News

Emerging Technologies Move to the Center of the Climate Mitigation Debate

A technical report published in 2025, based on analyses by the World Economic Forum and the magazine Frontier, states that seven of the nine planetary boundaries have already been crossed. These boundaries represent biophysical limits designed to maintain stability in the Earth system.

The publication estimates that, if greenhouse gas emissions continue on their current path, global average warming may reach 3 °C by the end of the century. This is twice the limit set in international agreements such as the Paris Agreement.

Ten Technologies With Physical Mitigation Potential

The report analyzes ten emerging technologies that can change physical flows of carbon, nitrogen, and water in industrial and natural systems. The approach evaluates material impacts and the main economic and regulatory barriers to scaling them.

Food and Soil: Decoupling Protein From Land

One highlighted field is precision fermentation. This technique uses genetically modified microorganisms to produce specific proteins, such as casein and albumin, in industrial bioreactors. This replacement of conventional livestock can reduce land use by up to 99 percent, save up to 91 percent of water, and cut up to 97 percent of GHG emissions. High infrastructure costs and regulatory approval of new foods still limit its application.

Another innovation uses spectroscopic sensors, genomics, and artificial intelligence to monitor soil health. These systems quantify soil organic carbon and biological activity. This allows soil to enter carbon markets and payment schemes for environmental services. Lack of metric standardization and sensor costs remain major barriers.

Waste Management: Robots and Biogas in Value Recovery

Automation in food waste sorting is another field already in operation. In Seoul, South Korea, the combination of volume-based fees and automated separation systems reduced landfill food waste by 95 percent. The recovered organic material is turned into biogas or biofertilizers, which avoids methane emissions. Expansion depends on public policy and investments in urban infrastructure.

Heavy Industry: New Chemical Pathways

Green ammonia production aims to replace natural gas with hydrogen generated through electrolysis powered by renewable energy. The traditional process consumes about 2 percent of global energy and produces significant pollution. New alternatives still show low energy efficiency, around 41 percent, and high operating costs, which limit their competitiveness.

In the cement sector, low-carbon concrete follows two main routes: replacing clinker with industrial by-products, such as blast furnace slag and fly ash, and injecting captured CO₂ into fresh concrete to trigger mineralization and permanent storage. Adoption depends on updated building codes, which still rely on prescriptive compositions.

Methane capture is also gaining ground in agricultural, oil, and landfill facilities. Remote and on-site sensors identify leaks in real time. The gas can be converted into energy, methanol, or carbon black. The challenge is continuous monitoring and the infrastructure needed for decentralized reuse.

Energy and Water: Integrated Solutions

In the energy sector, modular geothermal systems are being tested with good results. Using closed-loop wells and heat-transfer fluids, they allow round-the-clock energy generation without relying on volcanic zones or hydraulic fracturing. A pilot in the United States already operates at 3.5 MW. Progress depends on the economic viability of deep drilling.

Another field is bidirectional charging for electric vehicles. These technologies allow batteries to send energy back to the grid (V2G) or to buildings (V2H). This turns the electric fleet into a distributed storage infrastructure. Technical standards and grid compatibility are the main requirements for adoption.

Regenerative desalination uses only renewable energy to produce drinking water and recover minerals such as lithium, rubidium, and magnesium from brine. This reduces the environmental impact of waste disposal and supports the battery supply chain. Energy cost and waste treatment remain technical challenges.

Environmental Monitoring: Real-Time Data and Regulatory Risk

The combined use of satellites, drones, and ground sensors, with machine learning algorithms, enables real-time environmental monitoring. Applications include tracking deforestation, verifying emissions, and detecting habitat change. Despite its potential, data governance, including sovereignty and privacy, needs clear definitions to ensure legal and operational security.

Viability Depends on Public Policy and Financing

The report highlights that, although many of these solutions are technically validated, most remain in the “valley of death” of development. This is the stage in which the product works but has no market scale or sufficient investment.

Mechanisms to overcome this barrier include blended finance, using public resources to reduce risk and attract private capital, and sustainable public procurement, especially in construction, sanitation, and energy.

Regulatory approval for new construction materials and synthetic foods is also a critical point. Without clear and efficient rules, market entry times remain incompatible with climate urgency.

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Video

Were Brazilian Homes Really Built to Last?

You may have noticed how many buildings in Brazil seem to age too fast. In a short time, they show leaks, cracks, mold, and other signs that turn the idea of “home” into a source of stress.

Is this a coincidence? A design flaw here, a construction issue there?

In practice, no. These signs stem from deeper, often invisible causes. They come from a building model based not on quality but on volume, speed, and the lowest possible cost.

At its core, this creates a culture of disposable construction, where most of the property value lies in the land rather than the building. Houses become products with an expiration date. They are made to be replaced or demolished, not adapted over time.

What if things were different? What if we designed for reversibility, adaptability, and durability? What if sustainability stood at the center instead of the margin?

Want to dive deeper into the topic?

If this topic interests you, or if you work in construction and want to understand why Brazil builds to discard, watch our full video on this subject and learn more about the impacts of low construction quality in Brazilian homes.

Disclaimer: The video is in Brazilian Portuguese, but simultaneous translation and subtitles are available in multiple languages.