Global warming will soon exceed 1.5°C. This puts humanity in the danger zone where multiple climate tipping points pose catastrophic risks to billions of people. This comprehensive report details the escalating risks presented by earth system destabilisation and emphasises the necessity of triggering positive tipping points (PTPs) to achieve urgent climate action. 

The report is not only a warning but a guide: it maps where dangers converge, but also where opportunities to tip systems positively are within reach. The report details case studies on the Amazon rainforest, Atlantic Ocean circulation, warm-water coral reefs and mountain glaciers.

Minimising the risk of activating further damaging tipping points requires accelerating mitigation efforts. The window for preventing some irreversible tipping points is rapidly closing. Preventing irreversible harm to the climate system is presented as a legal imperative. 

Key findings

• The stability of the Earth system is threatened by critical thresholds that, when crossed, result in nonlinear and cascading consequences. Every fraction of additional warming increases the risk of triggering further damaging tipping points.
• While several systems are approaching tipping points, the warm-water coral reef system exemplifies the urgency of impacts.
• The prognosis for warm-water coral reefs is severe.
• To retain functional coral reefs at a meaningful scale, global mean warming must return below 1.2°C with a minimal overshoot period.

Recommendations

• Achieving the necessary acceleration in decarbonisation requires triggering PTPs, self-amplifying shifts in technologies, behaviors and systems toward zero emissions.
• The most effective strategies for triggering PTPs, especially in the energy system, are policy mandates designed to phase in clean technologies and phase out fossil fuels.
• Minimising tipping risks demands 'frontloaded' mitigation pathways that rapidly reduce peak global temperature. This requires halving GHG emissions by 2030 (compared to 2010 levels), reaching net zero by 2050 and deploying rapid scaling of sustainable carbon removal capacities to return temperatures below 1.5°C.