Harmful tipping points in the natural world pose some of the gravest threats faced by humanity. Their triggering will severely damage our planet’s life-support systems and threaten the stability of our societies.
In the Summary Report:
• Narrative summary
• Global tipping points infographic
• Key messages
• Key Recommendations
Executive summary
• Section 1
• Section 2
• Section 3
• Section 4
This report is for all those concerned with tackling escalating Earth system change and mobilising transformative social change to alter that trajectory, achieve sustainability and promote social justice.
In this section:
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Key Concepts
• Approach
• References
Considers Earth system tipping points. These are reviewed and assessed across the three major domains of the cryosphere, biosphere and circulation of the oceans and atmosphere. We then consider the interactions and potential cascades of Earth system tipping points, followed by an assessment of early warning signals for Earth system tipping points.
Considers tipping point impacts. First we look at the human impacts of Earth system tipping points, then the potential couplings to negative tipping points in human systems. Next we assess the potential for cascading and compounding systemic risk, before considering the potential for early warning of impact tipping points.
Considers how to govern Earth system tipping points and their associated risks. We look at governance of mitigation, prevention and stabilisation then we focus on governance of impacts, including adaptation, vulnerability and loss and damage. Finally, we assess the need for knowledge generation at the science-policy interface.
Focuses on positive tipping points in technology, the economy and society. It provides a framework for understanding and acting on positive tipping points. We highlight illustrative case studies across energy, food and transport and mobility systems, with a focus on demand-side solutions (which have previously received limited attention).
The digital revolution describes the major restructuring of all domains of social life and of the economy as firms and consumers take advantage of new digital technologies – i.e. ubiquitous connected consumer devices such as mobile phones (Grubler et al.,2018), global internet infrastructure and access (World Bank, 2014), computing devices, sensors and digital communication technologies (Verma et al., 2020). Digital technologies have extraordinary enabling powers: they provide access to information, contribute to forming preferences, modify demand choices, and change the way in which goods and services are provided and accessed (IEA, 2017, Nakicenovic et al., 2018).
This subchapter discusses the enabling role that digital technologies and devices can play in the context of PTPs (Lenton et al., 2022). Addressing this topic is important given the lively debate on whether the digital revolution will contribute to the achievement of a low-carbon, sustainable future or whether the rapid diffusion of digital technologies will simply exacerbate existing economic and social inequalities both within and across countries (Nakicenovic et al., 2018; Nature, 2020). Indeed, the ‘twin green and digital transformation’ is increasingly referred to as a challenge of unprecedented breadth and depth, scale and speed (European Commission, 2020; IPCC, 2022; Verdolini, 2023).
Digitalisation has myriad possible applications that can be utilised to accelerate socio-economic transformations towards a post-carbon, regenerative society and we cannot cover all possible benefits. We focus on three specific examples: teleworking, MaaS and smart homes, given their relevance for the case studies presented in 4.3.1 and 4.3.2.3.