Identifying the opportunities and constraints for fundamental transformations in global systems dynamics is key for meeting the UNFCCC CoP21 goal of keeping global warming ‘well below 2 °C and to pursue efforts towards 1.5 °C’ (‘the 2–1.5 °C target’).
While those systems currently seem to be driving the unsustainable and inequitable use of the Earth's resources, a new IMPRESSIONS- and GREEN-WIN-supported research reviews and introduces the quite opposite notion of positive tipping points as emergent properties of systems, which would allow the fast deployment of evolutionary-like transformative solutions to successfully tackle the present socio-climate quandary.
The new research provides a simple procedural synthesis to help identify and coordinate the required agents’ capacities to implement transformative solutions aligned with such climate goal in different contexts.It also shows how to identify the required capacities, conditions and potential policy interventions which could eventually lead to the emergence of positive tipping points in various social–ecological systems to address the 2–1.5 °C policy target.
Original source:
Tabara J D, et al. (2018) Positive tipping points in a rapidly warming world. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability.31:120-129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2018.01.012