KUALA LUMPUR(National Times)- With the city enveloped in a cloak of haze, the urgency of tackling the climate crisis could hardly have been clearer as the four-day Global Tipping Points Conference 2026 drew to a close at Malaysia\u2019s Sunway University on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the conference, speakers stressed the need for humanity to remain within planetary boundaries, or the \u201csafe operating space\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Crossing these boundaries could have catastrophic consequences, warned Professor Johan Rockstr\u00f6m, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and one of the conference organisers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He highlighted the dangers of triggering irreversible changes in major Earth systems. Some of the bulwarks have already been breached, manifesting themselves in the form of collapsed ice sheets, bleached corals, shrinking wildlife habitats and the slow death of rainforests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Tipping points\u2019 conference brings together climate scientists, activists, and finance gurus; highlights success stories from around the world<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All of this threatens food security, causes displacement, damages human health and destabilises economies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With plenty of reasons to be pessimistic \u2013 social and political polarisation, rising inequality and poverty, and wars among them \u2013 the message was nevertheless one of urgency rather than despair. \u201cThe science has matured, evidence is there\u2026 it is time for action\u2026 that\u2019s the natural step,\u201d said Sultan Nazrin Shah of Perak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But there is another side to the tipping-point story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Professor Timothy Lenton, chair for Climate Change and Earth System Science at the University of Exeter and another of the organisers, spoke about \u201cpositive tipping points\u201d. Lenton, who has studied tipping points since the 1990s, argued these could help societies move towards more sustainable futures. Citing Pakistan\u2019s solar boom and Norway\u2019s rapid adoption of electric vehicles, he pointed to transformative shifts that can happen within a relatively short period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But protecting ecosystems is as important as technologies, said Acehnese forest conservator Farwiza Farhan, while making a compelling case for the protection of the Leuser Ecosystem \u2013 a tropical rainforest reserve in Sumatra and one of the last places on Earth where tigers, elephants, rhinos and orangutans coexist in the wild.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dong Wang\u2019s park in Bangkok
Others turned to imagining the future. Anab Jain, co-founder of London-based Superflux, described Mitigation of Shock, an immersive installation set in a fictional 2050. Visitors enter an imagined apartment shaped by a future in which some of the most severe impacts of climate change have already occurred. More than 100,000 people have visited it since 2017, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Professor Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, broadened the discussion to social, economic and political tipping points. If these systems tipped in the wrong direction, he warned, they could trigger a \u201ccascade of devastating consequences\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Planetary changes and social, economic and political conditions are deeply interconnected, said Sachs, making cooperation essential to averting disaster. He repeatedly pointed to poverty and inequality as forces that could deepen instability, but argued that all was not lost. The tools for change \u2013 economic wellbeing, social inclusion, environmental sustainability, and peace and cooperation among nations \u2013 already exist, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Discussions also covered deforestation, land-use change, governance failures and the rise of artificial intelligence. Turning tools into action, however, requires money, policy and political will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut where\u2019s the money?\u201d many asked, urging encouragement for supportive policies and a pipeline of \u201cbankable projects\u201d that protect nature, so that economic incentives favour regeneration over extraction. One such approach came from Dr Ralph Chami, founder of Blue Green Future, who outlined his concept of \u201cregenerative GDP\u201d, i.e. recognising the value of \u201cliving nature\u201d and accounting for it on the balance sheet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Timothy Lenton explaining the positive tipping points
\u201cWhy kill the goose that lays the [golden] egg?\u201d he asked, contrasting a living coral reef in the Maldives \u2013 which provides a habitat for fish and plays a role in the marine carbon cycle \u2013 with a bleached one that can threaten both tourism and fisheries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But money and markets are only part of the equation. Dr Jemilah Mahmood, executive director of the Centre for Planetary Health at Sunway University, insisted on channelling youth energy. \u201cGive them space at policy [discussions], send them to COPs not as tokenism, but let them negotiate. It\u2019s their future,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As an example of what young people can achieve, Mahmood pointed to Pacific Island law students whose campaign helped bring climate change and human rights before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Their efforts contributed to a landmark advisory opinion in July 2025, clarifying states\u2019 legal obligations on climate change. Climate litigation and the role of legal action in holding governments accountable also featured in the wider conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The highlight of the conference was definitely the success stories from around the world that offered the most tangible hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, Chinese urban planner Dong Wang, who specialises in sponge cities and ecological planning, shared a low-cost, low-maintenance and replicable project in the heart of Bangkok \u2013 the transformation of a former tobacco factory into the 102-acre Benjakitti Forest Park, to which more than 200 bird species have since returned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eva Gladek of Metabolic, who spoke about NetZeroCities, showed how 17 old houseboats in Amsterdam were retrofitted with clean technologies and transformed into energy-efficient offices and workspaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mumbai-based Sheela Patel, director of the Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres, drew on five decades of work with people living in informal settlements to highlight another kind of urban resilience. Through the \u2018Roof Over Our Heads\u2019 campaign, women supported by young professionals are helping make homes more resilient to rain, strong winds and extreme heat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And these efforts are not simply one-off experiments. Patel said the work has been documented and shared, with more than 100 labs established across 20 countries to help communities test and replicate solutions. Gladek, meanwhile, is helping 100 European cities work towards climate neutrality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The thought-provoking conference had opened on a note of faith, with Sultan Nazrin Shah speaking of humanity\u2019s responsibility to care for the planet, which he said \u201ccomes with privilege and obligation\u201d but is \u201cnot a burden to be feared\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It ended on a rather philosophical and spiritual note, with British singer-writer Yusuf \u2018Cat Stevens\u2019 Islam urging people to become the change rather than expecting the world to change. \u201cNever stop being a child, as there is light in their eyes and they see hope,\u201d he said, also stressing the need to bring spirituality into education. \u201cLook how the curriculum has been colonised.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For positive tipping points to hold, science alone will not be enough, concluded Mahmood. It will also need the voices of those whose futures are at stake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KUALA LUMPUR(National Times)- With the city enveloped in a cloak of haze, the urgency of tackling the climate crisis could hardly have been clearer as the four-day Global Tipping Points Conference 2026 drew to a close at Malaysia\u2019s Sunway University on Thursday. At the conference, speakers stressed the need for humanity to remain within planetary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest_news","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n