EARTH is warming so fast it will reach a climate “tipping point” in just 17 years, according to Oxford University research.

Humanity faces a “point of no return” by 2035, warn scientists.

This is the deadline for achieving the required reductions in carbon dioxide emissions from road traffic, homes and industry.

Otherwise, limiting global warming below 2°C in 2100 - the target set by the 2015 Paris Agreement - will be “unlikely”, say the British and Dutch team.

Lead author Matthias Aengenheyster, a doctoral researcher at Oxford University, said: “The ‘point of no return’ concept has the advantage of containing time information, which we consider very useful to inform the debate on the urgency of taking climate action.”

By using information from climate models, the researchers identified the latest possible year when dramatic cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions can begin.

Beyond this, it will be too late to avoid dangerous climate change, sparking more droughts, heatwaves, hurricanes and floods.

The study calculated for the first time the deadline for starting climate action to keep global warming below 2°C in 2100. This would provide a 67 per cent likelihood of being successful, depending on how fast humanity can reduce emissions. This would require increasing use of wind, tides and water, instead of fossil fuels.