Abstract
This is the 2024/2025 instalment from the annual series 10 New Insights in Climate Science, which aims to synthesize and communicate the latest and most essential scientific findings on climate change. It is the result of a collaboration between Future Earth, The Earth League and the World Climate Research Program (WCRP). This report constitutes a climate science year-in-review for journalists, policy makers, and the general public. A peer-reviewed academic article published in parallel to this policy report, provides an in-depth explanation of the ten insights, as well as a complete account of the reviewing process.
These are the10 New Insights in Climate Science for 2024/2025:
1. Methane levels are surging. Enforceable policies for emission reductions are essential.
2. Reductions in air pollution have implications for mitigation and adaptation given complex
aerosol-climate interactions.
3. Increasing heat is making more of the planet uninhabitable.
4. Climate extremes are harming maternal and reproductive well-being.
5. Concerns about El Niño-Southern Oscillation and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation with an increasingly warm ocean.
6. Biocultural diversity can bolster the Amazon’s resilience against climate change.
7. Critical infrastructure is increasingly exposed to climate hazards, with risk of cascading disruption across interconnected networks.
8. New frameworks for climate-resilient development in cities provide decision-makers with ideas for unlocking co-benefits.
9. Closing governance gaps in the energy transition minerals global value chain is crucial for a just and equitable energy transition.
10. Public’s acceptance of (or resistance to) climate policies crucially depends on perceptions of fairness.
DOI Link to Publication