Planetary Boundaries show rising risks and urgency to protect Earth’s life-support systems
The 2025 Planetary Health Check Report was launched earlier this week. Emmanuel Raju, Associate Professor at the Global Health Section and Director of the Copenhagen Centre for Disaster Research, and Friederike Otto, Professor at Imperial College London, contribute to a spotlight chapter on Extreme Weather and Disasters in 2024/25.
The nine boundaries together form Earth’s operating system, the interconnected life-support processes that must stay within safe limits to keep humanity safe and the natural world resilient. Scientists monitor these boundaries through key measures, much like vital signs in a health check, to track the planet’s condition. The findings point to accelerating deterioration and growing risk of irreversible change, including a higher risk of tipping points.
The 2025 Planetary Health Check reveals a stark new development: the Ocean Acidification boundary has now been assessed as breached for the first time. This shift, driven mainly by fossil fuel burning and worsened by deforestation and land-use change, is degrading the oceans’ ability to act as Earth’s stabiliser. This marks the seventh boundary transgressed, pushing humanity further beyond the safe zone for civilisation.
In their chapter (Extreme Weather and Disasters in 2024/25 - An Attribution Based Perspective) they highlight how disasters are a product of societal factors. Climate Change is making weather events more intense and frequent. At the same time, disasters such as heatwaves are less spoken about and the need for immediate attention.
“Recent years are bringing more clear evidence of impacts of climate change and disasters around the world and disproportionate impacts on some of the most vulnerable communities across the world. We massively need to shift focus on risk-informed development practices”- Emmanuel Raju.
See the Planetary Health Check 2025 report (PDF)