How science, technology and governance can drive prosperity within planetary boundaries

In a world of accelerating climatic, geopolitical, and geo-economic shocks, one truth has become impossible to ignore: humanity’s prosperity depends on restoring balance between our societies and the Earth systems that sustain them.

The planetary boundaries framework, developed by a group of 28 scientists led by Johan Rockstrom at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, describes nine Earth-system processes that together define a “safe operating space” for humanity. Scientists now estimate that seven of these boundaries – climate change, biodiversity loss, land-system change, freshwater depletion, biogeochemical flows of nitrogen and phosphorus, novel entities such as chemical and plastic pollution, and ocean acidification – have already been breached. Only two, stratospheric ozone and atmospheric aerosols, remain for now within safe limits.

At the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meetings of the Global Future Councils and Cybersecurity in Dubai, expert participants gathered in a session known as the Nature and Climate Output Lab.

Charlotte Pera, Executive Director of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability’s Sustainability Accelerator, reminded participants that “our first task is to get back within those boundaries.” Yet she also stressed that this is not a story of scarcity. It is one of opportunity: to rebuild prosperity on foundations that endure.

The tools for transformation already exist. Many, ironically, are the products of the same ingenuity that once pushed us beyond ecological limits. Solar and wind power, circular material flows, regenerative agriculture and advanced data systems all point toward the possibility of a new synthesis of prosperity and responsible environmental stewardship.

But technology on its own will not deliver change. “New technologies often cost more, come with steep learning curves, and struggle to achieve economies of scale,” Pera observed. The transition demands coordinated policy, patient capital, and public trust. History shows that persistence works. Wind, solar and electric vehicles were once niche experiments; today they are central to energy and industrial policy around the world.

“Even if you are standing next to the river, do not waste water,” said Fawad Qureshi, Global Field Chief Technology Officer at Snowflake, recalling a saying from his native Punjab, literally the Land of Five Rivers. “Abundance is never an excuse for waste,” Qureshi said. His reminder resonates far beyond natural resources. It applies equally to data, energy, and finance. Without stewardship, abundance becomes fragility.

The challenge is to turn technological abundance into ecological intelligence: to use artificial intelligence, sensors, and satellites not only to increase efficiency but also to understand, value, and restore natural capital. AI models that track biodiversity, predict drought, or optimise resource use can be as transformative for sustainability as they have been for productivity.

Every economy ultimately depends on the health of its ecosystems. Yet GDP, the dominant measure of progress, remains largely blind to nature’s depreciation. The next frontier is to make natural assets visible in economic terms – embedding their worth in accounting, finance and policy.

Andrea Meza Murillo, Deputy Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, described how Costa Rica achieved this in practice. The country once suffered one of the world’s highest deforestation rates. Through bold policy decisions, including banning land-use conversion and dedicating a portion of fossil-fuel taxes to pay landowners for forest management, Costa Rica reversed deforestation within a generation. “Natural assets can be valued as national treasures,” she said. The result was not slower growth but stronger, with tourism, agriculture, and ecosystem services flourishing together.

The principle extends well beyond Costa Rica. Many emerging economies are now integrating land, water, and soil management into their development strategies. Degraded ecosystems reduce resilience, undermine food security, and heighten social instability. Restoring them strengthens economies and creates jobs. Indigenous communities, whose expertise and deep connection to local ecologies have often gone undervalued, must be included and fairly compensated for their role in protecting nature.

Markets alone cannot realign incentives fast enough. Correcting the price signals that encourage depletion means phasing out harmful subsidies, expanding nature-positive investment standards, widening access to green finance for small and medium enterprises, and other green-friendly policies. Pricing water accurately, for instance, can reduce waste and leakage while encouraging innovation in conservation technologies. Innovative mechanisms such as stacking water and carbon credits could help channel capital into adaptation projects that deliver multiple benefits.

The economics of planetary health require both precision and empathy: precision to capture the true costs of pollution and depletion, and empathy to ensure that transitions are just. The political economy of climate action will determine its success as much as technology itself. Equity and inclusion are essential, as various forms of public pushback, from resistance to electric vehicles to opposition to heat pumps, have shown that social legitimacy is as critical as technical feasibility.

Global cooperation remains indispensable. The multilateral system is under strain from fragmentation, yet as Meza Murillo argued, “we cannot afford to silo our solutions.” She called for closer coordination among the three Rio Conventions – on Climate Change, Biodiversity and Desertification – so that efforts to protect nature, restore land, and decarbonise economies reinforce one another instead of competing for resources.

If technology and economics are the engines of transformation, social innovation is the steering mechanism. As Pera emphasised, closing the digital divide, expanding education and empowering communities are preconditions for a sustainable transition. Without inclusion, even the best technologies falter.

This principle applies from the local to the global. Rural cooperatives managing water resources, city networks sharing adaptation data and international partnerships on biodiversity monitoring all show how open information can foster accountability and trust.

Inclusion also means cultural change. Societies must come to see stewardship as success, not sacrifice. Young people must see climate and biodiversity work as sources of purpose and pride. That revaluation of values may be as transformative as any breakthrough in energy or materials science.

Ambition is not something the world lacks. The missing ingredient is alignment: alignment between science and policy, finance and equity, technology and trust. The Dubai meeting illustrated how these forces can converge: scientists warning of planetary limits, technologists providing tools for insight, policymakers redesigning incentives, and communities insisting on fairness.

The task ahead is to institutionalize that convergence. Governments can establish innovation corridors linking clean-tech clusters with nature-based projects. Companies can extend biodiversity accounting alongside carbon disclosure. Multilateral institutions can combine adaptation finance with debt relief to unlock investment in restoration.

Each of these actions reflects a larger truth: sustainability is no longer an environmental niche but a developmental necessity. The ingenuity that built the modern world can rebuild it within planetary means.

The way forward is neither linear nor effortless. Yet it is not a zero-sum choice between growth and restraint. It is a design challenge that calls for science to define the boundaries, technology to navigate them, and governance to ensure fairness along the way.

As the discussions in Dubai affirmed, prosperity in the twenty-first century will be measured not by how much humanity extracts, but by how well it regenerates.

These insights draw from the expertise and collaboration of expert members of 12 Global Future Councils, including the Councils on Antimicrobial Resistance, Clean Air, Climate and Nature Governance, Data Frontiers, Energy Technology Frontiers, Forest Economy, Good Governance, Innovative Financing for Nature and Climate, Natural Capital, Nature and Security, Regenerative Blue Economy, and Soils