Overview
- The Planetary Health Check, published Tuesday, reports seven of nine planetary boundaries are now transgressed and at their highest recorded levels, with ocean acidification newly breached in 2025.
- The assessment cites mounting evidence of system-wide strain, including a 2025 record in global ocean heat and a global coral-bleaching event from January 2023 to September 2025 that affected about 84.4% of reef area.
- Scientists warn repeated heat, drought, fires and ecosystem loss are weakening vegetation and soil carbon sinks, which could reduce carbon uptake and jeopardize reliance on sinks for net-zero plans.
- Only two boundaries—stratospheric ozone depletion and atmospheric aerosol loading—have shown decade-scale improvement, but the report cautions that unsafe aerosol pollution persists at regional levels.
- Authored by more than 60 scientists at the Potsdam Institute’s Planetary Boundaries Science Lab, the report says rising pressures raise the likelihood of large-scale, persistent and potentially irreversible change and urges accelerated global cooperation to restore a safe operating space.