A team of researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and Germany’s Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz looked at why South Asia continually experienced extreme heat events during the March to April 2022 period.

Comparing the heatwaves of March and April, the team found that each was driven by a different atmospheric process — the former by winds in high altitudes and the latter by dry soil conditions, which were created as a result of the former.

Nature-based solutions are actions to protect, sustainably manage, or restore natural ecosystems, that address societal challenges such as climate change, human health, food and water security, and disaster risk reduction effectively and adaptively, simultaneously providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits. For example, a common problem is the flooding in coastal areas that occurs as a result of storm surges and coastal erosion. This challenge, traditionally tackled with manmade (grey) infrastructure such as sea walls or dikes, coastal flooding, can also be addressed by actions that take advantage of ecosystem services such as tree planting. Planting trees that thrive in coastal areas – known as mangroves — reduces the impact of storms on human lives and economic assets, and provides a habitat for fish, birds and other plants supporting biodiversity.

Closing the gender gap in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) would accelerate the green transition while making it more inclusive.

Men hold about 70% of the world’s polluting jobs, so one might think that they have most to lose from the transition to cleaner energy. After all, they risk finding themselves out of work as countries close down dirty industries in a push to decarbonize and reach net-zero emission targets.

Yet our analysis shows that women are also at risk of losing out over the course of the transition. That’s because too few women study STEM subjects that are vital to the green jobs of the future.