Continued greenhouse gas emissions risk triggering climate tipping points. These are self-sustaining shifts in the climate system that would lock-in devastating changes, like sea-level rise, even if all emissions ended.
The first major assessment in 2008 identified nine parts of the climate system that are sensitive to tipping, including ice sheets, ocean currents and major forests. Since then, huge advances in climate modelling and a flood of new observations and records of ancient climate change have given scientists a far better picture of these tipping elements. Extra ones have also been proposed, like permafrost around the Arctic (permanently frozen ground that could unleash more carbon if thawed).
