7 quiet wins for climate and nature in 2025

Amid record-breaking heat and stubborn emissions, 2025 also delivered a set of understated but meaningful gains for the planet. From the grid to the high seas, from courtrooms to riverbeds, tangible progress emerged—often outside the glare of headlines. Here are seven developments that nudged climate action and nature recovery forward this year.

1) Clean power quietly takes the lead

This year, renewables became the world’s biggest source of electricity, edging past coal for the first time. Rapid buildout in Asia—especially the vast solar and wind rollout in China—powered the shift, with typhoon-resilient turbines and sprawling photovoltaic fields redefining what’s possible at scale. The UK underscored the trend as wind became its largest single source of electricity, and construction began on a massive liquid-air storage facility to bank power for calm or cloudy days. With capacity expanding across most countries and emissions in some regions showing the first signs of peaking, the momentum is real—even if the transition still isn’t moving fast enough to lock in safer warming limits.

2) A new era for the high seas

After years of talks, a landmark high seas agreement entered into force, opening the door to protect 30% of international waters—areas that make up nearly two-thirds of the ocean and were previously almost entirely unprotected. National initiatives also grew bolder. French Polynesia established an ocean reserve of roughly 1.1 million square kilometres, creating a sanctuary for whales, sharks, coral reefs and countless open-ocean species. The combination of global rules and local action signals a long-overdue pivot toward safeguarding marine biodiversity in the places that need it most.

3) Forests fight back

Brazil used its turn hosting the UN climate summit in Belém to put forests at the center of diplomacy. Backers rallied around a roadmap to end deforestation by 2030, while a proposed Tropical Forests Forever Facility set out a new model: steady, long-term payments to keep standing forests intact, not only to count avoided emissions. On the ground, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by double digits to the lowest level in more than a decade, with losses in the Cerrado also easing. A global assessment added perspective: compared to the 1990s, annual forest loss from 2015–2025 was down markedly—yet the world is still losing over 10 million hectares each year, proof that recovery remains fragile.

4) Courts sharpen climate accountability

A pivotal legal opinion from the world’s highest court for interstate disputes clarified that nations can seek redress from one another over climate harm. While advisory rather than binding, the ruling carries considerable weight and may shape how judges approach responsibility, damages and prevention. For small island states and climate‑vulnerable countries, it opens a path—however narrow—toward holding heavy emitters to account and strengthening the legal scaffolding around global climate obligations.

5) Wildlife shows a pulse

Conservation delivered headline species comebacks. Green sea turtles, once devastated by hunting and habitat loss, were reclassified from “endangered” to “least concern” after decades of work to safeguard nesting beaches, improve fishery practices and protect feeding grounds. Florida logged a record year for leatherback turtle nests, hinting at broader gains for marine reptiles. On land, India announced it now shelters about three‑quarters of the world’s tigers, with the national population more than doubling in a little over a decade. The feat—achieved in landscapes shared with tens of millions of people—offers a template for coexistence between large predators and growing communities.

6) Indigenous leadership moves to the center

Global biodiversity talks granted Indigenous peoples a formal, permanent role in decision‑making—elevating knowledge systems that have long protected ecosystems. Later in the year, climate negotiations in Brazil saw the largest Indigenous presence in the history of such meetings, with new commitments to fund stewardship and recognize land rights, including the creation of additional territories. The test now is implementation: turning promises into protections that reduce deforestation, defend cultures and deliver climate benefits.

7) A river reborn

In the western United States, the Klamath River offered a rare glimpse of restoration at speed. Just a year after four aging dams were removed—following a decades‑long, tribal‑led effort—salmon surged back into upper reaches they had not reached for generations. The rapid response of the ecosystem underscores how quickly rivers can heal when barriers are lifted, water quality improves and natural flows are restored.

Taken together, these developments don’t erase the scale of the climate and biodiversity crises. But they do prove something essential: when policy, finance, communities and science align, recovery can begin—and sometimes, it accelerates faster than expected. The task now is to turn these quiet wins into standard practice, everywhere.