Table 1.

Examples of microbial strategies that can be developed and/or deployed at scale to tackle climate change^1–3,10

Strategy	Mechanism of action	Benefits	Application
Carbon sequestration	Microbial enhancement of carbon sequestration in soils and oceans	Reduces atmospheric CO2 and enhances soil productivity	Agricultural and forestry sustainability and marine biosequestration
Methane oxidation	Use of methanotrophic bacteria to oxidize methane into less harmful compounds	Lowers methane emissions and can promote atmospheric removal; mitigates a potent greenhouse gas	Landfills; livestock management; inland freshwater bodies; wetlands
Bioenergy production	Cultivation of algae and other microbes for biofuel production	Provides renewable energy; reduces reliance on fossil fuels	Biofuel production; industrial applications
Bioremediation	Microbial breakdown of pollutants and hazardous substances	Improves environmental health; reduces toxin exposure	Industrial waste management; contaminated land and sediment restoration
Microbial therapies	Targeted microbiome management using microbial therapies (for example, probiotics, postbiotics, prebiotics); can mitigate harmful microbiomes and consequent environmental degradation; restoring beneficial microbiomes across hosts and ecosystems	Improves organismal and environmental health and can be applied to sustainable practices, which, in turn, minimizes greenhouse gas emissions	Wildlife and ecosystem restoration and rehabilitation; sustainable agriculture; human health
Nitrogen management	Engineering crops with symbiotic bacteria to fix atmospheric nitrogen or crops that produce biological nitrification inhibitors	Enhances soil fertility; reduces fertilizer use; increases plant nitrogen use efficiency; decreases eutrophication and greenhouse gas emissions	Sustainable agriculture; crop production