The Frontiers Planet Prize celebrates breakthroughs in Earth system and planetary science that address the environmental challenges that humanity is facing and enable society to stay within our planet's safe ecological boundaries. The second edition of the Prize, announced on Earth Day 2024, honors 23 pioneering scientists as National Champions whose research has significant potential in fostering pathways to solutions, through driving systemic change toward a more sustainable future.

Yang Ou from Peking University, National Champion of China, shares a multifaceted strategy involving the transition to clean energy, enhancement of energy efficiency, and the adoption of carbon sequestration methods as means to maintaining the Earth’s climate within a safe operating space.

Rebecca Gladstone-Gallagher from the University of Auckland, National Champion of New Zealand, shares her research insights on how we can use current ecological knowledge more effectively and find new solutions to environmental and societal problems by addressing the connections between science, governance, and management responses.

Umberto Berardi from Toronto Metropolitan University, National Champion of Canada, presents his research assessing a new class of cooling materials that can combat urban overheating and describes how his research supports the decision-making process associated with urban development and heat mitigation strategies.

Raquel Peixoto from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, National Champion of Saudi Arabia, shares why using microbial therapies for microbiome restoration and rehabilitation could be an easy and fast way to restore damaged wildlife and their ecosystems, and how this was successfully demonstrated on coral reefs.

Evan Economo from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, National Champion of Japan, shares his vision for creating a comprehensive “map of life” that will encompass all animal groups on Earth, and discusses how his research on ants could serve as an important stepping stone towards this vision.

Michał Bogdziewicz from Adam Mickiewicz University, National Champion of Poland, shares the pioneering insights from his research regarding the crucial role of tree fecundity in forest regeneration, and how these insights should be implemented in forest management to ensure forests continue to provide essential services to ecosystems and to human society.

Peter Haase from the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research and University of Duisburg-Essen, National Champion of Germany, presents the results of his research on European freshwater biodiversity, demonstrating that legislative measures can promote recovery in freshwater ecosystems, and should be pursued more stringently in the future.

Francesco Sabatini from the University of Bologna, National Champion of Italy, presents his novel approach to studying global plant community distribution and outlines how this approach can help formulate better predictions of future vegetation worldwide.

Olga Tammeorg from the University of Helsinki, National Champion of Finland, shares her thoughts on how controlling nutrient pollution in lakes can bring us back to the safe operating space of our planet.

Alexandra Velty from Universitat Politècnica de València, National Champion of Spain, explores the potential that solid chemical catalysts hold for the development of efficient and green catalytic processes, as an important part of global decarbonization efforts and healthier planetary development.

Daniel Muth from HUN-REN centre for economic and regional studies, National Champion of Hungary, shares his insights on how we can modify existing carbon pricing policies to make them more environmentally effective and politically appealing.

Marta Kozicka from the International institute for Applied Systems Analysis, National Champion of Austria, shares her thoughts on how a dietary shift towards plant-based meat and dairy alternatives, in combination with land-use policy measures, can significantly contribute to returning to a safe operating space.

Gerard Rocher-Ros from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Umeå University, National Champion of Sweden, explains how river restoration can contribute to the reduction of methane emissions and effectively contribute to the sustainability of our society within the planetary boundaries.

Mia Strand from Nelson Mandela University, National Champion of South Africa, explains why we should include socio-cultural dimensions in ocean governance processes, and presents how arts-based participatory research led by indigenous and local communities can be used to enhance environmental stewardship for a more sustainable future.

Seung-Ki Min from Pohang University of Science and Technology, National Champion of South Korea, explores how Arctic Sea ice is impacted under different emissions scenarios, and shares why emissions reduction policies are required to mitigate the potential collapse of multiple planetary boundaries and prevent adverse effects on ecosystems and human societies worldwide.

Gabriela Schaepman-Strub from the University of Zurich, National Champion of Switzerland, together with first author of the winning article, Jacqueline Oehri from McGill University, share their research results highlighting the important functions that the Arctic tundra ecosystem plays within climate change, biosphere integrity, and land-system change. They also call for careful management and protection of functionally critical areas in the Arctic as important actions for the health of our planet.

Jason Rohr from the University of Notre Dame, National Champion of the United States of America, describes his study where aquatic vegetation from water points in West Africa was removed and converted to compost, providing economic incentives and co-benefits for public health and agriculture and demonstrating that planetary health innovation can simultaneously addresses numerous SDGs.

Alexander Turra from the University of São Paulo, National Champion of Brazil, shares his novel perspective on the relationship between ocean health and society, and suggests new routes to identify and face the sources of marine litter and environmental contamination at large.

Mustafa Şahmaram from Hacettepe University, National Champion for Turkey, shares his innovative research on how enabling the reuse of construction and demolition wastes materials by subjecting them to an accelerated CO2 treatment can reduce the high environmental burdens of the construction sector, specifically regarding climate change.