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The oceans play a central role in the global climate system—and have so far been a crucial “buffer” against climate change. Over 90% of global warming has been absorbed inconspicuously by the world's oceans. The oceans are now the second largest CO₂ reservoir on Earth: their carbon content exceeds that of the atmosphere by more than 50 times!
Without the world's oceans acting as a huge buffer, climate change would already be much more noticeable today. But this “comfortable” situation is coming to an end: the oceans are becoming increasingly saturated with CO₂, and their ability to absorb more heat is declining. This means that the true extent of the greenhouse effect is also becoming much more noticeable on the surface.
At the same time, the probability of so-called climate tipping points being triggered is increasing – critical thresholds in the Earth's system which, once crossed, will result in irreversible changes. The consequences for the environment, society, the economy, financial systems, and capital markets would be severe. New heat records and a rapid rise in sea levels are already clear harbingers of this, as are increasing extreme weather phenomena such as hurricanes and heavy rainfall.
Nevertheless, capital markets have so far largely underestimated the impact of climate tipping points. The FERI Cognitive Finance Institute warns that many climate-related risks are now no longer insurable – which could become a systemic problem for the global financial architecture!
More on this will be available shortly in our comprehensive study “Climate Tipping Points – The collapse of essential climate systems as a global risk”.
