Centre report : A liveable planet requires more collaboration and action

“Resilience is maintained not by ensuring stability, but by embracing change. At the same time, transformation theory tells us that letting go of cherished things is necessary and that it must be done with dignity,” says Centre director Line Gordon.

Evidence continues to amass that human-driven changes are affecting the planet’s health and putting communities worldwide at great risk: six of nine planetary boundaries have been breached, and 2024 constituted another year of record-breaking temperatures, with the planet, for the first time, surpassing the 1.5°C global warming threshold above pre-industrial levels.

Our new annual report summarises more than 200 scientific papers, published in the past year, showing major risks for the planet’s biosphere, societies and economies:

• Energy, food, and water insecurity, as well as an increased risk of disease, disaster, displacement, and conflict, are all putting extraordinary stress on both people and the planet.
• Human health is very tightly connected to the health of the planet. Minimising, for example, antibiotic use in aquaculture or steering investments away from deforestation, could help avoid antibiotic resistance and zoonotic diseases.
• AI offers opportunities, but also major risks, including increased freshwater and energy consumption. Science needs to explore both these sides to help understand this rapid and complex development.
• For societies to transform, we need to embrace future visioning – we need to be able to imagine positive scenarios to stimulate actions.

“We can no longer discuss climate, nature, or biodiversity as separate issues from societal development. These events have far-reaching impacts on housing, employment, physical and mental health, and economic stability,” says Beatrice Crona, science director of the Centre.

In the studies published last year, the Centre contributed to a deepened understanding of key aspects of reaching sustainability: It relies on fostering care, learning, and collaboration among different knowledge systems. It also depends on dismantling unsustainable patterns by strengthening environmental protection and stewardship, seeking alternative economic development pathways, redirecting finances, changing consumption patterns, and critically evaluating new technological developments.

The Centre’s research draws not only on scientific literature, fieldwork and data analysis, but also on the arts to explore the current challenges and envision future pathways. Art-based methods have inspired researchers to ask different questions in their studies, and have been used to facilitate dialogue with stakeholders and rights-holders.