Exceeding 1.5°C warming could trigger multiple climate tipping points: Research

As the world becomes hotter with every passing day, there’s a growing risk to set off multiple climate tipping points (CTPs), according to recent research. 

Climate tipping points are conditions beyond which changes in a part of the climate system become self-perpetuating beyond a warming threshold. These changes may lead to abrupt, irreversible, and dangerous impacts with serious implications for humanity. 

The study is an updated assessment of the most important climate tipping elements and their potential tipping points, including their temperature thresholds, time scales, and impacts.

The research identified nine global “core” tipping elements that contribute substantially to earth system functioning and seven regional “impact” tipping elements that contribute substantially to human welfare or have great value as unique features of the earth system. 

Triggering CTPs leads to significant, policy-relevant impacts, including substantial sea level rise from collapsing ice sheets, dieback of biodiverse biomes such as the Amazon rainforest or warm-water corals, and carbon release from thawing permafrost.

The study mapped that the current global warming of ~1.1°C above pre-industrial levels already lies within the lower end of five CTP uncertainty ranges. Six CTPs become likely (with a further four possible) within the Paris Agreement range of 1.5 to