The world's tropical coral reefs have almost certainly crossed a point of no return as oceans warm beyond a level most can survive, a major scientific report announced on Monday.

It is the first time scientists have declared that Earth has likely reached a so-called "tipping point" -- a shift that could trigger massive and often permanent changes in the natural world.

"Sadly, we're now almost certain that we crossed one of those tipping points for warm water or tropical coral reefs," report lead Tim Lenton, a climate and Earth system scientist at the University of Exeter, told AFP.

This conclusion was supported by real-world observations of "unprecedented" coral death across tropical reefs since the first comprehensive assessment of tipping points science was published in 2023, the auth

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