Microbes and Climate: A Global Alliance for Action

Microorganisms drive the biogeochemical processes that regulate our planet’s climate, yet their role remains underrepresented in global models, strategies, and policy. A new open-access article, Microbes and Climate: A Global Alliance for Action, has been co-published across six leading journals—mBio, Sustainable Microbiology, The ISME Journal, FEMS Microbiology Ecology, Microbiology Australia, and Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Research—to highlight the essential role of microbial science in addressing the climate crisis.

Read the open-access article in Sustainable Microbiology

The paper reports on the inaugural Global Strategy Meeting on Microbes and Climate Change, held in Washington, DC, where microbiology societies from six continents convened to launch a coordinated international alliance for microbial climate solutions. The meeting brought together representatives from organisations including the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), Applied Microbiology International (AMI), FEMS, ISME, IUMS, SAIB, SAMIGE, and the Australian Society for Microbiology, along with partners such as One Earth and the Soil Stars initiative.

The alliance identified four shared priorities to guide collective action:

• Building a formal coalition to unify the voice of microbial science in climate discourse.
• Embedding microbial knowledge in global climate frameworks, policy, and investment.
• Transforming communication to make microbes visible and relevant to climate action.
• Advancing real-world demonstration projects that showcase the power of microbial solutions—from soil restoration to carbon capture.

The publication marks the beginning of a coordinated, global effort to position microbial science as a cornerstone of climate action—inviting societies, researchers, and policymakers to join a shared movement for planetary resilience.