There is a threat of imminent abrupt and irreversible transitions in the Earth system. This must be tackled urgently through political, economic, and societal action. Taking advantage of groundbreaking research and having science and policy working collaboratively is the only way to prevent the destabilization of major Earth system tipping elements and avoiding the critical thresholds known as tipping points.

Three EU-funded projects under the Horizon 2020 programme, Tipping Points in the Earth System (TiPES), Our Common Future Ocean in the Earth System (COMFORT), and Tipping Points in Antarctic Climate Components (TiPACCs) have worked together towards developing a policy brief that presents the key findings to date from these projects. On that basis, we jointly formulated persisting knowledge gaps as well as policy recommendations.

The policy brief is available for free download here.