🌍 Seven of Nine Planetary Boundaries Breached

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In this week’s edition:
1. Last week’s top climate news - Seven of Nine Planetary Boundaries Breached
2. TrimTab Nudge - Add nature risks (like ocean health and biodiversity) to your boardroom risk register
3. And other news, including - China sets its first-ever absolute emissions reduction goal; TNFD nature disclosures adopted by 620 organisations; and the UK's first rice crop ripe for picking after a hot summer.

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And now, here’s what you need to know for w/c 29th of September 2025 in 5 minutes.

TOP STORY
 🌍 Seven of Nine Planetary Boundaries Breached

🔎  What’s going on?
The 2025 Planetary Health Check (PHC) report from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research confirms that seven of the nine planetary boundaries have now been breached, with ocean acidification newly crossing the safety threshold this year.

🌊 What does this mean?
Just as a blood test gives a snapshot of human health, the PHC tracks 13 indicators across the nine Planetary Boundaries (PBs) — the Earth systems that keep our planet stable and habitable. Each boundary has a threshold: cross it, and the risk of destabilising the Earth’s life-support systems rises sharply.

The 2025 report shows that seven of these nine boundaries have now been breached:
- Climate change
- Land-system change
- Freshwater change
- Biosphere integrity (biodiversity)
- Biogeochemical flows (nitrogen & phosphorus)
- Novel entities (chemicals/pollution)
- Ocean acidification (new in 2025)

Ocean acidification happens when the ocean absorbs excess carbon dioxide, making the water more acidic. Since the Industrial Revolution, acidity has increased by 30–40%, making it harder for marine life like corals and shellfish to survive. This weakens global fisheries, coastal protection, and the ocean’s ability to absorb carbon.

❓ Why should I care?
Crossing so many of Earth’s boundaries means the foundations of our economies — food, water, stable weather, and healthy ecosystems — are becoming less reliable. For businesses, this translates into higher costs, supply chain disruptions, and increasing pressure from investors, customers, and regulators to act. Companies dependent on agriculture, seafood, shipping, or chemicals in particular face direct risks. For retailers, this shows up as unstable food and textile supplies, volatile pricing, and stronger consumer demand for sustainable products. In short, planetary boundaries are fast becoming business boundaries.

🚦 Where do we need to be?
To stay within Earth’s safe operating space, businesses and governments need to shift from managing climate in isolation to tackling all nine boundaries together. That means cutting emissions fast, restoring biodiversity, protecting freshwater, reducing fertiliser runoff, and phasing out harmful chemicals.

Companies need to move from “less harm or net zero” to net positive strategies that regenerate ecosystems and build resilience. Aligning with frameworks like the Science Based Targets Network (SBTN) for nature and the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) will be key. The goal isn’t just compliance — it’s ensuring long-term access to stable resources, reliable supply chains, and consumer trust in a world where natural systems set the limits.

👤 What can I do about it?
Businesses that act early will not only reduce risk but also capture opportunities in the fast-growing markets for sustainable products, finance, and innovation.
- Map your risks and dependencies: Go beyond carbon — assess how your business relies on water, land, biodiversity, and oceans.
- Adopt disclosure frameworks: Start aligning with TNFD and expanding ESG reporting to cover nature as well as climate.
- Build resilient supply chains: Prioritise suppliers using regenerative agriculture, sustainable fisheries, and circular materials.
- Innovate products and packaging: Cut chemical footprints, reduce plastics, and invest in low-impact materials.
- Engage finance teams and boards: Link executive incentives and capital allocation to climate-and-nature goals.

TRIMTAB NUDGE™
Small actions. Massive impact.
In systems thinking, a TrimTab is a small adjustment that redirects a much larger system, like the miniature rudder that turns a ship’s main rudder. Inspired by this idea, a TrimTab Nudge is a small, strategic action business leaders can take today to help shift complex systems — from climate to culture — in the right direction.
Each week, we’ll share one powerful, high-leverage nudge you can act on with minimal effort but maximum impact. These nudges can be an idea, an action, or an innovation that creates ripple effects across systems, influencing how businesses, policies, or investments shape our planet.

🌍TrimTab Nudge: Add nature risks (like ocean health and biodiversity) to your boardroom risk register

🧭 What it is:
Most companies track carbon emissions, but few assess how nature loss and ocean change could disrupt supply chains, product availability, and long-term growth. By incorporating nature-related risks into your existing enterprise risk management, you can elevate them to board-level attention with minimal effort.

💡 Why it matters:
The latest Planetary Health Check shows 7 of 9 planetary boundaries have breached — making nature-related risks as material as climate. Businesses that ignore them face rising costs, regulatory action, and reputational damage.

🌊 Systemic ripple effect:
When boards treat nature as a core risk, it triggers stronger investor focus, shifts capital allocation, and incentivises suppliers to improve practices — rippling through entire value chains.

📈 Example:
620 organisations have already signed onto the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), moving nature risks from the margins to the mainstream of business decision-making.

✅ Take action today:
→ Add nature-related risks as a standing item in your risk register and board agendas.
→ Begin mapping your supply chain’s dependencies on water, biodiversity, oceans, and land.
→ Disclose publicly to investors and customers that you are aligning with TNFD and building resilience beyond carbon.

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🎯 THINGS TO KNOW

New York Climate Week 2025 roundup
> 6 Takeaways From NY Climate Week’s Tale Of Two Cities
>Overheard at New York Climate Week 2025
>NYCW 2025: 34 Nations Launch Forest Finance Blueprint At New York Climate Week

Corporate Responsibility & Leadership
> Mars shifts European snack manufacturing to 100% renewable energy
> Amazon and Meta among big businesses committing to purchase sustainable concrete
> Microsoft Buys Green Steel for Data Centres

Biodiversity & Nature-Based Solutions
> Brazil's Amazon Rainforest Is New Frontier for Soybean Farmers
> Science-based targets for oceans: Waitrose among world’s first pilot businesses
> Tesco branches out: Broccoli from low-carbon concept farm hits shelves this week
> TNFD nature disclosures adopted by 620 organisations

Sustainability Innovations
> LanzaJet and KMG Advance Kazakhstan’s First Sustainable Aviation Fuel Project
> Amazon forges new partnership to tackle AI’s rising water demand
> Dismissed as a joke, UK's first rice crop ripe for picking after hot summer

Climate & Nature Finance
> Norway wealth fund to invest $1.5 billion in Brookfield energy transition fund
> Trump's energy pivot accelerates US solar and wind power mergers, asset sales
> EU announces $638m to support Africa’s clean energy transition

Policy & Regulation
> China Sets its First-Ever Absolute Emissions Reduction Goal
> EUDR: European Commission proposes additional delay over digital systems blunder
> California Releases List of More than 4,000 Companies Required to Begin Reporting Under New Climate Disclosure Laws