In the past 65 million years, Earth’s climate has continuously changed due to the movement of techtonic plates, periodic cycles driven by Earth’s orbital processes and abrupt climate shifts. This research focuses on the rare, abrupt and extreme climate shifts in the Earth’s system which are speculated to have occurred due to ‘critical transitions’ or the passing of a so-called ‘tipping point’. Using high-resolution climate reconstructions, theory of dynamical systems and data-driven methods, the project aims to detect, predict and understand the drivers behind critical transitions in the Cenozoic era.