6 good news for the environment and nature in 2025

The UK is also making progress in storing clean energy when the wind isn’t blowing (or the sun isn’t shining) by starting construction on the world’s largest liquid air battery storage facility in the north of the country.

Globally, the growth rate of renewable energy capacity is accelerating in more than 80% of countries.

According to the International Energy Agency, total renewable energy capacity is expected to double by 2030 compared to current levels.

Much of this growth can be attributed to China. Because of its push for clean energy, China saw its carbon emissions fall for the first time this year, with declines in the 12 months ending in May 2025, according to an analysis by Carbon Brief.

Although it’s still early, it suggests the country’s emissions may be peaking, and that trend appears set to continue through the end of the year, according to a second analysis by Carbon Brief.

China also updated its commitment to reduce emissions, although many other countries did not present their new commitments before the UN climate negotiations.

Overall, the global clean energy boom is setting the stage for a global peak and decline in energy-related fossil fuel consumption, says a report from global energy think tank Ember.

Although clean energy growth is rapid and accelerating, it is not fast enough to prevent dangerous levels of climate change.

Almost two thirds of the world’s oceans are waters outside national jurisdictions.

Currently only 1% of this vast area is protected, but that will soon change.

After decades of negotiations, a global agreement to protect the oceans was reached in 2023 and was finally ratified by enough countries in September 2025 for it to come into force.

This high seas treaty commits to allocating 30% of these waters to marine protected areas (MPAs): parts of the ocean dedicated to protecting healthy marine habitats, species and ecosystems.

The oceans in national waters also received additional protection.

This year, the largest MPA in the world was founded in Tainui Atea, French Polynesia: The MPA is intended to protect 1,100,000 km² of marine area.

This year, Brazil hosted COP30, the first global UN climate conference, which took place in the Amazon rainforest and made forests an important platform.

The November negotiations in Belém, Brazil, were dubbed the “COP of the forest.”

Although Brazil didn’t live up to its name, the country announced plans for a “roadmap” to implement an earlier commitment to end deforestation by 2030.

It has been supported by more than 90 countries, although it exists outside the formal summit text and its legal status remains uncertain.

Brazil has also established a financing platform to protect existing forest areas called the Permanent Tropical Forest Facility (TFFF).

The aim is to ensure that the conservation of tropical forests is valued more highly than their destruction, and that those who have taken successful and demonstrable steps to keep their forests functioning are financially rewarded.

It is a different approach to many other forestry funds, which reward emissions reductions rather than preserved forest areas. The target is $125 billion, although commitments to the fund have so far only reached $6.7 billion.

Official data from Brazil shows that deforestation in this part of the Amazon fell by 11% in the 12 months to July 2025, to its lowest level in 11 years.

Deforestation also decreased in its fragile Cerrado ecosystem, another biodiversity hotspot. Likewise, the independent NGO Imazon found that deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon was 43% lower in October 2025 than in October 2024.

A 2025 UN report found annual deforestation rates worldwide were 38% lower in 2015-25 than in 1990-2000, with more than half of forests now covered by long-term management plans.

Around 10.9 million hectares (26.9 million acres) are still being cleared worldwide every year, it said.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), considered the world’s highest court, made a landmark decision this year allowing countries to sue each other over climate change.

This measure could help countries severely affected by climate change take legal action against polluting countries.

The ruling is not binding on the court itself or on national courts, but experts say the ICJ’s findings carry significant weight and could significantly influence the way climate cases are handled elsewhere.

Several endangered species made a remarkable comeback this year.

Once hunted for their eggs and decorative shells, green sea turtles have been saved from extinction.

Their populations have recovered thanks to decades of conservation efforts, from releasing juveniles on beaches to reducing bycatch in fishing nets.

This year, the species was moved from the “endangered” category to the “least concern” category on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List.

Florida, on the other hand, experienced a record sea turtle nesting season with more than 2,000 leatherback nests.

India is now home to 75% of the world’s tigers, after the tiger population doubled to more than 3,600 in just over a decade.

This year, indigenous peoples were officially recognized at the UN level as leaders in protecting and managing the planet.

In the final part of the UN biodiversity summit COP16, held in February, indigenous peoples were given an official voice in global conservation decisions.

The agreement on a new standing committee enshrined this right and replaced the informal and symbolic status of indigenous peoples in the talks with a permanent and formal status.

The importance of ancestral knowledge was emphasized and brought to the COP30 climate conference in Brazil. Here, indigenous voices were represented by their largest delegation in the history of the COP.

The successes of the climate summit included the adoption of new funding commitments and the recognition of indigenous land rights. In Brazil alone, 10 new indigenous territories were created.

However, concerns remain that the promises will not deliver real change and that threats remain to many Indigenous communities.

During the conference, Survival International reported on the violent death of a Guaraní Kaiowá leader in southern Brazil.

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