As 2024 turns to 2025, we asked subscribers to our newsletter what the top climate issues of the upcoming year will be. With climate destruction growing, their responses clearly indicate they want to see more ambition in tackling climate change and more honesty on how climate action is going.
Here’s our summary of responses from our always passionate, well-informed readers and our analysis of when, where and how we can judge whether the powers-that-be are stepping up to the challenge or falling short.
1. Governments must make bigger commitments to cut emissions – and stick to them
Under the 2015 Paris climate agreement, all governments have to submit a climate plan – known as a nationally determined contribution (NDC) to the United Nations every five years.
The third round of these plans is due next year, ten years on from Paris. Most will add a 2035 emissions reduction aim on to their existing 2030 target and their more long-term goals to reach net zero in 2050, 2060 or 2070.
Several Climate Home readers said NDCs would be a top climate issue for 2025. One said they should be “challenging but realistic” and another said they “must align with actionable policies”.
They will certainly have to be more ambitious than the last round five years ago if the world stands a chance of limiting global warming to 1.5C or even 2C above pre-industrial levels.
The United Nations said in October that, even if implemented in full, existing NDCs put the world on course for a catastrophic 2.6C of global warming.
2. Governments must prepare for worsening climate change impacts
While the final figures are not out yet, the World Meteorological Organisation has said that 2024 looks set to be the hottest year on record. But it may also be the coolest year we see for a while. Even if emissions peak, the world will keep getting hotter until we reach net zero globally.
Climate change worsened dozens of disasters in 2024 from extreme rain in Spain to a heatwave in West Africa and typhoons in the Phillipines. The World Weather Attribution group found that 26 disasters linked to climate change this year killed over 3,700 people and displaced millions.
We’re likely to see more disasters in 2025. One South American reader reported worries about drought, Amazon rainforest fires and rising temperatures while another said “extreme weather patterns demand immediate attention”.
In this context, adaptating to climate change is key. At COP30 in Belém in November, governments are due to agree on a list of indicators on how to measure whether they are adapting to climate change in areas like water, food and health. The big debate will be whether the provision of finance to developing countries will be one of those indicators.
For the destruction that can’t be adapted to, the new UN loss and damage fund is supposed to help. Its new executive director – Ibrahima Cheikh Diong – hopes to start handing out money to climate victims by the end of 2025 and hire most of its staff in 2026.
A dried out river in Tefé in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest in September 2024 (Photo: Christian Braga/Greenpeace)
3. Nature conservation should pick up pace
Due partly to climate change, species are dying off at a sickening rate. Last year’s biodiversity conference, COP16 in the Colombian city of Cali, hoped to address that. While it had some successes – particularly in handing power to indigenous people – it ran out of time to agree on how to pay for nature protection.
With two years until COP17, governments have agreed to continue COP16 on February 25-27 in Rome. “Securing adequate and predictable financing will be central to our efforts,” said COP16 president Susana Muhamad.
Responses to the survey indicate our readers are concerned about nature, both on land and in the oceans where plastic pollution is a particular threat to nature. Talks to set up a UN treaty to tackle plastic failed in Busan in December 2024 but will continue at some point in 2025.
4. We need less misinformation, accounting tricks and jargon
With Donald Trump coming into power, our readers are worried about misinformation on climate change. Trump has promised to pull out of the Paris Agreement and his often inaccurate criticisms of climate action are likely to influence the public conversation in the US and abroad in 2025.
The United Nations is trying to counter misinformation on climate change with a $10-15 million fund for non-governmental organisations researching the issue and developing communication strategies and public awareness campaigns.
US President-elect Donald Trump (left) is likely to spread climate disinformatoin while UN Secretary-General António Guterres (right) has pledged to combat it
But its not just Trump’s claims that concern readers, they are also concerned that governments that do recognise climate change are overselling their climate action using accounting tricks.
A Canadian reader pointed out that the emissions from international aviation are not included in nations’ greenhouse gas inventories and neither are those from forest fires, as these are considered natural and therefore not the government’s responsibility. Climate Home has highlighted how countries like Guyana use forest carbon accounting techniques to claim to be carbon negative despite booming oil production.
Another reader criticised the “language barrier” caused by the jargon and technical acronyms that are common in climate policy. “Bridging the gap between technical acronyms and the lived experiences of skeptics or reluctant individuals is vital”, they said. Another said climate communicators should “avoid masking global warming’s mechanics with unclear terms” and “focus on transparency”.
Will the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s scientists heed this as they start writing up a special report on climate change and cities this year?
5. The roll-out of green technology must quicken
Decarbonising the world is going to require a huge variety of technology and the good news is that the roll-out of green solutions like solar panels and electric vehicles continues to pick up pace every year.
Our readers highlighted technology like heat-pumps, micro-grids and the recycling of aluminium. Other solutions proposed by our readers include city design which encourages walking and public transport, like Utrecht in the Netherlands, and tackling private plane use as “unnecessary luxury emissions”.
All these solutions have restrained the growth in emissions but have yet to stop them growing completely. Will 2025 be the year that changes and we reach peak emissions? It’s possible but by no means certain.
(Reporting by Joe Lo)
The post Ambition and honesty – What Climate Home readers want in 2025 appeared first on Climate Home News.
Ambition and honesty – What Climate Home readers want in 2025
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Climate Change
DeBriefed 19 June 2026: Bonn talks end in ‘gridlock’ | Energy’s ‘new era’ | Oceans in climate negotiations
Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed.
An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change.
This week
Bonn talks close
‘SIDE-STEPPING AND STALLING’: UN climate talks in Bonn have ended in “gridlock”, according to Climate Home News. The outlet reported on the failure to balance developing countries’ need for climate-adaptation finance with “richer nations’ desire to move forward” on emissions cuts. It added that both topics were subject to “rule 16”, meaning no agreement could be reached and work will be pushed to the COP31 summit in Turkey. Inside Climate News quoted UN climate executive secretary Simon Stiell, who said the talks had seen “side-stepping and stalling”.
JUST TRANSITION: One “glimmer of hope” came from negotiations on achieving a “just transition”, reported Euronews. The news outlet said negotiators “made headway on operationalising the Belém-Antalya mechanism”, intended to support people in the shift to a low-carbon economy. However, Politico concluded that much of the focus in Bonn had “shift[ed] to efforts outside diplomatic talks – raising questions about the future of global climate negotiations”.
‘ATTACKING SCIENCE’: Agence France-Presse reported on the EU, Switzerland and “dozens of developing nations” warning of “attacks on science” by a “small group of fossil-fuels interests” in Bonn. Table Briefings explained that “the 1.5C target is increasingly being challenged” and the role of the UN climate-science panel – the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – in an upcoming assessment of global climate progress “remains controversial”. See Carbon Brief’s full write-up of the talks for more detail.
US-Iran deal
PRICE DROP: The US and Iran announced that they have reached an interim agreement to halt the war and reopen the strait of Hormuz, reported Bloomberg. Oil prices have fallen, as the “long-awaited deal” began the process of “eas[ing]” the global energy crisis triggered by the conflict, according to the New York Times. The Associated Press noted that high fuel prices will “likely outlast the Iran war”.
‘OIL GLUT’: The Financial Times reported that the International Energy Agency (IEA) has forecast a “glut of oil” emerging next year, if the peace deal holds. The IEA said this would allow countries to build new strategic reserves, as they “review their energy strategies and policies in response to the crisis”, according to Reuters.
‘NEW ERA’: Agence France-Presse reported that oil and gas companies have “few illusions about a return to normal for the Gulf energy industry after more than three months of blockage”. One analyst told the newswire that the war “showed the oil and gas industry that Hormuz risk is no longer just a geopolitical headline”.
Around the world
- OCEAN MONITOR: The Trump administration is “abandoning its plan” to dismantle a $368m ocean monitoring system key for tracking climate change after a “bipartisan backlash on Capitol Hill”, reported the New York Times.
- CORAL HAVEN: The New York Times covered preliminary research, presented at the Our Ocean Conference in Kenya, suggesting there could be three times as many “coral refugia” – where corals are relatively safe from climate change – than previously thought.
- BAD CREDIT: Down to Earth reported that the first carbon credits issued under the Paris Agreement’s new Article 6.4 mechanism are “facing scrutiny over alleged links to institutions controlled by Myanmar’s military junta”.
- OIL BACKTRACK: Reuters reported that oil-and-gas company Equinor has dropped a renewable-energy target and scaled back clean investments, while another Reuters story noted that Shell is selling off its offshore wind assets.
1.1 billion
The number of children facing “at least three overlapping climate hazards”, according to a new Unicef report covered by Agence France-Presse.
Latest climate research
- Including the “permafrost carbon-climate feedback” in climate models increases the chance of exceeding “tipping elements” – such as the Greenland ice sheets, Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation or Amazon rainforest – by up to 50% | Environmental Research Letters
- The intensity of influenza outbreaks could decline in temperate regions, but increase in tropical areas over the next century, as the climate warms | PNAS Nexus
- European snow cover has declined by 20% for December and January since the start of the industrial era, revealing an “unprecedented ongoing shrinkage of European winters” | Communications Earth & Environment
(For more, see Carbon Brief’s in-depth daily summaries of the top climate news stories on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.)
Captured
The more than 2m battery electric vehicles (BEVs), 1m “plug-in” hybrids (PHEVs) and 100,000 electric vans on UK roads are already saving drivers a total of around £3bn a year, according to new Carbon Brief analysis. This amounts to savings of more than £1,100 a year in fuel costs for each BEV driver in the UK. The analysis comes amid reports in UK media this week that the government is considering “watering down” its EV sales targets.
Spotlight
Oceans rising at UN climate talks
The state of the world’s oceans is inextricably linked to the changing climate – and many delegates at UN climate talks want to see more focus on this issue, reports Carbon Brief.
Oceans are often described as the world’s “greatest ally” against climate change – absorbing 30% of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and most of the heat generated by those emissions.
They are also the site of important climate solutions, such as huge offshore windfarms and the shipping industry’s transition to cleaner fuels.
At the same time, the oceans themselves present a growing danger to coastal communities and sea life due to sea level rise, marine heatwaves and ocean acidification.
These diverse issues have led to growing calls within the UN climate process for more focus on oceans. During climate negotiations this week in Bonn – known as SB64 – nations and civil society had a chance to air these views during an “ocean and climate change dialogue”.
‘Elevate action’
Oceans first entered UN climate outcomes in 2019, when the final COP25 negotiated text requested a new “dialogue” on “the ocean and climate change to consider how to strengthen mitigation and adaptation action”.
The following years saw this dialogue established as an annual event. However, the political weight of these discussions has been limited.
COP31 is being co-led by Turkey and Australia, but with Pacific islands playing a supporting role. These small islands sometimes self-identify as “large ocean states”, stressing the ocean’s centrality in their societies.
In Bonn, figures from across the presidency threw their weight behind this issue. Chris Bowen, an Australian minister and incoming COP31 “president of negotiations”, told attendees:
“Australia, Turkey and the Pacific see an important opportunity to elevate ocean-based climate action.”
Strategies and finance
The two-day dialogue in Bonn involved a series of panels, statements and breakout groups.
One of the main topics was how oceans are integrated into national climate plans under the Paris Agreement, known as “nationally determined contributions” (NDCs).
Three-quarters of the latest round of NDCs mention oceans, with conservation of “blue carbon” ecosystems the most frequently described action. (Landscapes such as mangroves can both absorb CO2 and protect coastal areas.)
Delegates also discussed alignment with the UN biodiversity process, as well as ocean finance, which currently makes up less than 1% of all climate finance.
(As discussions were taking place in Bonn, country officials also gathered in Mombasa, Kenya for the 11th Our Ocean Conference. Carbon Brief’s associate editor Giuliana Viglione attended the conference and will publish a full summary shortly.)
Developing countries were clear that many of the ocean-related actions in their NDCs would depend on receiving more financial support.
‘Political momentum’
With the backing of the COP31 presidency, delegates were hopeful about where this year’s dialogue could lead.
Charles Hamilton, an advisor for the Bahamas who spoke for the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) in the dialogue, told Carbon Brief that island representatives “are not traveling thousands of miles to just talk and pat ourselves on the back”. He added:
“A dialogue that just remains a dialogue is just more talk – no action.”
Given that, he said “discussions in the dialogue must move into COP decisions and the decisions must be actioned”, noting the importance of finance.
Marina Corrêa, oceans lead at WWF-Brazil, pointed to an upcoming UN climate change Standing Committee on Finance forum as a space to ramp up pressure on ocean finance.
More broadly, she wanted to see the presidencies translate their support into a “leader-level ocean initiative” that could “mainstream” oceans across negotiations.
“We have a really interesting opportunity, in terms of political momentum,” Corrêa told Carbon Brief.
Watch, read, listen
‘HOTTER THAN HELL’: An episode of the BBC’s Rare Earth podcast titled “hotter than hell” considered the issue of extreme heat, with input from experts and “people facing up to the hottest temperatures on the planet”.
NOT BROKEN?: John Drake, a professor of ecology at the University of Georgia, wrote an essay for Aeon – also re-published as a Guardian “long read” – questioning the framing of ecosystems and climate systems “breaking down”.
ON COURSE: On his Volts podcast, US climate journalist David Roberts interviewed UK climate minister Katie White, quizzing her about whether the UK will “stay the course with its climate plans”.
Coming up
- 20-28 June: London climate action week
- 21 June: Colombia presidential runoff
- 24 June: UK Climate Change Committee progress in reducing emissions 2026 report to parliament
Pick of the jobs
- Mongabay, managing editor – Africa | Salary: Unknown. Location: Global
- Contexte, environment reporter – Brussels | Salary: €45,000-€60,000. Location: Brussels
- Climate 200, communications director | Salary: Unknown. Location: Australia
- Energy Tracker Asia, energy transition correspondent | Salary: $3,000-$4,000 per month. Location: South-east Asia (remote)
DeBriefed is edited by Daisy Dunne. Please send any tips or feedback to debriefed@carbonbrief.org.
This is an online version of Carbon Brief’s weekly DeBriefed email newsletter. Subscribe for free here.
The post DeBriefed 19 June 2026: Bonn talks end in ‘gridlock’ | Energy’s ‘new era’ | Oceans in climate negotiations appeared first on Carbon Brief.
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