Can methane cuts pull us back from the brink of climate breakdown?

Scientists are concerned that further heating could trigger the worst consequences of climate breakdown, but this could be reversible if methane is cut. Photograph: David Goldman/AP

For two years, global temperatures have exceeded the 1.5C heating limit laid out in the Paris climate agreement. This overshooting will have “devastating consequences”, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, has warned.

The biggest worry for scientists is that further heating could trigger irreversible tipping points, such as the widespread drying out and dying off of the Amazon, or the melting of the Greenland ice sheet, beyond which climate breakdown could spiral out of control.