August 1, 2025 | Global

Swissnex is launching the Planetary Embassy, a transdisciplinary platform sparking reflection on diplomacy in an era of planetary urgency. With editions at Climate Week NYC, COP30 in the Amazon, and additional activations across the global Swissnex network, the project convenes scientists, technologists, indigenous leaders, artists, and diplomats across geographies.

At its core, the Planetary Embassy explores the concept of planetary diplomacy, Swissnex’s invitation to challenge traditional boundaries of diplomacy by granting voice and agency to nonhuman forms of intelligence, other species, ecosystems, and Earth’s biogeophysical processes. “Science has exposed deep fractures in the relationship between humans and the living systems they depend on,” says Benjamin Bollmann, CEO of Swissnex in Brazil. “How could diplomacy consider more than just human interests to help restore balance with the planet?”

A Distributed Experiment

Part of the Swissnex for the Planet initiative, the Planetary Embassy is not a single venue but a distributed experiment, where each edition responds to its local context. Physical installations will showcase visions of planetary diplomacy developed by young innovators, researchers, students, and artists from Switzerland, Brazil, the US, and beyond. These works are being gathered through the global open call Imagining Planetary Diplomacy, organized by Swissnex in Boston and New York to mark Swissnex’s 25th anniversary.

At COP30 in Belém, Brazil, the Planetary Embassy will take root in the zoobotanical gardens of the Goeldi Museum, a setting where the Amazon’s biodiversity, scientific research, and ancestral wisdom converge. It will draw inspiration from indigenous knowledge systems that regard rivers, forests, and animals as kin and beings with agency. At Climate Week NYC 2025, the Planetary Embassy will turn its attention to the intersection of technology, climate justice, and governance in an age of planetary-scale computation. Future editions in Boston, Hong Kong, and beyond will explore other dimensions of our entanglement with the Earth system.

Why Now?

The Planetary Embassy responds to a world of accelerating planetary challenges – climate tipping points, mass extinction, technological disruptions – at a moment when geopolitical divisions are reaching new heights. It points to emerging ideas around planetary governance, enabled by the ability to read the Earth’s pulse through satellites and sensors, to recognize the legal rights of rivers and forests, or to explore interspecies communication with the help of AI, which itself has the potential to become a major planetary force.

“The Planetary Embassy does not seek to advance a specific vision,” Bollmann adds. “It aims to open a space for encounter and imagination. Diplomacy has always been about relationships. The question now is: Which relationships – between whom or what – should we be paying most attention to?”