Accurately quantifying the increased risks of climate extremes requires generating large ensembles of climate realization across a wide range of emissions scenarios, which is computationally challenging for conventional Earth System Models. We propose GEN2, a generative prediction-correction framework for an efficient and accurate forecast of the extreme event statistics. The prediction step is constructed as a conditional Gaussian emulator, followed by a non-Gaussian machine-learning (ML) correction step. The ML model is trained on pairs of the reference data and the emulated fields nudged towards the reference, to ensure the training is robust to chaos. We first validate the accuracy of our model on historical ERA5 data and then demonstrate the extrapolation capabilities on various future climate change scenarios. When trained on a single realization of one warming scenario, our model accurately predicts the statistics of extreme events in different scenarios, successfully extrapolating beyond the distribution of training data.

The most adopted definition of landslide hazard combines spatial information about landslide location (susceptibility), threat (intensity), and frequency (return period). Only the first two elements are usually considered and estimated when working over vast areas. Even then, separate models constitute the standard, with frequency being rarely investigated. Frequency and intensity are intertwined and depend on each other because larger events occur less frequently and vice versa. However, due to the lack of multi-temporal inventories and joint statistical models, modelling such properties via a unified hazard model has always been challenging and has yet to be attempted. Here, we develop a unified model to estimate landslide hazard at the slope unit level to address such gaps. We employed deep learning, combined with a model motivated by extreme-value theory to analyse an inventory of 30 years of observed rainfall-triggered landslides in Nepal and assess landslide hazard for multiple return periods. We also use our model to further explore landslide hazard for the same return periods under different climate change scenarios up to the end of the century. Our results show that the proposed model performs excellently and can be used to model landslide hazard in a unified manner. Geomorphologically, we find that under both climate change scenarios (SSP245 and SSP885), landslide hazard is likely to increase up to two times on average in the lower Himalayan regions while remaining the same in the middle Himalayan region whilst decreasing slightly in the upper Himalayan region areas.

Almonds are one of the most lucrative products of California, but are also among the most sensitive to climate change. In order to better understand the relationship between climatic factors and almond yield, an automated machine learning framework is used to build a collection of machine learning models. The prediction skill is assessed using historical records. Future projections are derived using 17 downscaled climate outputs. The ensemble mean projection displays almond yield changes under two different climate scenarios, along with two technology development scenarios, where the role of technology development is highlighted. The mean projections and distributions provide insightful results to stakeholders and can be utilized by policymakers for climate adaptation.

This month marks a year since we launched our focus series on the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs). Since then, we've published AI work pertaining to eight of the goals. We've had the pleasure of hearing from many experts with interesting stories to tell about their research. Here, we compile some of our favourite interviews and articles from the across the series. Interview with Lily Xu – applying machine learning to the prevention of illegal wildlife poaching Lily Xu tells us about her work applying machine learning and game theory to wildlife conservation.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) fifth assessment report states that warming of the climate system is unequivocal and notes that each of the last three decades has been successively warmer at the Earth's surface than any preceding decade since 1850. The projections of the IPCC Report regarding future global temperature change range from 1.1 to 4 C, but that temperatures increases of more than 6 C cannot be ruled out [1]. This wide range of values reflects our limitations in performing accurate projections of future climate change produced by different potential pathways of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The sources of the uncertainty that prevent us from obtaining better precision are diverse. One of them is related to the computer models used to project future climate change.