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The European Tipping Points in the Earth System (TiPES) project is a multidisciplinary effort to clarify and explain the dynamics and thresholds of climate change tipping points. Utrecht researcher Anna von der Heydt represents the Dutch contribution to the project. At the recent General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU), researchers introduced the project, which will urgently advance current understanding and identify tipping point thresholds that scientists say, if crossed, would be very dangerous for life on Earth.

Anna von der Heydt, climate scientist at the Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht (IMAU) and associate member of the Centre for Complex Systems Studies (CCSS), is leading one of the workpackages in TiPES. She is excited that the project will both clarify key scientific questions, such as her current focus on the equilibrium climate sensitivity, and also enlist a cross-disciplinary approach to tackle tipping points. “We bring together so many different disciplines. We have the mathematicians, we have the climate scientists, we even have people dealing with societal decision-making, so we really have a good group of people to do these tipping point challenges.”