Global warming caused by fossil-fuel emissions is accelerating, pushing many of the Earth's most important ecosystems close to their tipping points, said Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Reuters reported from London. Speaking at the Reuters Sustainability Europe conference on Tuesday, Rockström said damage to coral reefs and the Amazon rainforest was close to becoming irreversible, and that parts of the Atlantic Ocean circulation system — including the current that moderates Western Europe's climate with warm water from the Caribbean — were close to collapse, Reuters reported. The latest science confirms the world is on course to exceed a 1.5 degree Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) rise in average surface temperature in the next few years, increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, he said, ahead of the United Nations' COP31 climate talks starting on November 9 — a warning with direct meaning for Punjab, where heatwaves and intense monsoon flooding have intensified in recent years.

The Atlantic warning is not one scientist's view alone. A study published in the journal Science Advances by researchers at the Danish Meteorological Institute found no sudden point of collapse in their model of the circulation — the current could gradually weaken and then recover if the climate cools, though recovery would take centuries, and melting of the Greenland ice sheet, which pours cold freshwater into the ocean and weakens the current, could not be undone even if warming were reversed. Separate research from Utrecht University, published in Nature Climate Change in August, suggests the pace of warming matters as much as the total: rapid warming could push the circulation toward collapse at around two degrees of warming, sooner than earlier estimates built around a fixed temperature threshold. The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has assessed that warm-water coral reefs face very high risks once warming passes the 1.5°C mark, with losses that cannot be reversed.

Rockström urged companies to treat climate and nature as a single integrated agenda rather than separate issues: while prioritising decarbonisation, they should also invest in preserving nature, particularly projects that maintain or rebuild biodiversity and reserves of fresh water, Reuters reported. He said it was 'incredibly disturbing' to see lobbying for an easing of rules on phasing out internal combustion engine vehicles, pointing to subsidies for petrol and diesel that were undermining consumer demand for electric vehicles. His remarks land less than three weeks before COP31, which runs November 9–20 in Antalya, Türkiye — Türkiye holds the presidency while Australia leads the formal negotiations under a dual arrangement, according to summit reporting — where nearly two hundred countries are expected to test whether past pledges to move away from fossil fuels and triple adaptation finance turn into delivery.

Sources: Reuters, 'Global warming is accelerating, leading climate scientist Rockström says', reporting by Simon Jessop, London, 20 October 2026; Danish Meteorological Institute study in Science Advances and Utrecht University study in Nature Climate Change (August 2026), both as summarised in climate reporting on Rockström's remarks, 20 October 2026; COP31 Antalya arrangements as reported by Turkish officials and summit reporting.