Climate change’s ubiquitous presence looms over the world like a grey cloud, pushing millions into a constant state of fear.
The internet is saturated with bad news, not all of it accurate. But the reality is extreme weather events are getting worse, planetary boundaries have been breached, and fossil fuel emissions are at an all-time high – despite the stark consequences of baking our planet.
These headlines often drown out the good news, meaning landmark progress and conservation efforts are pushed aside. So, to end the year with a much-needed silver lining, here are five of the biggest climate wins you may have missed in 2025.
The ICJ’s historic climate ruling
In July, the UN’s highest courtdelivered a historic opinion on climate change, outlining states’ responsibilities under international law. It was the largest case ever seen by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), with more than 150 submissions from states, international organisations, and civil society groups.
In a 133-page advisory opinion, the ICJ affirmed that a “clean, healthy and sustainable environment” is a human right, just like access to water, food and housing. Although not legally-binding, it has helped lay down the legal foundations to hold big polluters to account and empower communities that have been hit the hardest by climate change.
It adds to the momentum built by the groundbreaking Urgenda case, which marked the first time a court anywhere in the world ordered a government to take stronger climate action. “We’ve never been in a better place to use the law to protect people and the planet from climate change,” says Dennis van Berkle, Legal Counsel at Urgenda.
2025 was a groundbreaking year for climate litigation, with several cases hitting the headlines. In November, the hearing between Belgian farmer Hugues Falys and TotalEnergies finally began, almost two years after the case was filed.
Falys is taking the fossil-fuel giant to the commercial court of Tournai to seek compensation for damage to his farm that he says is directly caused by climate change.
The High Seas Treaty
The European Union and six of its member states formally ratified the United Nations treaty to protect the high seas back in May – a move described as a “historic step” towards conserving the world’s oceans.
Ratification means that the states have formally agreed to the treaty becoming binding international law. This often involves aligning national legislation with what the treaty outlines.
The High Seas Treatypaves the way for protecting marine life in areas outside of national maritime boundaries, which covers nearly two-thirds of the world's oceans. These regions are under growing threats from pollution, overexploitation, climate change and biodiversity loss.
It allows for the creation of marine protected areas and supports the global goal of safeguarding at least 30 per cent of the world’s oceans by 2030.
“EU leadership is essential in confronting the biodiversity and climate crises,” says Nathalie Rey of the High Seas Alliance. “This bold move sends a clear message that ocean protection is not optional – it’s a global priority.
A boom in renewable energies
Despite petro-states blockingCOP30from establishing a fossil-fuel phaseout roadmap, worldwide solar and wind power generation has outpaced electricity demand this year – and for the first time on record, renewable energies generated more power than coal.
A report by think tank Ember found that global solar generation grew by a record 31 per cent in the first half of the year, while wind generation also increased by 7.7 per cent. Together, the renewable energy forms grew by more than 400 terawatt hours, which was more than the overall global demand increase in the same period.
Solar energy shone the brightest in 2025, and was crowned the “key driver” in the world’s transition to clean energy due to its ultra-low cost. A study from the University of Surrey named solar the cheapest source of power, costing as little as €0.023 to produce one unit of power.
Due to the price of lithium-ion batteries falling by 89 per cent since 2010, the study also found that making solar-plus-storage systems is now equally as cost-effective as gas power plants.
It could help progress in moving away from fossil fuels at Colombia’s Global Fossil Fuel Phaseout conference, which will be co-hosted with the Netherlands in April next year.
Economies are growing - without emissions
The link between GDP and rising emissions is finally starting to shatter, as an increasing number of countries are growing their economies without harming the planet.
A recent report from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) analysed 113 countries using the latest 2025 Global Carbon budget data. Researchers found that 92 per cent of global GDP and 89 per cent of global emissions are in economies that have either relatively or absolutely decoupled. This is where emissions rise but more slowly than GDP, or when emissions fall alongside positive economic growth.
A majority of European countries were ranked as consistent decouplers, including Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Estonia, Finland, France, the UK, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Sweden.
These results used consumption-based emissions to address concerns that advanced economies are “off-shoring” their emissions by outsourcing carbon-intensive production to developing nations.
“We’re sometimes told that the world can’t cut emissions without cutting growth,” says John Lang, one of the report authors and Net Zero Tracker Lead at ECIU.
“The opposite is happening. Decoupling is now the norm, not the exception, and the share of the global economy that is decoupling emissions in an absolute sense is steadily increasing.”
Endangered turtles make a rebound
2025 was a challenging year for wildlife, but decades of marine conservation are finally starting to pay off. In October, green sea turtles were officially reclassified from “endangered” to “least concern”.
Found in tropical and subtropical waters around the world, the global population of green sea turtles plummeted to concerning levels in the 1980s due to years of extensive hunting by humans. The species were slaughtered en masse to make soup and other culinary delicacies, while their eggs were commonly used for decoration in some cultures.
However, after spending more than 40 years on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) red list, the turtles have made a dramatic comeback. In fact, the global population of green sea turtles has increased by approximately 28 per cent since the 1970s.
The rebound has been attributed to efforts focused on protecting nesting females and their eggs on beaches, reducing unsustainable harvesting of turtles and their eggs for human consumption, and tackling accidental capture of turtles in fishing gear.
