Climate Highlights of the Year: 2025

Abstract

In 2025, important developments took place in international climate policy and law. International judicial bodies played a significant role: advisory opinions of the International Court of Justice and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights confirmed that States’ discretion in setting national climate targets is not unlimited and must be guided by objective criteria, including emission levels, economic capacity, and the global temperature goal. Climate litigation continues to be regarded as one of the key instruments shaping climate policy.

At the multilateral level, the central event was COP30 in Belém, which demonstrated a shift in the focus of the international climate agenda towards adaptation. Indicators for the Global Goal on Adaptation were adopted, new benchmarks for adaptation finance were established, and dialogues on trade and the mobilisation of climate finance were launched.

Within BRICS, climate finance and the regulation of artificial intelligence were among the key priorities in 2025. Climate finance has come to the forefront within the BRICS Leaders’ Framework Declaration adopted in 2025, which became the first document of the grouping entirely dedicated to climate finance issues. The regulation of artificial intelligence is one of the priority topics for the BRICS in 2025 and 2026.

At UNEA-7, significant attention was also given to discussions on AI, with the environmental impacts of artificial intelligence being proclaimed for the first time. Work on the management of chemicals and waste has intensified, and a new intergovernmental science-policy body has been established.

Issues of biodiversity and the decarbonisation of international transport also remained central, highlighting the integrated and complex nature of the contemporary climate agenda.