Moving from Interconnected Crises to Systemic Solutions

Doris Knoblauch; Teresa Spantzel; Yannick Heni; Charlotte Felthöfer; Hannah Brunkhorst; Arne Riedel; LLM

Photo by Chirag Saini on Unsplash, Cover © German Environment Agency, 2025

Moving from Interconnected Crises to Systemic Solutions

Resource efficiency, nature-based solutions, and systemic transformation as responses to the complexity of the triple planetary crisis

Publication: Fact Sheet
Citation: Burgos Cuevas, N.; Heni, Y.; Spantzel, T.; Felthöfer, C.; Brunkhorst, H.; Knoblauch, D.; Riedel, A. (2025): Moving from interconnected crises to systemic solutions. Resource efficiency, nature-based solutions, and systemic transformation as responses to the complexity of the triple planetary crisis. Fact sheet. German Environment Agency: Dessau-Roßlau. https://doi.org/10.60810/openumwelt-8102.

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The Triple Planetary Crisis

The triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution constitutes an interconnected system of risks, driven by unsustainable resource extraction and processing, fossil fuel dependence, and entrenched social and economic inequalities. Its impacts are distributed unequally, with Indigenous Peoples, women, youth, and countries of the Global South among the Most Affected People and Areas (MAPA), bearing the heaviest burdens while having the least influence over decisions.

Three Pathways for Systemic Solutions

The triple planetary crisis demands responses that move beyond single-issue solutions. The analysis concludes that the triple crisis can only be effectively addressed through systemic, cross-sectoral, and justice-oriented approaches. Three interdependent pathways chart a way forward: Societal metabolism and resource use to reduce pressures at the source, nature-based solutions to restore ecosystems and strengthen resilience, and systemic transformation to address root causes and embed justice in governance and values. Together, they form a mutually reinforcing strategy that links reduced material pressures, healthy ecosystems, and transformative governance into a coherent response, showing how only justice-oriented, cross-sectoral action can meet the scale and urgency of the challenge.

The analysis concludes that the triple crisis can only be effectively addressed through systemic, cross-sectoral, and justice-oriented approaches.

Contact

Doris Knoblauch

Co-Coordinator Plastics

Coordinator Urban & Spatial Governance, Coordinator Resource Conservation & Circular Economy

Senior Fellow

The Triple Planetary Crisis at a Glance: Drivers, Interconnections and Solutions

Infographics

Year 2025

Publication:Fact Sheet

The fact sheet explains why climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental pollution must be understood as a systemically interconnected crisis driven by shared pressures such as resource use, land-use change and structural inequalities. It highlights how direct and indirect drivers interact across sectors and regions, creating reinforcing feedbacks and compounding risks for ecosystems and societies.

The Interconnected Challenges of Climate Change, Biodiversity Loss and Environmental Pollution

Fact sheet

Year 2025

Publication:Report

Humanity has already exceeded six of the nine planetary boundaries, with climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution pushing the Earth system beyond its safe operating space. Because these boundaries interact through complex feedback loops, surpassing one accelerates pressures on the others, creating cascading effects that amplify environmental degradation. This interconnected dynamic is driving a systemic triple planetary crisis, or polycrisis, that undermines ecological resilience and threatens long-term human well-being. Addressing it requires integrated, cross-sectoral approaches that tackle shared drivers and deliver co-benefits across environmental and socio-economic domains.

Integrated Approaches to Addressing the Triple Planetary Crisis: Country Best Practices

Lessons learned from Brazil, Colombia, Japan, New Zealand, Panama, Rwanda and Sweden

Year 2025

Publication:Report

The triple planetary crisis is a systemic challenge, not three separate issues: climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution reinforce one another through shared drivers and feedback, threatening planetary and human well-being. It is driven by fossil fuel dependence, unsustainable production and consumption, overexploitation of land and resources, and structural inequalities. The analysis concludes that the triple crisis can only be effectively addressed through systemic, cross-sectoral, and justice-oriented approaches. By linking resource governance, NbS, and transformative change, this report highlights how today’s triple crisis can be turned into an opportunity to regenerate ecosystems, reduce inequalities, and build resilient societies within planetary boundaries.

Moving from Interconnected Crises to Systemic Solutions

Resource efficiency, nature-based solutions, and systemic transformation as responses to the complexity of the triple planetary crisis

Year 2025

Publication:Report

This report, commissioned by the German Federal Agency (UBA), provides a systematic analysis of this triple planetary crisis. It demonstrates why climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental pollution cannot be understood and tackled in siloes, but instead share common drivers, feedback mechanisms, and cascading effects. The aim of the report is to close knowledge gaps and provide political and scientific actors with an integrated, holistic understanding.

The Interconnected Challenges of Climate Change, Biodiversity Loss and Environmental Pollution

Drivers, Interdependencies and Impacts of the Triple Planetary Crisis

Year 2025

Project

The research project analyses the need for integrated strategies in order to ensure sustainable development and preserve the basis of life. The project focuses on analysing the challenges and interactions between the three crisis areas and the question of how measures can be designed to create synergies between climate protection, biodiversity conservation and the reduction of environmental pollution. More crises are being added, e.g. land degradation and food security.

Challenges for International Climate Protection in the Face of the Global Triple Crisis

Climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental pollution

Jan 2025 - Mar 2027

Language: English
Authorship: Doris Knoblauch

Teresa Spantzel

Yannick Heni

Charlotte Felthöfer

Hannah Brunkhorst

Arne Riedel, LLM

Natalia Burgos Cuevas
Funding: German Environment Agency (UBA), Germany
Year: 2025
Project: Challenges for International Climate Protection in the Face of the Global Triple Crisis
Project ID: 50205
Keywords: Agriculture

Biodiversity

Cities

Climate

Economics

Energy

Food

Governance

Health

Land Use

Mobility

Nature-based Solutions and Green Infrastructure

Plastics

Resource Conservation + Circular Economy

Water

triple planetary crisis, systemic environmental solutions, climate change and biodiversity loss, resource efficiency, nature-based solutions, planetary boundaries, environmental justice, cross-sectoral transformation, sustainable resource use, integrated environmental policy

Global South, Small Island Developing States

systematic literature review, systems analysis of societal metabolism, cross-sectoral policy analysis, nature-based solutions assessment, justice- and MAPA-focused governance analysis

Attachments

moving-from-interconnected-crises-to-systemic-solutions-uba.pdf (1.23 MB)

Further Links

PublicationReportIntegrated Approaches to Addressing the Triple Planetary Crisis: Country Best Practices

Humanity has already exceeded six of the nine planetary boundaries, with climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution pushing the Earth system beyond its safe operating space. Because these boundaries interact through complex feedback loops, surpassing one... Read more

Iwaszuk, E.; Spantzel, T.; Kroos, F.; Knoblauch, D. (2025): Integrated Approaches to Addressing the Triple Planetary Crisis: Country Best Practices. Lessons learned from Brazil, Colombia, Japan, New Zealand, Panama, Rwanda and Sweden. Policy paper. Climate Change 81/2025, German Environment Agency: Dessau-Roßlau. https://doi.org/10.60810/openumwelt-8106

PublicationReportMoving from Interconnected Crises to Systemic Solutions

The triple planetary crisisThe triple planetary crisis is a systemic challenge, not three separate issues: climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution reinforce one another through shared drivers and feedback, threatening planetary and human well-being. It is... Read more

Burgos Cuevas, N.; Heni, Y.; Spantzel, T.; Felthöfer, C.; Brunkhorst, H.; Knoblauch, D.; Riedel, A. (2025): Moving from interconnected crises to systemic solutions. Resource efficiency, nature-based solutions, and systemic transformation as responses to the complexity of the triple planetary crisis. Interim report, Climate Change 83/2025. German Environment Agency: Dessau-Roßlau. https://doi.org/10.60810/openumwelt-8108.

PublicationInfographicThe Triple Planetary Crisis at a Glance: Drivers, Interconnections and Solutions

Infographic depicting selected nature-based solutions

Causes and Impacts of the Triple Planetary CrisisTwo infographics focus on understanding the crisis itself, drawing on the findings of the report "The Interconnected Challenges of Climate Change, Biodiversity Loss and Environmental Pollution: Drivers, Interdependencies... Read more

Ecologic Institute. (2025). Drivers and feedback loops of the triple planetary crisis [Infographic]. German Federal Agency.

Ecologic Institute. (2025). Impacts of the triple planetary crisis on human and ecosystem health [Infographic]. German Federal Agency.

Ecologic Institute. (2025). Current model of material use & key policy actions to address structural barriers [Infographic]. German Federal Agency.

Ecologic Institute. (2025). Examples of nature-based solutions as systemic solutions for the triple planetary crisis [Infographic]. German Federal Agency.

PublicationReportThe Interconnected Challenges of Climate Change, Biodiversity Loss and Environmental Pollution

For a long time, the multiple environmental crises, also called the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental pollution were viewed separately. However, research and policy increasingly recognize that they are deeply interconnected... Read more

Knoblauch, D., Felthöfer, C., Heni, Y., Burgos Cuevas, N., & Best, A. (2025). The Interconnected Challenges of Climate Change, Biodiversity Loss and Environmental Pollution: Drivers, Interdependencies and Impacts of the Triple Planetary Crisis. Interim report, Climate Change 82/2025. German Federal Agency. https://doi.org/10.60810/openumwelt-8107.

PublicationFact SheetThe Interconnected Challenges of Climate Change, Biodiversity Loss and Environmental Pollution

The fact sheet explains why climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental pollution must be understood as a systemically interconnected crisis driven by shared pressures such as resource use, land-use change and structural inequalities. It highlights how direct... Read more

Felthöfer, C., Knoblauch, D., & Best, A. (2025). The interconnected challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental pollution: Drivers, interdependencies and impacts of the triple planetary crisis (Fact sheet). German Federal Agency. https://doi.org/10.60810/openumwelt-8070

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