Professor runs Tipping Points conference
Strathclyde Business School’s Professor Iain Black, along with Emeritus Professor Gerard Hastings (formerly of the University of Strathclyde Marketing Department), Dr Anna Wilson from the University of Glasgow, and Stewart Kirkpatrick, a digital campaigning expert (38 Degrees, Open Democracy, Yes Scotland), ran an action workshop at the Global Tipping Points Conference in Exeter (30 June–3 July).
The conference was organised by some of the world’s leading climate scientists - Professor Johan Rockström, Ricarda Winkelmann, and Professor Tim Lenton - and features cutting-edge research on the state of critical Earth systems (Greenland ice sheet, temperate coral reefs, AMOC, Antarctic ice sheet) and how close they are to collapse and tipping into new, unknown states. It also explored, with the help of leading social scientists, international governance figures, third-sector leaders, and campaigners such as Kate Raworth, George Monbiot, Jemilah Mahmood and Sandrine Dixson-Decleve, how to tip social systems towards low-carbon futures.
The conference opened with stark news: it is already too late to save the world’s tropical coral reefs, with some models predicting that only 1% will survive expected rises in ocean temperature and changes in salinity. Conference heard deeply concerning updates about the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) - the ocean current that cycles warm and cold water across the equator and to the Arctic, and which is responsible for the Scotland’s and UK’s relatively mild climate. The latest modelling suggests that when the AMOC shuts down, winter sea ice could reach Scotland. Attendees were left to consider the profound implications this would have on our society and economy.
Despite these warnings, the conference focused on hope and action at scale and speed, seeking answers to how we can tip current social systems - towards, for example, cities dominated by active and electrified public transport, or global and diets that are plant-based and tasty, and affordable.
Recognising that such a positive future threatens the oil and gas industry and its dependent sectors, Professor Black and the team ran an action workshop examining how to increase our understanding of ‘deliberate dampening effects’ - into the tipping points framework and how to recognise and counter the actions and strategies used by fossil fuel companies and their proxies to create negative feedback loops and slow down transitions. The workshop drew on lessons from Professor Hastings’ four-decade career in tobacco control and public health advocacy, much of which was conducted while leading the Centre for Social Marketing in the Department of Marketing during the 1980s and 1990s.
After hearing Professor Hastings describe how climate campaigners and academics must sometimes approach their work as if they are in a “pub fight—Motherwell rules” (a line from The Thick of It), participants worked with Anna Wilson to explore the tactics and messages used by the fossil fuel industry and their proxies. They identified tactics such as co-opting the language of the Just Transition, inserting themselves into conferences and initiatives to slow their progress and messages such as “it’s too late to act,” “it’s too costly,” or “net zero drives up prices during a cost-of-living crisis.” The audience of academics and third sector actors then worked with Stewart Kirkpatrick to develop understanding of message framing and how to conduct campaigns against powerful well-funded opponents, over time. The final exercise focussed on developing counter-messages and counter tactics to those used by the oil and gas industry.
The workshop and its activities will be further developed and will form part of the Positive Tipping Points Toolkit, to be launched in September. Related work from Professor Black will also feature in the updated Global Tipping Points Report, to be launched at COP30 in Belém, Brazil, at the end of 2025.
Published: 31 July 2025
