1.  With contributions from 160 authors, 23 countries, and 87 institutions, The Global Tipping Points Report 2025 (first issued in 2023) finds that already at 1.4 degrees C of global warming, a tipping point is being crossed that reduces Earth's ability to cope with human interference, further amplifying the negative impacts of climate change (diebacks of coral reefs, rainforests, polar ice sheets, etc.).  As we approach overshooting the 1.5 degree C threshold of irreversible negative tipping points, the report issues positive tipping point strategies to minimize the magnitude and duration of global temperature overshoot: 1) Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions need to be halved by 2030 (compared with 2010 levels); 2) we need to reach net zero GHG by 2050; 3) and then net GHG removal from the atmosphere.  What is required: policy mandates coordinated with finance and investment to phase in cheaper and cleaner technologies (energy, transportation, heating systems) and transition away from fossil fuels.  Positive tipping points will not only help Earth's climate, they can simultaneously combat poverty, hunger, and inequality (more details in this month's Green Tips).  

2.  Already at 1.4 degrees C of global warming, warm water coral reefs are crossing their thermal tipping point, exhibiting unprecedented diebacks.  Coral reefs are only 0.2 % of the oceans, but sustain 1/4 of all marine life, and their permanent loss, should we reach 1.5 degrees C of warming, will affect hundreds of millions of people.  Their resilience can be increased by eliminating overfishing and nutrient loading from industry and agriculture (requiring local and community input), but policy mandates to phase in clean technologies and transition away from fossil fueled ones can help eliminate the 75% of Greenhouse Gases (GHG) linked to our energy systems driving climate change.  These positive tipping points can reduce energy prices worldwide, accelerate access to cheaper electricity, and benefit economies of countries that currently rely on fossil fuels.  Public support and good governance can make sure the benefits are distributed evenly, for example, through lower bills, better health outcomes, and improving the quality of life.

3.  Within a few years, we are at risk of overshooting the 1.5 degree C tipping point that will commit melting polar ice sheets to irreversible sea level rise, as well as creating widespread diebacks, together with deforestation, in the Amazon rainforest (the "Earth's lungs").  The damages to the biodiversity that sustains our planet will affect hundreds of millions of people,  requiring local and community action to stop deforestation and the degradation of forests while supporting policy mandates coordinated with finance and investments to scale up sustainable and equitable carbon removal from the atmosphere.  Collective action from civil society will help trigger the positive tipping points to give our policymakers a mandate to act in ways that 1) establish marine protected areas; 2)  protect Indigenous rights; 3) support community-led conservation initiatives; and 4) ensure a fair and transparent valuing of nature and limit overshoot of 1.5 degrees C warming.  

4.  The Atlantic Meridonal Overturning Circulation (AMOC), the powerful ocean current that brings warm water north from warm southern oceans, then returns with colder, fresher water is steadily weakening from the melting of polar ice caps.  At risk of collapse below 2 degrees C warming, the failure of AMOC would undermine global food and water security, plunging NW Europe into severe winters.  Since 2023 there has been a radical acceleration of clean technologies worldwide (despite recent backsliding by certain nations and sectors) that can offset global warming greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Solar PV panels and electric vehicles are examples of ways in which even a minority can positively tip the majority to generate self-amplifying changes in societies, economies, and technologies: "the more people act, the more they influence others to act." 

5.  We humans use two out of every five arable acres for our own food production (industrial-sized row crops, livestock production), which generates 25% of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) that are pushing Earth past its limits for supporting the life that lives on the planet.  Policy and market structures currently incentivize harmful practices, but nature regeneration initiatives and more sustainable patterns of consumption and production in food and fiber supply chains can be the positive tipping points that enable civil society and governance to catalyze each other to establish clear policy signals and enforcement of standards for sustainable commodity production (soy, beef, cocoa, cotton, palm oil, etc.).  Such actions can restore nature and biodiversity, simultaneously combating poverty, hunger, and inequality while building resilience to extreme weather events.

Download Global Tipping Point Report Summary here: