In this new paper researchers confirm that as carbon emissions continue to climb, so too has the Earth's capacity to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. About half of the emissions of CO2 each year remain in the atmosphere; the other half is taken up by the ecosystems on land and the oceans.

In this article from Scidev, Laurence Haddad (senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute and former director at the Institute of Development Studies) discusses the new Global Nutrition Report by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

This paper entitled The environmental impact of climate change adaptation on land use and water quality published in Nature Climate Change says that adaptation to climate change could have profound environmental repercussions, potentially generating further pressures and threats for both local and global ecosystems.

This paper describes how deep public divisions over climate change are unrelated to differences in how well ordinary citizens understand scientific evidence on global warming. Contrary to what many believe, members of the public who score the highest on a climate-science literacy test are the most politically polarized on whether human activity is causing global temperatures to rise.

This report sets out new climate change projections for Australia. It was produced by Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and funded by the Australian Government Department of the Environment, CSIRO and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. The key findings from the report are copied as follows:

Though politicians and scientists have disagreed about whether atmospheric warming can be delayed by reducing short-lived climate forcing (SLCF) agents, an international research team has confirmed that a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions is the only long-term solution. Previously, politicians and industry had been pushing for measures to reduce SLCF emissions as a way to buy time before needing to address CO2 emissions directly.

A new study from researchers at The Earth Institute of Colombia University and the Woods Hole Research Center says emissions of nitrous oxide could double by the middle of the century if left unchecked. Nitrous oxide is the third biggest contributor to human-induced climate warming after carbon dioxide and methane.

In the recent annual report from the Global Carbon Project (GCP) we are warned that if emissions continue to climb at current rates, we will not be able to keep global warming to less than two degrees Celsius. The research suggests that if we wish to limit global warming (to 2 degrees) we will have to stay below 3,200 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide.

Concentrations of carbon dioxide last year grew at the fastest rate since 1984, says a BBC news article. Reporting on data released by the World Meteorological Organisation, the article describes how this increase in concentration is due not only to increased greenhouse gas emissions, but also to a reduced carbon uptake by the biosphere. This reduction could be temporary, or it could be an indication that the biosphere has reached its absorption limit. The article points out that seas, trees, and living things, which play an important role by absorbing over half of the total greenhouse gas emissions, are also breaking records; the oceans soak up about 4kg of CO2 per person every day, a rate unparalleled over the last 300 million years and resulting in unprecedented salination of the oceans.