Net zero goal critical to Earth's stability: study
The Peninsula
Paris: Bringing planet heating emissions to net zero by 2100 is critical to avoid triggering tipping points that could destabilise the systems that...
Paris: Bringing planet-heating emissions to net zero by 2100 is critical to avoid triggering "tipping points" that could destabilise the systems that keep Earth in balance, a new study said Thursday.
If left unchecked, global warming could set in motion dangerous and irreversible changes to planetary systems such as the disappearance of ice sheets or a collapse of ocean currents.
Researchers said action today would have an influence on the chances of triggering these catastrophic events, even if they are very slow moving and likely to unfold over tens to thousands of years.
"What we do now matters for the next decades, and centuries and even millennia to come," said Nico Wunderling, one of the study's authors from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany.
The level of global action on climate change is currently insufficient to avoid the risk of at least one of Earth's critical systems from tipping into collapse.
