Seven of the nine planetary boundaries – described as pillars of ‘Earth’s stability, resilience and habitability’ – have been breached, according to the 2026 Planetary Health Check from the Planetary Boundaries Science Lab at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).
All seven of these planetary boundaries – climate change, change in biosphere integrity, land system change, freshwater change, modification of biogeochemical flows, introduction of novel entities, and ocean acidification – have reached their ‘highest recorded levels of transgression’, the report found.
Ocean acidification became the latest boundary to breach its limit, as of last year, while two planetary boundaries – stratospheric ozone depletion and atmospheric aerosol loading – remain within their respective boundaries. These are the only two areas to have shown signs of improvement over the past decade.
‘Pressure is rising’
“The diagnosis is unambiguous,” commented Boris Sakschewski, lead author of the report. “Pressure is rising across every Planetary Boundary already outside the safe operating space. It means that the risk of large-scale, persistent and potentially irreversible change is increasing, while our margin for error in tackling these problems is shrinking,”
The report follows on from a year marked by extreme weather, which was exacerbated by human-caused global warming. In Europe, temperatures exceeded historic records earlier this summer, with drought conditions in France, Spain, Germany and the UK, while record heat was also recorded in Japan, South Korea and parts of the Middle East.
According to the Planetary Health Check, natural carbon sinks, which typically absorb a substantial share of human-caused emissions, are increasingly under pressure, with heat, drought, fire and ecosystem degradation limiting their resilience.
“Our path to net zero emissions relies on functioning carbon sinks,” Sakschewski added. “Current observations raise the alarm that our planet may be losing its buffering capacity against the increasing pressures we’re putting on it.”
Changing course
Elsewhere, Johan Rockström, PIK director and co-author of the report, added that while we no longer have the “luxury of time”, human ingenuity means that we have the capacity to change course, if we so desire.
“Accelerating action to return to the safe operating space across all Planetary Boundaries is essential to protect lives and livelihoods, and to deliver on the promise of shared future prosperity,” he said. Read more here.
