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Authors: Edmund Yirenkyi

This study examines how communities in Atlantic Canada recognize, value, and integrate local knowledge into climate change adaptation, focusing on the enabling and constraining roles of funding, governance, and institutional structures. Guided by the Socio-Ecological Systems (SES) framework, the research forms part of a larger transdisciplinary project on collaborative governance in financing climate adaptation and mitigation. Using qualitative methods, including semi-structured interviews with municipal representatives, NGOs, funders, and community leaders, and participant observation, the study identifies both barriers and opportunities for embedding local knowledge in adaptation planning. Findings reveal that local knowledge is central to building climate resilience, not peripheral. Communities achieve the strongest climate action outcomes when flexible, multi-year funding is paired with supportive local policies, collaborative governance, and mechanisms for co-producing knowledge with technical experts. Successful examples emphasize grassroots project design, participatory governance, and place-based approaches tailored to community priorities. However, systemic barriers, including rigid, short-term funding programs, top-down policy frameworks, and bureaucratic institutional requirements, continue to limit the consistent and equitable use of local knowledge. From an SES perspective, the most effective adaptation strategies emerge from feedback loops between community experience, institutional support, and environmental change. The study concludes that policy shifts are needed to institutionalize long-term, locally controlled funding, formalize community participation in decision-making, and embed equity-centered, co-productive approaches into adaptation frameworks. Such measures would move beyond symbolic acknowledgment of local knowledge toward its substantive integration, ensuring climate action that is adaptive, context-specific, and grounded in the lived realities of Atlantic Canadian communities.

Source: PLOS Sustainability and Transformation. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pstr.0000291. Abstract from the publisher’s feed; HTML formatting and repeated author line removed.

Authors: Lauren D’Mello-Guyett, Neelina Jaggarwal, Jane Wilbur, Belen Torondel, Meghna Ranganathan

Menstrual health and hygiene (MHH) encompasses access to menstrual materials; water, sanitation, and disposal facilities; privacy and safety; accurate information; supportive social environments; access to care for menstrual discomfort and disorders; enabling people to manage menstruation with dignity and choice. Climate change is disrupting these interlinked domains, disproportionately affecting women, girls, and people who menstruate. This review synthesises evidence on how climate change affects MHH across diverse climate hazard contexts. We conducted a global mixed-methods systematic review of studies published in English between 1947 and 2025, examining associations between climate-related hazards and MHH. We conducted searches in Medline, Scopus, Embase, and Web of Science. Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods studies were eligible. Given the heterogeneity in exposures, outcomes, and designs, findings were synthesised narratively. From 3,890 records, 25 studies met inclusion criteria, covering floods (n = 7), air pollution (n = 6), cyclones (n = 3), droughts (n = 3), saltwater intrusion (n = 3), and multiple hazards (n = 4). Flood- and cyclone-related studies reported disrupted access to menstrual materials, damaged water and sanitation infrastructure, reduced privacy and safety, limited access to care for menstrual disorders, and unsupportive social environments characterised by stigma and restricted mobility. Drought and salinity intrusion constrained hygiene practices through reduced water availability and quality, affecting comfort, dignity, and infection risk. Across hazards, studies documented adverse physical outcomes, including dermatological irritation and reproductive or urinary tract infections, alongside psychosocial consequences such as shame, anxiety, and harassment. Air pollution studies linked exposures with earlier menarche and menstrual cycle irregularities. Evidence on extreme heat and several MHH domains, including access to information, was limited. Climate-related hazards undermine multiple, interconnected domains of MHH. The evidence base remains fragmented across hazards, geographies, methods, underscoring the need to integrate MHH into climate adaptation, disaster preparedness, and humanitarian response frameworks and to address critical research gaps related to extreme heat, slow-onset hazards, and equity.

Source: PLOS Climate. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pclm.0001083. Abstract from the publisher’s feed; HTML formatting and repeated author line removed.

Authors: Pono Pono, Alan M. Jones

Climate change and air pollution affect every major organ system, altering both the disease burden and patient responses to pharmaceutical treatments. However, current knowledge on how health systems, patients, healthcare professionals, and governments should prepare for these challenges remains fragmented. This review synthesises evidence on the potential impact of climate change on human health and pharmaceuticals, with the aim of identifying the diseases, populations, and medications most vulnerable, and assessing potential implications for pharmacotherapy. Emerging evidence shows that climate-related stressors, particularly extreme heat, contribute to increased morbidity and mortality and exacerbation of diseases affecting cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, gastrointestinal, renal, and respiratory systems. Furthermore, the review found that high temperature and humidity can affect drug stability, bioavailability, and pharmacokinetics by degrading active pharmaceutical ingredients and altering pharmaceutical formulations, potentially reducing efficacy and increasing the risk of adverse drug events. Older adults, patients with chronic diseases, and those taking medications that impair the thermoregulatory system are particularly at higher risk. In addition, extreme weather events may also disrupt pharmaceutical supply chains, further threatening access to essential medicines. This review finds that climate change has implications for healthcare through increasing disease burden and affecting the effectiveness and safety of medicines. Therefore, there is an urgent need for integrated research to explore the interplay between climate change, therapeutic response, and drug safety to support resilient, climate‑ready healthcare systems.

Source: PLOS Climate. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pclm.0001068. Abstract from the publisher’s feed; HTML formatting and repeated author line removed.

Authors: Shonali Pachauri, Elina Brutschin, Mathew J. Gidden, Tomoko Hasegawa, Mohamad Hejazi, Kejun Jiang, Jarmo S. Kikstra, Volker Krey, William F. Lamb, Kian Mintz-Woo, Alexander Nauels, Setu Pelz, Joeri Rogelj, Joyashree Roy, Roberto Schaeffer, Karl Scheifinger, Youba Sokona, Massimo Tavoni, Bas van Ruijven, Adriano Vinca, Saritha Sudharmma Vishwanathan, Caroline Zimm, Keywan Riahi

Source: PLOS Climate. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pclm.0001079. Abstract from the publisher’s feed; HTML formatting and repeated author line removed.

Authors: Fred Tusabe, Sarah Lebu, Musa Manga

Climate change is intensifying rainfall extremes and urban flooding, amplifying public health risks in settings with fragile sanitation and drainage systems. In dense urban informal settlements, floods can overwhelm onsite sanitation and fecal sludge management systems, causing pit inundation, latrine overflow or collapse, and contamination of household environments and water sources. These conditions increase fecal exposure and can amplify cholera risk, particularly where water supply is intermittent and households depend on unsafe sources. Using Lusaka, Zambia as an illustrative case, this essay illustrates flood-driven sanitation failure modes and the feedback loops that can sustain exposure and delay recovery. Lessons from prolonged cholera epidemics in fragile water and sanitation settings underscore that emergency response tools can suppress transmission, but long-term durability depends on sustained investment in safe water and sanitation services and reliable surveillance. Building on recent calls for climate-resilient sanitation, this essay frames sanitation functionality during floods as a core component of epidemic preparedness in LMIC cities, with priorities including flood-resilient containment and fecal sludge services, management of shared sanitation facilities (clear responsibility, cleaning and maintenance systems), routine maintenance and supply-chain reliability, community-engaged early warning and response, and monitoring systems that link service and environmental indicators to health outcomes.

Source: PLOS Climate. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pclm.0001082. Abstract from the publisher’s feed; HTML formatting and repeated author line removed.

Authors: Jason P. Evans, Marcus Thatcher, Daniel Argüeso, Alejandro Di Luca, Ralph Trancoso, Julia Andrys, Sarah Chapman, Giovanni Di Virgilio, Andrew Dowdy, Lluís Fita, Peter B. Gibson, Michael Grose, Emma Howard, Fei Ji, Jatin Kala, Jack Katzfey, Leena Khadke, Omer Mughal, Benjamin Ng, Neelesh Rampal, Christian Stassen, Stephen J. Stuart, Chun Hsu Su, Jozef Syktus, Son C. H. Truong, Harvey Ye

Regional climate modelling plays a central role in understanding and projecting climate change across Australasia, a region characterised by complex topography, diverse climate regimes, and high exposure to climate extremes. Over the past fifteen years, CORDEX-Australasia has coordinated regional climate downscaling under an international framework while operating alongside complementary national and state-based initiatives. Here we synthesise the evolution, achievements, scientific advances, applications, and future priorities of regional climate modelling in the region. Successive CORDEX-CMIP5 and CORDEX-CMIP6 ensembles have produced the largest coordinated high-resolution projection datasets for Australasia. Regional climate models demonstrate clear added value over their driving global climate models, particularly in representing temperature extremes, heavy precipitation, coastal processes, and complex terrain. CMIP6-based projections show robust agreement on substantial 21st-century warming, with uncertainty dominated by emissions scenarios, while precipitation responses remain more regionally heterogeneous. Advances in convection-permitting modelling, benchmarking frameworks, and bias-correction methods have further improved process representation and evaluation. Regional projections now underpin applications in water resources, agriculture, disaster risk reduction, energy, health, and national climate services. Progress has been supported by shared infrastructure through the National Computational Infrastructure and strengthened coordination via the National Partnership for Climate Projections, highlighting strong synergies between State and Federal programs contributing to CORDEX. Key challenges remain including computational demands, persistent model biases, precipitation uncertainty, ensemble design, and translating complex multi-model information into decision-ready guidance. Strategic priorities include kilometre-scale (convection-permitting) modelling, enhanced Earth system coupling, coordinated super-ensembles, responsible integration of artificial intelligence approaches, strengthened observational constraints, and expanded support for vulnerable remote Australian islands and Pacific Island nations. Sustained investment, collaboration, and innovation will be essential to deliver robust, high-resolution climate information for adaptation and resilience across Australasia.

Source: PLOS Climate. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pclm.0001066. Abstract from the publisher’s feed; HTML formatting and repeated author line removed.

Authors: John Chung-En Liu, Genet Yan Hang Yu

Gender scholarship has shown that climate governance is deeply shaped by social inequalities in voice, authority, and participation. Building on this insight, we examine sustainability conferences as key arenas where climate expertise is publicly staged and legitimised. We treat speaker composition at sustainability forums as a diagnostic indicator of how climate governance allocates visibility and authority. Using an original dataset of 976 speaker appearances across 61 conferences held in Taiwan between July and December 2024, we examine gender representation by speaking role, organiser type, and thematic focus. Women accounted for only 25.9% of speakers overall, with particularly low representation in climate and energy transition sessions (15.9%). Female visibility was higher in government-organised events and equity-focused sessions but remained limited across all categories. These findings reveal a persistent gendered division of expertise within Taiwan’s climate governance landscape. We argue that speaker composition offers a useful diagnostic indicator of how visibility and public recognition are distributed in sustainability governance arenas. The analysis illustrates how gender-composition mapping can be used to assess inclusivity in hybrid governance arenas beyond formal institutions.

Source: PLOS Sustainability and Transformation. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pstr.0000293. Abstract from the publisher’s feed; HTML formatting and repeated author line removed.

Authors: Dargan M. W. Frierson, Lauren A. Henrie

A range of recent studies have developed methods and data to attribute past and present global temperature change to individual emitters. We perform simulations that attribute the amount of global warming due to corporations, governments and other entities into the future. We utilize the Finite Amplitude Impulse Response (FaIR) model run until 2500, and the Carbon Majors dataset, a database with the emissions history associated with the top 178 oil, gas, coal, and cement producers. We perform counterfactual experiments to calculate the warming attributable to the emissions associated with these entities, using several different future emissions scenarios. The future atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) anomaly attributable to a company’s past emissions is smaller with less ensemble spread in a lower emissions future than it is in a high emissions future. This is due to smaller carbon cycle feedbacks with lower emissions. However, the temperature change from past emissions is larger in a lower emissions future, even with the smaller change in CO2. This is due primarily to the logarithmic sensitivity of CO2 radiative forcing to concentration. Methane concentration post-2080 experiences a negative anomaly, due to a decrease in methane lifetime from elevated temperature, which is a small negative feedback. For any future emissions scenario, the historical emissions from oil, gas, coal, and cement producers affect many aspects of the climate system, including CO2 in the atmosphere and other parts of the carbon cycle, methane, ozone, and stratospheric water vapor. The total radiative forcing induced by these elements stays positive throughout all simulations, which in turn causes positive temperature perturbations. Thus in addition to the damages that have already occurred, we expect the Carbon Majors to be responsible for calculable climate damages for many centuries into the future.

Source: PLOS Climate. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pclm.0001036. Abstract from the publisher’s feed; HTML formatting and repeated author line removed.

Authors: Annissa Muhammed Ahmedin

Accurate quantification of forest biomass and carbon stocks is essential for understanding terrestrial carbon dynamics, climate change mitigation, and improving forest monitoring and greenhouse gas reporting. However, biomass estimation approaches vary considerably in accuracy, scalability, cost, and uncertainty, creating challenges for selecting appropriate methods across ecosystems and spatial scales. This systematic review synthesizes recent advances in forest biomass and carbon stock estimation and evaluates the strengths, limitations, and future directions of major methodological approaches. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses framework, 147 peer-reviewed studies published between 2000 and 2025 were reviewed. The studies encompassed field-based measurements, allometric modelling, remote sensing, machine learning, carbon stock models, and integrated multi-source frameworks. The evidence reveals a clear transition from conventional field inventories toward multi-source approaches that integrate ground observations with optical, radar, and Light Detection and Ranging data, advanced modelling, and artificial intelligence. Field measurements and locally calibrated allometric equations remain indispensable for model development and validation, while remote sensing and machine learning enhance spatial coverage and predictive capability. However, estimation accuracy remains strongly influenced by vegetation structure, environmental conditions, data quality, and model transferability. The review demonstrates that no single approach is universally optimal across all ecosystem conditions. Reliable biomass and carbon stock assessments require integrated frameworks that balance accuracy, scalability, cost, and uncertainty through the complementary use of field observations, remote sensing, and advanced modelling techniques. Future research should prioritize expanding biomass reference datasets in underrepresented regions, strengthening model validation and uncertainty quantification, and developing transparent, ecosystem-specific estimation frameworks. Such advances will improve forest carbon accounting, climate mitigation, and evidence-based forest management.

Source: PLOS Climate. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pclm.0000935. Abstract from the publisher’s feed; HTML formatting and repeated author line removed.

Authors: Rebecca S. Kann, Sydney Hubbard, Jedidiah Snyder, Sandy McGunegill, Bacelar Muneme, João Luis Manuel, Lance A. Waller, Rassul Nalá, Karen Levy, Matthew C. Freeman, the PAASIM Study Authorship Consortium

Diarrhea remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality for children under five, despite reductions in its global burden in recent decades. However, climate change, and its associated meteorological conditions - heavy rainfall, temperature, flooding - has the potential to impede or reverse progress, particularly in low-income, climate-vulnerable communities. Better characterization of the impact of weather and season on drinking water quality and child health will allow us to capture the anticipated health burden associated with climate change. We characterized the associations of weather and season on infant diarrhea and household stored water quality in Beira, Mozambique. We collected data from mother-child dyads in the third trimester of pregnancy and when the infant was 3-, 6-, 9-, and 12-months old. Using modified Poisson regression mixed effects models, we evaluated associations between weather (i.e., season, heavy rainfall events, ambient temperature, and flooding) and (1) household stored water quality and (2) infant diarrhea. Rainy season (aPR: 1.49; 95% CI: [1.34, 1.67]) was associated with a higher prevalence of stored water contamination, and higher temperatures were associated with a higher prevalence of stored water contamination during the dry season only (aPR: 1.14; 95% CI: [1.03, 1.27]). Source water contamination was associated with a higher prevalence of stored water contamination during both rainy (aPR: 1.32; 95% CI: [1.11, 1.56]) and dry seasons (aPR: 1.56; 95% CI: [1.22, 2.00]). Rainy season (aPR: 1.18; 95% CI: [1.01, 1.38]) was associated with a higher prevalence of infant diarrhea, as was higher temperatures, though only during the dry season (aPR: 1.19; 95% CI: [1.05, 1.35]). This study highlights the importance of addressing household water contamination for reducing the burden of diarrheal disease as well as the importance of understanding the seasonal and weather-dependent variation in both water contamination and infant diarrhea.

Source: PLOS Water. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pwat.0000599. Abstract from the publisher’s feed; HTML formatting and repeated author line removed.

Authors: Roxana Roos

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires action at all levels, from local to global, through synergy among all societal actors. Norway shares responsibility for SDG-based sustainable development with local authorities (municipalities and counties). The Planning and Building Act’s purpose clause stipulates that it shall promote sustainable development for the benefit of individuals, society and future generations. Municipal responsibility for sustainable development, when incorporated into planning processes, is complex and requires the inclusion of diverse knowledge holders. Focusing on spatial planning as an instrument for sustainable transformation, this study examined citizen participation practices at the municipal level in the Norwegian Arctic. I conducted semi-structured interviews with 75 residents with very diverse backgrounds. Using inductive thematic analysis, I coded forms of citizen participation, their characteristics, and their links with sustainability and transformation. I further analyzed the forms using Arnstein’s ladder of citizen participation and Fung’s cube of democracy. I identified 10 forms of citizen participation in planning processes. Only two of these give citizens the opportunity to influence decisions, but only on matters less relevant to sustainability. A link to sustainability and transformation is prominent in all forms. Citizens emphasize the importance of focusing on climate adaptation, nature conservation, and local values. Local authorities see green industry, power plants, and the economy as fundamental. Lay citizens, some politicians, and some planners believe these are destructive to local sustainability values, which are strongly linked to the importance of nature in people's lives. Overall, the current practice of participation in planning processes in my sample of municipalities in the Norwegian Arctic lacks genuine cooperation, fails to incorporate local knowledge, and hardly leads to citizens’ influence. Citizens’ priorities thus don’t affect the decisions that are made. This hinders local engagement in planning processes, utilization of local knowledge, and achievement of the SDGs.

Source: PLOS Sustainability and Transformation. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pstr.0000193. Abstract from the publisher’s feed; HTML formatting and repeated author line removed.