matter to both groups.

Our research results illustrate that drought (63) is largely the most targeted climate impact, followed by flood (39). This finding is corroborated by systematic reviews, and research articles consistently highlights drought as the primary climate impact targeted for adaptation, followed by flood, in mountain regions (Dubo et al. 2022 ; Wyss et al. 2022 ). Furthermore, the latest IPCC report also indicates that drought and flood pose key risks with the potential for severe consequences for mountain people and livelihoods and highlighted the significance and urgency of addressing water-related hazards in mountains (Adler et al. 2022 ). The prevalence and importance of water for mountains and adaptation are visible in the key words analysis of solutions summary description in Fig.  2 . Interestingly, it is observed that many of the solutions addressing water-related impacts prioritize the integration of watershed management practices. These practices have demonstrated their capacity to effectively tackle multiple concerns beyond climate impacts, including the improvement of water quality (Shin et al. 2023 ), the promotion of aquifer recharge (Bigdeli Nalbandan et al. 2023 ), and the enhancement of the natural linkages between upstream and downstream areas through transdisciplinary planning process (Cheng et al. 2017 ).

When examining the type of solutions, there is a prevalence of education and awareness focused solutions, followed by land use practices. These solutions although implemented to address the majority of climate impacts, appear to be commonly implemented to respond to impacts from floods and droughts (see Fig.  5 ). Evidence indicates that the implementation of this type of solutions is often accompanied by improvements in project acceptability and reduced risk of maladaptation (Nalau and Cobb 2022 ). This positive outcome is attributed to the fact that awareness is, in most cases, the result of community involvement (Oliver et al. 2023 ). The solutions showcased on the A@A Solutions Portal reveal a high involvement of local community groups and populations in project activities, well beyond the classical initial consultations. Remarkably, about 75% of solutions show inclusive decision making (see Fig. 8 ). However, despite the pivotal role of community participation, the exercise often faces a number of challenges and requires careful handling to prevent the reinforcement of social issues, such as gender inequality and class-based hierarchies (Nalau and Cobb 2022 ; Singh 2020 ).

Agriculture land and forests emerge as the main mountain ecosystems wherein solutions are reported, with agriculture and water being the main sectors within which solutions are mostly implemented. This further reflects the importance of tackling water-related impacts and risks for the management of critical sectors, given that mountains boast some of the highest proportions of water availability globally, as well as water withdrawal (Reader et al. 2023b ). The type of solutions implemented in these mountain ecosystems point at a prevalence of education and awareness and land use practices since, as already mentioned, these are by far the most used solutions. It is not surprising that land use practices are highly present in forest and agricultural land areas. However, while the dataset highlights a significant contribution of education and awareness as adaptation solutions in almost every typology of ecosystem, it paradoxically reveals a low impact on Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) regarding quality education (Fig. 7 ). This discrepancy may stem from the underreporting of capacity-building and awareness-raising activities under the broad category of education. Additionally, it prompts consideration of whether the targets outlined in SDG 4 are perceived as exclusively related to conventional curriculum-based education, potentially overlooking non-traditional forms of educational initiatives such as those related to awareness raising or building capacity. McKenzie et al. ( 2024 ) have argued that indeed it is currently difficult to track progress on SDG4 in relation to climate change due to a lack of quality and appropriate indicators. Despite this discrepancy, the overall picture remains positive, with many Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Sendai targets being addressed laterally within the solution portal, with only a few exceptions (Fig. 7 ). This observation aligns with the significant synergies underscored in the IPCC WG2 Cross-Chapter paper on Mountains (Adler et al. 2022 ). Based on the findings of our research, we have identified that several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Sendai targets are indeed addressed within the solution portal. This evidence counters previously highlighted gaps that acknowledged the limited evidence of implementation of international agendas in addressing disaster risk reduction and adaptation in mountainous regions (Adler et al. 2022 ; Alcántara-Ayala et al. 2022 ). By tracking evidence collected from empirical adaptation, we underscore here the imperative for sustained efforts to bridge the disparity between policy frameworks and their practical implementation on the ground.

Nuanced concepts such as feasibility, effectiveness, and transformative potential, were assessed by means of proxy indicators. In the case of feasibility, we examined the score of five main categories of capacity that were present in the project survey and that are analogous to the characterisation of feasibility according to existing literature (Singh et al. 2020 ). Although the results in Fig.  6 would point at high to very high capacity for many categories, we recognise that there is a high proportion of solutions which do not provide such information and cannot be assessed. There are nonetheless some noticeable patterns as for example, the fact that knowledge capacities score very high for more than half of solutions, whereas technological capacities show a more heterogeneous picture as enablers of solution implementation. This could be due to technology in mountain areas, being used in diverse ways, such as the development of high-resolution models that incorporate climate and socio-economic impacts on natural ecosystems, and on significant resources such as hydrological components (Immerzeel et al. 2020 ). At the same time, adaptation initiatives may rely on the formulation of structural and physical components (e.g., hard adaptation), addressing agriculture and food security, water management, and infrastructure, for example, through the creation of reservoirs and modern irrigation systems, water conservation techniques, and hazard management technologies such as early warning systems (Adler et al. 2022 ). However, in contrast, solutions which focus on education and awareness raising do not rely upon strong technical capacities from the onset, but rather aim to build these capacities through the lifetime of the project. A more pessimistic explanation for the medium to low scores could be the lack of appropriate technological know-how and technology transfer where it is most needed (Wang et al. 2020 ). This though would be at odds with the high score in the knowledge capacities, which can be reasonably associated with technological knowhow, among other dimensions of knowledge. The effectiveness also scores low in technical and political benefits, which might again indicate a persistence in the low technologic and political scores even after solutions are implemented. This last assertion would confirm the findings in McDowell et al. 2021 ; which cite limited technological know-how and political willingness as hindrances to the full realization of adaptation solutions in mountainous areas. In general, we can infer that solutions are being effective in reducing risks and improving environmental conditions and are benefitting from high knowledge capacities to enable implementation. Nevertheless, solutions do not seem to spur technological or political improvements, or such improvements are not relevant to the project scope, which suggests possible missed opportunities for important co-benefits. Analogous studies which performed systematic assessments of the adaptation literature in mountain regions have reported also environmental co-benefits but limited political or institutional positive spill over (Aggarwal et al. 2022 ).

To get a sense of the transformative potential of solutions, we explored transformations through the lenses of four criteria, namely relevance, depth of change, scalability of change, and sustainability. We see from the results in Fig. 8  that solutions are being implemented where they are most relevant, and that almost all of them cause or support fundamental change (depth of change). As most solutions are local or sub-national (see Fig.  3 ), it is plausible to infer that such depth of change happens more at the community level. However, the fact that upscaling is difficult to achieve poses questions concerning the identification of the enabling factors that eventually lead to upscaling. This is also supported by the finding that only a handful of solutions provide evidence of mainstreaming and replication. Berrang-Ford et al. ( 2021a ) confirmed this trend of limited scope of solutions in their global stocktake of human adaptation. Indeed, they reported that globally, adaptation solutions generally have a limited geographical extent and low levels of mainstreaming (Berrang-Ford et al. 2021a ). In part, this comes down to the typical short duration of adaptation projects (4–5 years) where mainstreaming becomes something of an afterthought towards the end of the project cycle rather than a goal in itself. Nonetheless, the reported success of the mountain solutions in terms of depth of change at local or sub-national level bodes well for future mainstreaming and upscaling, even if this is not occurring as rapidly as would be desired.

In essence, we can say that while the criteria of relevance and, to a geographically limited extent, depth of change, have largely been met, solutions had difficulties in demonstrating that their contribution to deliver large-scale impact by introducing new measures into the local policy frameworks or by replicating their actions in other locations. Research on social innovation identifies different types of upscaling that may be instrumental also for climate adaptation (Moore et al. 2015 ), namely, scale up (impacting laws and policies), scale out (increasing number of people or communities impacted by the solution), and scale deep (impacting cultural values and beliefs). Given the longer time frames needed, designing project with a second phase dedicated to mainstreaming and upscaling efforts would significantly increase the transformative potential of adaptation solutions in mountain regions.

The sustainability criteria are moderately met for our analysed solutions, and it is encouraging to see that inclusive decision-making processes and future proofing are being embedded in many of them. It is less clear though, whether long term plans are being integrated, and again, this is something that confirms the limited scalability and mainstreaming potential of solutions. Limited scalability, mainstreaming, and long-term planning could be all explained by an observed tendency in climate project decision making to leave planning and discussion around scaling up or replication until very late stages or following the closure of interventions (Jain and Bardhan 2023 ). Furthermore, the gap in the implementation of adaptation mainstreaming seems closely related to the lack of political commitment and mandate at the higher governmental levels (Runhaar et al. 2018 ).

Far from being all encompassing, the A@A Solution Portal misses yet the showcasing of other important mountain regions, possibly because of a bias in the initial scope of the survey and solicitation efforts, which were mainly geared towards international development and cooperation. Fortunately, efforts are underway to have a more geographically balanced display of solutions that will enhance learning between mountain regions in the global south and north. It is worth pointing out that the portal collected information not only from the project developers and implementers but also triangulated this information with project evaluation reports, which are usually developed by independent evaluation bodies and consultants. Typical mid-term or final project reports are normally based on a mix of interviews conducted with those involved in project implementation and projected beneficiaries. To minimise bias in reporting, the information was thoroughly screened for quality control by the independent team members from the A@A project. For example, project reports only seldomly involve any longer-term monitoring and evaluation of the solutions. Hence, effort was made during the quality control to ensure that statements around the foreseen long-term success and sustainability of the solutions was well-supported with concrete evidence that financial and technical plans were in place. Obvious difficulties exist for reaching out to an independent and representative sample of stakeholders, particularly ensuring representation of the most vulnerable or marginalised members of the communities. Therefore, the implementation of adaptation project design should from the beginning include more regular external evaluations and broader stakeholder engagement, whose views would equally constitute the body of independent evidence for ex-post project assessment (Wamsler et al. 2020 ; Oliver et al. 2023 ). In absence of such independent information, it is often difficult to get a sense of the progress for those who are the direct beneficiaries of these solutions and therefore such views cannot fully by captured in the remit of this solution portal. The second phase of the A@A project will attempt to fill this gap for selected solutions, by undertaking focus group meetings and interviews with benefactors and other stakeholders to gain ground level insights on the long-term effectiveness of the implemented solutions.

Another challenge of adaptation is the persistent lack of integration of concepts and terminology across different strains of literature, whether adaptation, vulnerability, or impact driven (Berrang-Ford et al. 2021a ). This has been identified as a persistent barrier to adaptation assessment. To this end we invoke here for a common adaptation taxonomy. Currently absent, such a taxonomy would require consensus within the broadest community, offering scholars and practitioners a detailed and common description of benefits, ecosystems, sectors, solutions, capacities, as well as other critical concepts. The survey conducted within this study presents intriguing entry points for such a taxonomy specific to mountain regions. For instance, it identifies solutions and their characteristics in mountains, including sectors, ecosystems, and solution types. Yet, further work is necessary to achieve a robust consensus.

Data availability

Data and Jupyter notebooks for the analysis are all accessible through the following GitHub repository https://github.com/vmuccion/Adaptation-Altitude .

Code Availability

The notebooks are accessible through GitHub: https://github.com/vmuccion/Adaptation-Altitude .

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Acknowledgements

This research has been supported by the Adaptation at Altitude project, which is a project financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). 

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VM developed the concept for the paper and wrote every section of the manuscript. She did extensive data pre-processing and most of the data analysis. SKA had the initial ideas for such a paper and contributed in developing the methodology to assess the transformative potential together with JA. AS and JA were actively involved in the development of the methodology for the data collection and quality control. RW and JB hosted the portal database and provided VM with the raw dataset from the Adaptation at Altitude website. RW maintained the Adaptation at Altitude Portal together with JZ, OS, and SKA. Everyone contributed to edit and revise the paper. Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to [email protected].

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Muccione, V., Aguilera Rodriguez, J., Scolobig, A. et al. Trends in climate adaptation solutions for mountain regions. Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change 29 , 74 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11027-024-10168-8

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Researching the white paper:.

The process of researching and composing a white paper shares some similarities with the kind of research and writing one does for a high school or college research paper. What’s important for writers of white papers to grasp, however, is how much this genre differs from a research paper.  First, the author of a white paper already recognizes that there is a problem to be solved, a decision to be made, and the job of the author is to provide readers with substantive information to help them make some kind of decision--which may include a decision to do more research because major gaps remain. 

Thus, a white paper author would not “brainstorm” a topic. Instead, the white paper author would get busy figuring out how the problem is defined by those who are experiencing it as a problem. Typically that research begins in popular culture--social media, surveys, interviews, newspapers. Once the author has a handle on how the problem is being defined and experienced, its history and its impact, what people in the trenches believe might be the best or worst ways of addressing it, the author then will turn to academic scholarship as well as “grey” literature (more about that later).  Unlike a school research paper, the author does not set out to argue for or against a particular position, and then devote the majority of effort to finding sources to support the selected position.  Instead, the author sets out in good faith to do as much fact-finding as possible, and thus research is likely to present multiple, conflicting, and overlapping perspectives. When people research out of a genuine desire to understand and solve a problem, they listen to every source that may offer helpful information. They will thus have to do much more analysis, synthesis, and sorting of that information, which will often not fall neatly into a “pro” or “con” camp:  Solution A may, for example, solve one part of the problem but exacerbate another part of the problem. Solution C may sound like what everyone wants, but what if it’s built on a set of data that have been criticized by another reliable source?  And so it goes. 

For example, if you are trying to write a white paper on the opioid crisis, you may focus on the value of  providing free, sterilized needles--which do indeed reduce disease, and also provide an opportunity for the health care provider distributing them to offer addiction treatment to the user. However, the free needles are sometimes discarded on the ground, posing a danger to others; or they may be shared; or they may encourage more drug usage. All of those things can be true at once; a reader will want to know about all of these considerations in order to make an informed decision. That is the challenging job of the white paper author.     
 The research you do for your white paper will require that you identify a specific problem, seek popular culture sources to help define the problem, its history, its significance and impact for people affected by it.  You will then delve into academic and grey literature to learn about the way scholars and others with professional expertise answer these same questions. In this way, you will create creating a layered, complex portrait that provides readers with a substantive exploration useful for deliberating and decision-making. You will also likely need to find or create images, including tables, figures, illustrations or photographs, and you will document all of your sources. 

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• Last Updated: Sep 10, 2024 9:20 AM
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