Register Now The 2022 Tipping Points workshop in Exeter brought together scientists, stakeholders and activists from many domains. The goal of the conference, simply put, was to ‘turbo-charge’ the work of identifying systemic recipes for positive tipping by drawing on many different sources of knowledge.
In that, it was the first of its kind by initiating action networks and communities of practice in diverse fields such as climate justice, finance, communications and social movements, among others.
Graphic Scribe by Guillaume Lagane
Tackling these global challenges called for community efforts and a joint roadmap vision.
The cross-disciplinary Tipping Points alliance, launched at the conference, laid out its ambitions in A Tipping Points Research Agenda – this included the assessment of the current state of research on biophysical, social and socio-economic tipping points, their interactions, their negative impacts and potential opportunities for positive change. This resulted in the first Global Tipping Points Report launched at COP28.
The recent IPCC assessment report (IPCC AR6 WG1, Chapter 4) acknowledges a list of Earth system components susceptible to abrupt changes during the 21st century, however attributes low-to-medium confidence to many of the projections (IPCC AR6 WG1, Chapter 4).
To address these uncertainties and to combine the efforts of the modelling community in a systematic way, a dedicated Tipping Model Intercomparison Project (TIPMIP) was launched at a workshop at the conference. Led by Ricarda Winkelmann at Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) it aims to systematically advance our understanding of tipping dynamics in various Earth system components.
A tipping points discussion series with prominent speakers from natural and social sciences runs to December 2024. The virtual events are open to the public, with recordings of past events available online. The series is supported by the Earth Commission’s Working Group 1 (Earth and Human Systems Modelling Intercomparison Project), Future Earth’s global research project Analysis, Integration, and Modeling of the Earth System (AIMES) and Safe Landing Climates Light House Activity of World Climate Research Program (WCRP).
Following the Conference, the Green Futures Network organised a series of workshops to share, explore and test the positive tipping points framework. Find resources, videos and further links here Positive Tipping Points in Practice.
As a home for information, this website will be transformed into the host site for the Tipping Points alliance.
Meanwhile, to receive information on news and events related to the alliance please email tippingpoints@exeter.ac.uk and put ‘Subscribe’ in the email title. We will not share your contact details outside of the University of Exeter.
For information and involvement in TIPMIP, please sign up here.
To stay informed about latest activities in the field of tipping science, please consider signing up for future events of the tipping points discussion.
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