The new tipping points playbook

Landmark new research from The Earthshot Prize and the University of Exeter’s Green Futures Solutions team, published today, reveals 51 environmental solutions that can trigger rapid and transformative change to repair our planet within the next five years. After a northern summer of extreme heat and fire, and as the world prepares for an unprecedented El Nino, the research provides a new, unifying agenda for positive action.

Positive Tipping Points: Accelerating system change to repair our planet, furthers Professor Tim Lenton’s pioneering research, by expanding positive tipping point science to all five Earthshots: Protect and Restore Nature, Clean Our Air, Revive Our Oceans, Build a Waste-Free World, and Fix Our Climate. The Earthshot Prize will use the findings to identify solutions with the potential to trigger rapid systems change.

The planet is fast approaching negative tipping points, such as the dieback of Amazon rainforest, where catastrophic harm to ecosystems becomes irreversible. Yet, the same science provides an opportunity with positive tipping points, a threshold where progress can become rapid and self-reinforcing. For example, when adoption lowers costs, success attracts further investment and new policy spreads to other geographies, creating a cascade effect of progress.