Increasingly dysfunctional society and climate catastrophe leading humanity to ‘cliff edge’

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. A two-year research project examining different future scenarios indicates that at present, societies around the world are at growing risk of "extreme political destabilisation", with declines in public trust, while the climate crisis intensifies. "This risks an explosive combination of extreme political destabilisation and economic stagnation at a time when we must do everything we can to avoid climate catastrophes.” The authors said the timing of the book’s release is important, with just over two months to go until the UN’s Cop27 climate summit in Egypt, where climate finance will be one of the key subjects global leaders will grapple with. "Regional and global crises are often not caused by a single event like one crop failure, but cascading failures made worse by climate change, chronically dysfunctional governments and system failures.” He added: "We have known shocks were coming our way since 1972, and yet the response has been denial, it is now time to hold governments accountable for the future and push for strong governance models flexible enough to deal with today’s complex challenges.” "The Giant Leap" scenario sets out how we can avoid ending up in the nightmare of "Too Little, Too Late". These are: Ending poverty through reform of the international financial system, lifting 3-4 billion people out of poverty Addressing gross inequality by ensuring that the wealthiest 10% take no more than 40% of national incomes Empowering women to achieve full gender equity by 2050 Transforming the food system to provide healthy diets for people and planet Transitioning to clean energy to reach net zero emissions by 2050 “Out of hundreds of potential solutions, we have found five interconnected turnarounds that represent the simplest and most effective solutions that we must start implementing this decade to build economies operating within planetary boundaries by around 2050,” said Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.