Planet under pressure: 10 emerging tech solutions to watch

It makes for stark reading: 7 of our 9 planetary boundaries have been breached, and “our planet’s vital signs are flashing red”.

This is based on the Planetary Health Check 2025 by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). Planetary boundaries set the scientific limits within which our natural systems must operate to function fully. We are crossing these boundaries in not one, but seven areas.

Climate change, biosphere integrity, nutrient cycles and human-made materials disrupting natural processes are the most affected, with changes to land systems, freshwater and the oceans not far behind.

“We have very strong signs that we're moving closer to tipping points which can lead to irreversible changes that would undermine more or less permanently the basis upon which economic development depends,” Johan Rockström, PIK’s director, told the World Economic Forum at the 2025 Sustainable Impact Development Meetings in September.

A new insight report from the Forum, 10 Emerging Technology Solutions for Planetary Health, examines the technologies that may help redress the declining health of our planet’s fundamental processes.

More than a third of our world’s protein consumption is sourced from animals. Conventional livestock raising gives land over to pasture and feed crops, increases water use, leads to nutrient pollution from fertilizers and raises greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs).

Precision fermentation uses engineered microbes to produce animal-identical proteins and other high-value compounds without the need for livestock, dramatically lowering these environmental impacts.

Ammonia is vital for fertilizers but manufacturing it uses a lot of energy, mainly from fossil fuels, releasing high GHGs. New technology replaces coal and gas with renewable or nuclear energy to produce green hydrogen, then converts it into green ammonia. Some approaches deploy bio-engineered bacteria to facilitate the conversion. In addition to lowering emissions, these techniques also open up new uses for ammonia, such as a green shipping fuel.

We throw away over a billion tonnes of food waste every year and most of it ends up in landfill, generating substantial emissions. Cutting-edge automation and AI technologies now make it easier to separate food from other waste, so it can be diverted to be composted or turned into biogas and bioplastics. Not only does this cut landfill emissions, but it also strengthens circular food systems.

Methane warms the planet 80 times more than carbon dioxide. Capturing methane from landfills, farm manure, sewage plants and fossil infrastructure is therefore as crucial as sequestering CO2.

Methane is already frequently converted into electricity, heat and renewable natural gas. New technologies take this one step further by converting methane emissions into useful products like green methanol, hydrogen, fertilizers or solid carbon (‘carbon black’) – a critical raw material for industrial applications such as making car tyres, batteries and coatings.

Concrete is the primary construction material used across the world. However, producing it is a major source of not only CO2 emissions, but also raw material depletion, due to the high demand for sand, limestone and gravel.

New green concrete technologies replace the binding chemicals at the heart of these issues with binders made from industrial byproducts or recycled construction waste. This reduces both emissions and the demand for resources, as well as the associated environmental impacts.

Many devices today use rechargeable batteries, including mobile phones and electric cars. Traditionally, charging batteries has been one-way.

Bi-directional charging enables electricity to flow both into and out of batteries, transforming devices like electric cars into potential energy sources for homes, buildings and power grids (known as 'vehicle-to-grid'). Modern inverters and smart grids enable stored energy to be shared when demand peaks, complementing renewable sources or providing a backup during emergencies.

New Earth observation (EO) technologies are transforming how we track environmental change from space. With near real-time, high-resolution images from satellites, drones and ground sensors combined with the power of AI, we can monitor everything from greenhouse gas emissions to soil health, deforestation and water levels. This enables governments, industry and communities to respond faster to the changes affecting our planetary boundaries.

Geothermal energy is a reliable, low-emission power source that needs little land and water. However, it accounts for less than 1% of global electricity because traditional plants depend on rare underground geothermal reservoirs. New modular systems can generate geothermal power without specific geological conditions, providing consistent renewable heat and electricity to complement other renewable resources.

Desalinated seawater is vital in dry regions. Traditional methods require a significant amount of energy and produce harmful brine. New regenerative desalination technologies are cleaner and more sustainable, recovering and reusing chemicals from the brine while reducing its volume and toxicity. These systems can run on renewable energy like solar, wind or wave power, lowering emissions and protecting marine ecosystems.

Healthy soils are vital for food, water and climate regulation, yet over a third are degraded. Converging technologies combine the latest sensors with microbial engineering and AI to improve sustainable farming. The benefits range from boosting crop yields and cutting emissions to reducing fertilizer usage and the associated runoff.

“There are three factors that have to be invested in, simultaneously and at global scale,” Johan Rockström told the World Economic Forum.

“One is the urgent phase out of fossil fuels. The second is that we have to start investing at scale in carbon removal technologies. And the third - and, in my view - most important initiative or investment, is that we have to manage the ocean in a sustainable way. Also, forests, wetlands, peatlands and agricultural lands are absolutely critical to storing and even absorbing carbon to help us cool the planet once we release the pressure from fossil fuels.”

While no single solution can address all three of these factors, new technologies are expanding the possibilities. However, technology requires supportive policies, regulations, innovative financing and infrastructure to promote market growth and scale innovation.

At its core, this depends on a commitment to coordinated action to maintain a healthy planet.

Additional reporting by Andrea Willige.