2025 is a pivotal year for climate action - marking ten years since the Paris Agreement and the midpoint of a decisive decade for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. It is also the deadline for countries to submit updated national climate plans or nationally determined contributions (NDCs 3.0), with targets for 2035. As of May 2025, only 22 countries had submitted updated plans.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme's Emissions Gap Report 2024, global greenhouse gas emissions hit a record high of 57.1 gigatons of CO₂ equivalent in 2023, up 1.3 per cent from 2022 and well above the 0.8 per cent annual average rise from 2010 to 2019. The power sector remains the largest source (26 per cent), followed by transport (15 per cent), and agriculture and industry (11 per cent each). To stay on track, emissions must fall by 7.5 per cent annually until 2035 to limit warming to 1.5°C or by 4 per cent per year for a 2°C warming limit. Based on current climate policies, global temperatures could rise to 3.1°C, with severe impacts on people, the planet and economies.

Global fossil fuel subsidies fell by 34.5 per cent in 2023 – from a record high of $1.68 trillion in 2022 to an estimated $1.10 trillion. This decline was driven by falling energy prices and the expiration of temporary COVID-19 support. All regions except Oceania, which saw a 29 per cent increase, reported decreases. Sub-Saharan Africa led with a 67 per cent decline, followed by Northern Africa and Western Asia (46 per cent), Latin America and the Caribbean (43 per cent), Central and Southern Asia (41 per cent) and Eastern and South-Eastern Asia (40 per cent). Europe and Northern America saw a smaller reduction of 17 per cent. Despite the drop, fossil fuel subsidies remain nearly three times 2020 levels and well above historical averages. Fossil fuel subsidies are widely recognized as inefficient, distorting prices and consumption while diverting public funds from sustainable development. They also undermine fiscal stability and climate goals, and their limited and inconsistent reporting obscures their true scale. Stronger efforts are needed to improve transparency and align fiscal policies with climate objectives

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed a global average of 1.55°C above pre-industrial levels. It was the hottest year in 175 years, capping a decade of record-breaking temperatures (2015-2024). The first half of 2024 alone brought natural hazards that caused devastation across every region. However, a single year above 1.5°C does not mean the Paris Agreement threshold has been breached. Climate change is measured over long-term trends, and current warming is estimated to be between 1.34°C and 1.41°C above pre-industrial levels.

However, the world is already facing irreversible climate impacts. Glaciers are melting at record rates, with many unlikely to survive this century, causing short-term hazards and threatening long-term water security. Ocean warming has reached record levels and will be locked in for centuries even with major emission cuts, driving a rise in sea level and worsening ocean acidification. The WMO estimates an 80 per cent chance that at least one of the next five years will surpass 2024 as the hottest on record. Every fraction of a degree of additional warming drives more frequent and more intense extreme weather.

Mainstreaming sustainable development and climate change into school curriculums is part of national commitments in the SDGs and Paris Agreement. A recent analysis of nearly 1,700 curriculum frameworks and science and social science syllabuses for grades 3, 6 and 9 across 110 countries assessed green content under three themes: environment/sustainability, climate change and biodiversity. Findings show these themes appear more often in syllabuses than in frameworks, more in science than social science and more in higher grades. For example, in social science subjects, 27 per cent of countries had no green content in grade 3 syllabuses, compared to 16 per cent in grade 9. In science syllabuses, the share of countries without green content dropped from 23 per cent in grade 3 to just 8 per cent in grade 9.

A 0–100 index was developed to help countries assess and improve efforts towards green education. The average score was 40, with higher scores for environment/sustainability (55) and lower for climate change (21). Only one quarter of countries met the suggested benchmark of 50. Notably, greener curriculums were not consistently found in wealthier or more climate-vulnerable countries, suggesting that meaningful integration of green content is possible across diverse national contexts.