Climate policy is characterised by the habituation of low expectations and a culture of failure. There is an urgent need to understand global warming and the tipping points for dangerous impacts that we have already crossed as a sustainability emergency, that takes us beyond the politics of failure-inducing compromise. We are now in a race between climate tipping points and political tipping points.

In this meticulously documented call-to-action, David Spratt and Philip Sutton reveal extensive scientific evidence showing the global warming crisis is far worse than official reports and national governments have indicated — and that we’re almost at the point of no return.

Serious climate change impacts are already happening, more rapidly and at lower global temperature increases than projected. As the USA’s most eminent climate scientist, James Hansen, told 15,000 of his colleagues at a conference in December 2007, significant climate ‘tipping points’ have already been passed. These include large ice-sheet disintegration, significant sea level rises of up to five metres this century, and devastating species loss. The Arctic will soon be free of summer sea-ice — a century ahead of projections by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — and the Greenland ice sheet is in imminent danger.

The tipping point for the loss of the Arctic sea-ice was around two decades ago, when temperatures were about 0.3°C lower than at present. Climate Code Red shows that further temperature increases of 2 degrees are effectively already in the system. Even a temperature increase cap of 2–2.4°C, which is proposed within the United Nations framework (and is far below what most governments are prepared to aim for), would take the planet’s climate beyond the temperature range of the last million years.

David Spratt and Philip Sutton show that the unofficial projected speed of climate change — with temperature increases greater than 0.3°C per decade, and a consequent rapid shifting of climatic zones — will result in most ecosystems failing to adapt, causing the extinction of many species. The oceans will become more acidic, endangering much marine life.

The dangers we all face are already much greater than the headlines indicate. According to climate scientists such as James Hansen, it is no longer a case of how much more we can ‘safely’ emit, but whether we can stop emissions and produce a deliberate cooling before the earth’s climate system reaches a runaway trajectory that is beyond any hope of human restoration.

These imperatives are incompatible with ‘politics as usual’ and ‘business as usual’. Climate Code Red argues there is an urgent need for all of us to recognise that we face a sustainability emergency requiring a clear break from the politics of failure-inducing compromise. Even scientifically moderate goals (such as reducing emissions by 25–40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020) now require immoderate rates of technical and social change that are only achievable by shifting formally to an emergency footing.