Frontiers and the Frontiers Research Foundation, in partnership with Swissnex, will host a high-impact event during San Francisco Climate Week titled “Achieving a Global Green Renaissance: Closing the Climate Implementation Gap with Breakthrough Research.” The event will bring together leading experts, innovators, and researchers to explore how open science and transformative research can accelerate solutions to the climate crisis.

Meet the National Champions for Frontiers Planet Prize’s 3rd Edition.

Xing Yuan from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Champion for China, shares pioneering insights from his research on flash droughts, rapid-onset drought events that intensify within weeks. His work provides the first global evidence that these droughts are increasing in frequency and speed due to human-driven climate change, with significant implications for water security, agriculture, and climate resilience planning.

Marina Romanello from University College London, National Champion for the United Kingdom, represents the landmark Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change—a global collaboration spotlighting the profound health consequences of climate change. While climate narratives often center on ecosystems and infrastructure, her research repositions human health as the defining metric of climate failure and progress. Through 47 global indicators, the 2023 report reveals the escalating risks and presents comprehensive projections of future health impacts under worsening climate scenarios.

Sebastian Steibl from the University of Auckland, National Champion for New Zealand, explores the existential vulnerability of atolls as powerful symbols of planetary boundary transgression. His research situates these island systems at the forefront of the climate crisis, using them as real-world case studies to illustrate the tangible consequences of breaching Earth's ecological limits—and the urgent need for global mitigation and adaptation strategies.

Nicoletta Makowska-Zawierucha from Adam Mickiewicz University, National Champion of Poland, brings forward crucial new findings on how mobile genetic elements—particularly plasmids—are driving the spread of antimicrobial resistance in the rapidly changing Arctic. Her work emphasizes the importance of including remote ecosystems in global AMR monitoring, showing how climate change, pollution, and glacial melt are accelerating the environmental dissemination of resistance genes with potential implications for public health, ecosystem resilience, and global policy.

Sjak Smulders of Tilburg University, National Champion for the Netherlands, is pioneering a transformative approach to valuing ecosystems in economic policy. His research advances the use of 'shadow prices', monetary estimates for non-market ecosystem services, capturing their true value in decision-making. By integrating how people’s willingness to pay evolves with income growth and ecosystem decline, his work reshapes how governments measure environmental worth.

Giovanni Forzieri from the University of Florence, National Champion of Italy, highlights the urgent need for sustainable adaptation strategies to address the increasing climate-driven risks to European forests. His research emphasizes the importance of enhancing forest diversity and heterogeneity to improve ecosystem resilience, especially in the face of disturbances like fires, bark beetle outbreaks, and droughts.

Zahra Kalantari from KTH Royal Institute of Technology, National Champion for Sweden, reveals how cities can leverage nature-based solutions (NBS) as a core strategy to cut greenhouse gas emissions and meet net-zero targets. Her team’s groundbreaking spatial prioritization model demonstrates that, when strategically deployed, urban NBS can reduce emissions by an average of 17.4%—and up to 57.3% when combined with other climate measures—by 2030.

Kok Sin Woon from Xiamen University Malaysia, National Champion of Malaysia, tackles a critical but often overlooked climate issue: methane emissions from global solid waste. His research reveals that under current trends, municipal solid waste emissions will breach 1.5°C climate targets by 2028. By modeling global mitigation strategies, like landfill gas capture, composting, and halving waste, his work charts a clear path to slash methane by up to 80% by 2050.

Fabiola Sosa-Rodriguez of Metropolitan Autonomous University, National Champion for Mexico, leads a groundbreaking Nature-based Solution to tackle Mexico’s growing water crisis. Her work on restoring La Piedad Lagoon, once devastated by wastewater contamination, combines wetland engineering, advanced filtration, and community-led innovation to reclaim a vital freshwater source. The project pioneers a replicable, transdisciplinary model for urban-rural climate adaptation.

Rafael Pedro Fernandez of Instituto Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Básicas (ICB-CONICET), National Champion for Argentina, shares groundbreaking findings on the overlooked role of naturally emitted Short-Lived Halogens (SLH) in regulating Earth’s radiative balance. His research reveals that SLH compounds, emitted by oceans, polar ice, and the biosphere, contribute significantly to atmospheric chemistry and exert a substantial natural cooling effect on the climate system—an effect that has intensified since pre-industrial times due to anthropogenic influences.

Uria Alcolombri from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, National Champion for Israel, shares his research on marine bacteria’s role in the biological carbon pump, which is crucial for Earth’s climate regulation. Alcolombri's team discovered that marine bacteria degrade lipids at varying rates, significantly impacting how much carbon is sequestered in the deep ocean. This finding challenges current models that assume uniform degradation and offers new insights into improving ocean carbon sequestration.

Günter Blöschl from the Vienna University of Technology, National Champion for Austria, delves into the complex relationship between climate change and flooding. As global temperatures rise, flood risks are increasing—but the drivers vary by region, weather pattern, and catchment size. Drawing from historical data and recent events across Europe, Blöschl’s research highlights how shifts in rainfall intensity, soil moisture, snowmelt, and atmospheric dynamics are reshaping flood trends.

Zia Mehrabi from the University of Colorado Boulder, National Champion for the USA, presents groundbreaking research from a global collaboration showing how increasing on-farm diversity improves both environmental and social outcomes. His work demonstrates that farm diversification enhances food security and biodiversity simultaneously, offering a practical and scalable pathway for transforming food systems toward environmental sustainability and social justice.

Robert Arlinghaus from the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, National Champion for Germany, discusses his research on ecosystem-based management in freshwater ecosystems. His work highlights the importance of habitat creation over traditional fish stocking practices, and stakeholder collaboration. Through large-scale experiments involving local fishing communities, Arlinghaus demonstrated that ecosystem-based approaches are more effective in promoting fish populations and biodiversity, providing a new direction for sustainable freshwater management.

Susann Rossbach from Red Sea Global, Lead Author for Saudi Arabia's winning paper, presents compelling evidence that marine conservation success is not only possible, it’s already happening. By analyzing 217 verified case studies, her research reveals the social, ecological, and institutional ingredients behind effective ocean stewardship. Rossbach highlights the power of local engagement, multi-stakeholder collaboration, and targeted action against high-impact pressures like overfishing and pollution, reframing marine conservation as a dynamic, hopeful frontier in achieving global sustainability and staying within planetary boundaries.

Paola Laurino from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, National Champion for Japan, reveals groundbreaking insights into SAR11 bacteria, the most abundant microbes on Earth. Her study uncovers how SAR11’s unique transport proteins contribute to their efficiency in carbon cycling and nutrient uptake. These findings have major implications for marine conservation, carbon sequestration, and industrial applications, offering strategies to enhance ecosystem health and mitigate climate change.

Arunima Malik from the University of Sydney, National Champion for Australia, shares critical insights into how international trade shapes progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Her research highlights the polarizing effects of global supply chains, showing that high-income countries often outsource environmentally and socially harmful production to low-income nations, deepening global inequalities.

Shabbir Gheewala from King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, National Champion for Thailand, presents a pioneering planetary boundary-based Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of rice production in Pakistan, an essential case study in aligning food security with ecological sustainability. As global rice demand rises and agricultural intensification threatens Earth’s systems, his research quantifies the sustainable limits of rice farming to ensure it operates within the planet’s ecological thresholds.