Global Tipping Points published Global Tipping Points Report 2025 (October 2025), which outlines the state of global tipping points and the actions that are required to address them and enable positive tipping points.
Human Level’s Take:
- The world has entered a new reality: Earth’s climate and ecosystems are approaching critical tipping points as global warming nears 1.5°C
- These Earth system tipping points are a human rights issue. Crossing them would cause widespread, irreversible harm to people and nature, threatening food security, water resources, livelihoods, and the wellbeing of hundreds of millions. Already at 1.4°C, warm-water coral reefs are crossing their thermal tipping point and experiencing unprecedented dieback, putting the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people at risk
- At the same time, the transition away from fossil fuels must be just, orderly, and equitable, ensuring that all communities benefit from affordable clean energy and resilient infrastructure. Positive tipping points - such as the rapid spread of clean technologies, sustainable food systems, and nature regeneration - can also advance justice and human development by reducing poverty, hunger, and inequality. While positive tipping points are already creating transformations across sectors, regions, and communities, the pace must accelerate
- Immediate action is needed across all levels of society - including companies, national governments, international bodies, municipal and regional authorities, and communities—to address Earth system tipping points and enable positive ones
- Key actions include: 1) tackle non-climate pressures. This means reducing overfishing, nutrient loading, deforestation, and forest degradation to increase the resilience of coral reefs, the Amazon rainforest, and other ecosystems at risk; 2) implement strong policy mandates. Phase in clean technologies and transition away from fossil fuels in a just, orderly, and equitable manner; 3) enable finance and infrastructure. Lower the cost of capital, particularly in the Global South, and provide the infrastructure needed to deploy low-carbon solutions rapidly; and 4) govern positive tipping points effectively. Ensure governance is collaborative, localised, participatory, and tailored to community needs, while considering potential unintended consequences such as financial or political instability, stranded assets (including human assets), or perceived injustices
- For companies, this can mean integrating climate, nature, and human rights strategies through a holistic lens. Climate, nature, and human rights risks amplify each other, so businesses can consider the human impacts of their climate and environmental mitigation and adaptation efforts and ensure that projects on the ground actively involve the communities they affect
Some key takeaways:
- The world has entered a new reality: The world has entered a new reality as Earth’s climate and nature approach critical tipping points with global warming near 1.5°C. Already at 1.4°C, warm water coral reefs are crossing their thermal tipping point and experiencing unprecedented dieback, threatening the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people. Parts of the polar ice sheets may also have crossed tipping points that could commit the planet to several metres of irreversible sea-level rise, affecting hundreds of millions more. Overshooting 1.5°C would place humanity in a danger zone where further tipping points - such as widespread dieback of the Amazon rainforest below 2°C and the possible collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) (which is a key ocean current system that regulates global climate) - could cause catastrophic risks to biodiversity, food, and water security. To prevent these damaging and irreversible impacts, global greenhouse gas emissions must be halved by 2030 compared to 2010 levels, reach net zero by 2050, and move into net greenhouse gas removal through rapid decarbonisation, methane reduction, and sustainable and equitable carbon removal. Despite recent setbacks, climate action has accelerated over the past two years. Since 2023, there has been rapid growth in clean technologies such as solar power and electric vehicles, alongside expanding climate litigation, nature restoration initiatives, and more sustainable production and consumption patterns. While some nations and sectors have weakened commitments, positive tipping points show how action by a committed minority can trigger wider social and economic transformation - each step inspiring more people, governments, and industries to act.
- Earth system tipping points are a human rights issue: Earth system tipping points are a fundamental human rights issue because crossing them would cause widespread and irreversible harm to people and nature, affecting food security, water resources, livelihoods, and the wellbeing of hundreds of millions of people. Preventing and addressing these tipping points is essential for the global protection of fundamental human rights. State and non-state actors must be adequately informed about the human rights implications of transgressing Earth system tipping points and the governance responses required. The transition away from fossil fuels must be just, orderly, and equitable, ensuring that all communities benefit from affordable clean energy and resilient infrastructure. Positive tipping points, such as the rapid spread of clean technologies, sustainable food systems, and nature regeneration, can also help combat poverty, hunger, and inequality, advancing justice and human development. The report recommends that tipping points science could be used to strengthen future litigation efforts related to human rights, and a multi-stakeholder working group - including the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, scientific experts, Indigenous Peoples, and civil society organisations - could be convened to coordinate action on the human rights dimensions of Earth system tipping points.
- What’s needed now: Immediate action is needed across multiple levels of society to address Earth system tipping points and enable positive tipping points. Tackling non-climate drivers - such as overfishing, nutrient loading, deforestation, and forest degradation - can increase the resilience of warm-water coral reefs, the Amazon rainforest, and other ecosystems at risk of tipping. Policy mandates are required to phase in clean technologies and transition away from fossil-fuelled systems in a just, orderly, and equitable manner. Reducing the cost of capital, particularly in the Global South, and providing necessary infrastructure can support rapid deployment of low-carbon technologies. Positive tipping points can simultaneously combat poverty, hunger, and inequality, including by reducing energy prices, and accelerating access to electricity. In addition, positive tipping points need to be well governed to ensure a rapid and just transition. For instance, governance should be collaborative, localised, participatory, and tailored to community needs, while also considering potential unintended consequences including financial and political instability, stranded assets (including human assets) and perceived (in)justice of the transition. Addressing tipping points requires engagement from national governments, international bodies, municipal, regional, corporate, and community actors, using diverse strategies ranging from law and policymaking to advocacy, institutional reform, and storytelling to catalyse rapid and just transitions.
