Fossil fuel phase-out will ‘not avert climate breakdown without protections for nature’

When deforestation reaches 20-25% of an area such as Labrea, Amazonas state, Brazil, the system approaches the tipping point to savannah. Photograph: Michael Dantas/AFP/Getty Images

Human destruction of nature is pushing the planet to a point of no return, and even a phase-out of fossil fuels will not stave off climate breakdown unless we also protect the natural world, one of the world’s top climate scientists has warned.

Johan Rockström, the director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, told the Guardian: “Even if we phase out all fossil fuels, if we do not get involved in nature, [the destruction of natural landscapes and habitats] can make us lose what we all have agreed on the safe future for humanity on Earth – that is, to stay within the 1.5C limit. It’s really decisive, that we get it right on nature.”