Four climate tipping points shaping markets today

CLIMATE change research generally examines "tipping points" or critical thresholds that, once breached, could accelerate the pace of change. But even today, we are approaching many tipping points that cannot be ignored. They are playing out not only in the environment, but also in political, social, economic and investment realms.

In October 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a special report warning of the catastrophic effects global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels would have on the world.

The report estimates that we have just 12 years to make unprecedented economic and policy changes to prevent us from reaching this threshold, whereby emissions of carbon dioxide will have to be reduced by 45 per cent from 2010 levels by 2030, if warming is to be kept to below 1.5 degrees Celsius.