Invisible, Indispensable: Why COP31 Must Put Microbial Ecosystems on the Climate Agenda

Author: Dr Kanika Chowdhary, Associate Fellow, Social Transformation & CSR, TERI and Dr Mayurika Goel, Fellow, Sustainable Agriculture, TERI

30 September 2026, New Delhi: As COP31 shifts the global climate conversation from commitments to implementation, it is time to look beneath the surface literally. Forests, wetlands, oceans and wildlife rightly dominate discussions on nature and resilience. Yet beneath every forest floor, within every agricultural soil and inside every coral reef lies an even more fundamental layer of biodiversity: microbial life.

These invisible organisms regulate carbon and nutrient cycles, influence ecosystem resilience, sustain food production and support human health. Yet microbial ecosystems remain largely absent from mainstream climate and biodiversity governance. COP31 offers an opportunity to address this blind spot by recognising that climate action cannot be fully resilient if it protects ecosystems without adequately accounting for the microbial systems that make them function.

The science is increasingly clear. A single pinch of healthy soil can contain billions of microorganisms representing thousands of species. Microbial communities drive processes including carbon sequestration, nitrogen cycling, methane oxidation, nutrient availability and plant productivity. They influence whether ecosystems recover after disturbance or become increasingly vulnerable to climate change. Nature-based solutions, ecosystem restoration, climate-smart agriculture and blue-carbon ecosystems all depend, in different ways, on these largely unseen biological processes.

This gap is beginning to receive institutional attention. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) established the Species Survival Commission’s Microbial Conservation Specialist Group (MCSG) in 2025, bringing together microbiologists, ecologists, conservation practitioners, legal scholars, Indigenous knowledge holders and policy experts. Its emerging priorities include developing conservation assessment criteria for microbes, establishing microbial biobanking networks, identifying microbial conservation hotspots and developing indicators of microbial community integrity.

Microbial ecosystems are reservoirs of biochemical diversity that underpin the emerging bioeconomy. TERI’s research demonstrates this potential through the discovery of fungal pigments such as melanins, azaphilones, flavins and quinones, offering sustainable alternatives to synthetic colourants for food, textile, cosmetic and pharmaceutical applications. TERI researchers have also isolated bioactive metabolites from the lichen Parmelia reticulata, including usnic acid derivatives, atranorin, salazinic acid and protolichesterinic acid, with promising antifungal activity against agricultural pathogens.

Such discoveries illustrate why microbial habitats should be regarded not merely as biological repositories, but as reservoirs of future innovation. TERI’s dedicated microbial culture repository preserves fungal, bacterial, actinomycete and endophytic isolates collected from diverse ecosystems, keeping these biological resources available for future research, biotechnology and climate-resilient bio-based solutions. This is where COP31 can move the conversation from recognition to implementation.

First, microbial indicators should be considered within existing climate and biodiversity monitoring frameworks. Advances in environmental DNA, metagenomics and microbial ecology increasingly make it possible to detect changes in microbial communities and ecosystem function. Such information could complement conventional biodiversity indicators and provide earlier signals of ecological degradation.

Second, microbial conservation infrastructure needs greater support. Culture collections, biobanks, long-term ecological monitoring and open research networks can preserve biological resources while enabling innovation. Such infrastructure would also strengthen the evidence base for climate-resilient agriculture, restoration and nature-based solutions.

Third, microbial considerations should be integrated into restoration, adaptation and sustainable agriculture programmes rather than treated as a separate scientific silo. Protecting forests without maintaining healthy soil microbiomes, or restoring wetlands without understanding their microbial processes, risks addressing ecological symptoms without fully restoring ecosystem function.

For India, this agenda is particularly relevant. Its strengthened 2031–35 climate commitments include greater emphasis on carbon sinks and climate resilience. Achieving these objectives depends not only on protecting landscapes above ground but also on sustaining the biological processes operating below ground. Integrating microbial considerations into soil-health programmes, ecosystem restoration and climate-resilient agriculture could connect biodiversity conservation with practical climate implementation.

Microbial conservation can also connect advanced science with Indigenous and traditional knowledge. Farming, pastoral and forest-dependent communities have long maintained ecological processes through crop diversity, organic nutrient cycling, rotational practices and community stewardship. Recognising microbial biodiversity can therefore reinforce locally rooted approaches while opening new avenues for scientific research and bio-based innovation.

The climate crisis is often described through what we can see: degraded forests, bleaching reefs, declining biodiversity and stressed agricultural landscapes. But beneath these visible changes lies an invisible biological infrastructure that has sustained ecosystems for billions of years.

COP31 does not need another isolated agenda. It needs to recognise the microbial dimension of the agendas already on the table such as climate resilience, restoration, biodiversity, sustainable agriculture and the bioeconomy. The science is emerging. The institutions are taking shape. The policy opportunity is now. Microbes may be microscopic, but the resilience of our largest ecosystems and some of tomorrow’s most sustainable technologies may depend on them.

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