6 good news for the environment and nature in 2025

Targeted action on clean energy, conservation and indigenous rights has led to tangible positive results for the climate and nature.

These silent advances sometimes go unnoticed, so here is a review of 6 milestones achieved this year.

1. Increase in renewable energies

Wind, solar and other renewable sources overtook coal as the world’s leading source of electricity this year.

Global growth in renewables is driven by China, which is massively expanding its clean energy production and dominating exports of clean energy technologies.

In addition to the huge growth in solar energy, China is even harnessing the energy of extreme storms with typhoon-resistant wind farms.

Other countries have also experienced notable advances thanks to wind.

In the UK, a 2025 review found that wind had become the largest single energy source in the previous year, covering around a third of demand, while coal has virtually disappeared as an energy source.

The UK is also making progress on how to store clean energy when the wind isn’t blowing (or when the sun isn’t shining) by starting to build 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.

By 2030, total renewable energy capacity is on track to double compared to current levels, according to the International Energy Agency.

Much of that growth is due to China. As a result of its push for clean energy, China saw its CO₂ emissions fall this year for the first time, according to analysis for Carbon Brief, with a decline in the 12 months to May 2025.

Although it is still early, it indicates that the country’s emissions could be peaking, and the trend appears to continue until the latter part 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 creating the conditions for a global peak and decline in energy-related fossil fuel use, according to a report from global energy think tank Ember.

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

2. Ocean protections

Almost 2/3 of the world’s oceans are waters outside national jurisdictions.

Currently, only 1% of this vast area is protected, but that is about to change.

After decades of negotiations, a global agreement to protect the seas 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 the protection of healthy marine habitats, species and ecosystems.

Oceans in national waters have also received additional protections.

This year the world’s largest MPA was established in Tainui Atea, French Polynesia: the MPA will aim to protect 1,100,000 km² of ocean.

3. Forest recovery

This year, Brazil hosted COP30, the first UN global climate conference to take place in the Amazon rainforest, making forests a key platform.

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

Although Brazil did not live up to the name, the country did announce plans for a “roadmap” to implement a previous commitment to end deforestation by 2030.

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

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

It aims to ensure that the maintenance of tropical forests is valued more than their destruction, with financial rewards for those who have taken successful and verified steps to keep their forests functioning.

It’s a different approach to many other forestry funds, which tend to reward emissions reductions rather than maintained forest areas. Its goal is $125 billion, although pledges to the fund have so far reached only $6.7 billion.

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

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

Globally, annual deforestation rates were 38% lower in 2015-25 compared to 1990-2000, according to a 2025 UN report, with more than half of forests now covered by long-term management plans.

Some 10.9 million hectares (26.9 million acres) continue to be cleared globally each year, it said.

4. A historic legal case

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), considered the highest court in the world, issued a landmark decision this year, paving the way for countries to sue each other over climate change.

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

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

5. Triumphs for wildlife

Several endangered species experienced a notable comeback this year.

Once hunted for their eggs and decorative shells, green turtles have been rescued from the brink of extinction.

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

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

Florida, for its part, saw a record sea turtle nesting season, with more than 2,000 leatherback nests.

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

6. Indigenous developments

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

The final part of the UN COP16 biodiversity summit, held in February, saw indigenous peoples given an official voice in global conservation decision-making.

The agreement of a new standing committee enshrined this right, replacing the informal and symbolic status of indigenous peoples in the talks with something lasting and formal.

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 COP history.

Victories during the climate summit included the adoption of new funding commitments and to recognize indigenous land rights. In Brazil alone, 10 new indigenous territories were created.

But concerns remain that the promises will not translate into real change and that threats to many indigenous communities remain.

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