The Planetary Science Pavilion in the COP30 Blue Zone will be co-chaired by Johan Rockström, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and Carlos Nobre, Planetary Guardian and Co-Chair of the Science Panel for the Amazon, and will host expert panels, roundtables, and policy brief launches.
For the first time in the history of the UN Climate Conferences, planetary science will stand at the very heart of the negotiations. The Planetary Science Pavilion, mandated by the COP30 Presidency and situated in the Blue Zone of COP30 in Belém, Pará, on the edge of the Amazon rainforest, will mark a historic milestone: the first-ever COP Presidency–mandated pavilion dedicated entirely to planetary science.
Planetary science is the science of our living Earth, an integrated understanding of the entire Earth system that connects climate, nature, and people. It recognises that planetary health and human health are one and the same and that we cannot have thriving societies on a destabilised planet. By integrating knowledge across all planetary boundaries, planetary science helps us measure, warn, and guide collective action to bring both people and planet back into a safe and just operating space for humanity.
The COP30 Presidency has mandated the Planetary Science Pavilion as a cornerstone of its vision to make this the “COP of truth.” Rooted in President Lula’s call at the UN Climate Summit for evidence and integrity to guide global action, the Pavilion embodies the Presidency’s belief that science must sit at the heart of every planetary decision. It will serve as a direct bridge between scientists and negotiators, ensuring that the latest planetary data and insights inform real policy outcomes, transforming COP30 from an event into a process of collective, science-driven transformation toward safeguarding the 1.5°C goal and planetary stability.
Planetary science is the science of our living Earth, an integrated understanding of the entire Earth system that connects climate, nature, and people. It recognises that planetary health and human health are one and the same and that we cannot have thriving societies on a destabilised planet. By integrating knowledge across all planetary boundaries, planetary science helps us measure, warn, and guide collective action to bring both people and planet back into a safe and just operating space for humanity.
As the COP Presidency and UN Secretary-General António Guterres have underlined, overshooting the 1.5°C threshold is now inevitable, but keeping it within reach before the end of the century remains the defining test of global integrity, ambition, and hope.
“Science must guide our path to a liveable planet. COP30 will be the COP of truth, where evidence, integrity, and cooperation shape every decision we make for humanity’s future.” Ana Toni, COP30 CEO.
Supported by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, the Science Panel for the Amazon, Arapyaú Institute, Bloomberg Philanthropies, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, FINEP Innovation and Research (Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation), Global Challenges Foundation, Mandalah, Planetary Guardians, The Robertson Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, Serrapilheira Institute, Vale Institute of Technology (ITV), Vivo and We Don’t Have Time and leading Brazilian and international science institutes and networks, the Planetary Science Pavilion will serve as a planetary science command centre. It will connect negotiators directly with scientists, policymakers, Indigenous leaders, and civil society, transforming the way science informs global decision-making.
A Planetary Science Command Centre at the Heart of COP30
Positioned close to the IPCC-WMO Pavilion in the Blue Zone, the Planetary Science Pavilion will act as a bridge between negotiation rooms and the Planet itself, symbolizing a new era where evidence-based policymaking drives climate ambition. Over the course of COP30, the Pavilion will host high-level dialogues, expert panels, daily press briefings, will discuss key new scientific findings and feature major report launches such as the Global Carbon Budget 2025 report, the 10 New Insights in Climate Change and the Science Panel for the Amazon report.
Johan Rockström, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Co-Chair of the Planetary Science Pavilion Steering Committee, said: “Science is clear: we are putting the stability of the entire planet at risk. The Planetary Guardians initiative and the Planetary Health Check seek to elevate that science: to measure, to warn, and to guide. This Pavilion is our collective effort to ensure that evidence, not ideology, shapes the future of humanity.”
Marina Hirota, who serves on both the Pavilion’s programming committee and COP30’s science council, explains,. “The pavilion brings together people and scientific knowledge from around the world, and there’s also a growing effort to integrate other knowledge systems, such as Indigenous and local knowledge. We’ll have one full day dedicated to the Amazon and another to biodiversity, underscoring how central these themes are at a climate COP.”
The discussion on the 1.5°C global temperature limit will be a key focus, says Hirota, a researcher at the Serrapilheira Institute and a leading expert on the impacts of climate change in the Amazon. “That threshold marks the point at which the climate starts to spiral into severe disorder — more intense heat and cold waves, extreme weather events, and entire ecosystems at risk. Climate crisis, energy transition, agriculture, food security, finance — all interconnected. We are failing to control the planet’s temperature, and the pavilion aims to discuss how we can reverse that trend and how science can have a stronger impact on public policy.”
The Planetary Health Check 2025: From Overshoot to Recovery
A cornerstone of the Pavilion’s opening programme will be the Planetary Health Check 2025, a comprehensive scientific assessment that diagnoses the state of the planet’s life-support systems and translates those findings into actionable policy insights. The report is produced by a global coalition of scientists and endorsed by the Planetary Guardians. It tracks Earth’s performance across the nine planetary boundaries, revealing that seven are already breached, and sets out pathways for recovery based on measurable interventions.
Over the two weeks of COP30, the Planetary Science Pavilion will present a multidisciplinary program bringing together leading researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to explore transformation pathways toward a safe and just future. The pavilion will feature in-depth discussions on limiting temperature overshoot, exploring climate finance instruments and advancing transformative mitigation and adaptation measures. A special highlight will be a dedicated day on the Amazon, underscoring its pivotal role in stabilizing the global climate. Throughout the programme, the pavilion will also address interconnected themes such as justice, human rights, health, sustainable agriculture, and food systems, concluding with an outlook and reflection on the science–policy interface.
Through this “health check,” the Pavilion will provide a clear, evidence-based dashboard for negotiators, enabling policy decisions grounded in the reality of Earth system science.
Carlos Nobre, Planetary Guardian, Co-Chair of the Planetary Science Pavilion and Co-Chair of the Science Panel for the Amazon, emphasized: “The Amazon is the heart of the planet’s climate system. What happens here will determine whether humanity can restore balance or trigger irreversible change. The Planetary Science Pavilion embodies a new model where scientists, Indigenous leaders and policymakers co-design solutions for a liveable future.”
Johan Rockström added: “The Pavilion represents a shift from despair to action, and from overshoot to recovery. It’s the science-policy interface the world has been waiting for, built on trust, integrity, and collaboration.”
A Pavilion for Planetary Cooperation
The Pavilion’s daily sessions will largely align with COP30’s official thematic days, from transformation pathways to biodiversity, finance, and justice. Each session will highlight actionable science, guided by a program committee that includes Johan Rockström, Carlos Nobre, Marina Hirota, Tim Lenton, Ricarda Winkelmann, Chris Fields, and leaders from Future Earth, The Earth League, the International Science Council and Planetary Guardians.
“At Instituto Arapyaú, we believe that science must guide the next phase of climate action. At the Blue Zone, within the COP30 program, we have an opportunity to bring together scientific research and data with political and economic agendas, ensuring that the key players for a sustainable future can collaborate to turn diagnoses into tangible strategies. This collective effort is what will turn a sustainable future into reality,” says Renata Piazzon, CEO of the Arapyaú Institute.
The Pavilion will also act as a press and knowledge hub, hosting daily briefings with global and Brazilian media and offering a “Science Hotline” for negotiators seeking rapid, evidence-based clarification on scientific issues emerging in real time.
Design and Identity
Covering approx 150 square metres, the Pavilion will be a ‘scientific playground’ immersive, data-rich, and visually anchored in the Planetary Boundaries framework. Its design will feature live data visualizations, interactive science displays, and storytelling from Indigenous communities, uniting modern science with ancestral wisdom.