Hello friendly readers and welcome to the last (maybe) environmental news showcase of 2025. Some of you eager eyed readers may recall back to the first article I did of the year titled ‘News#13- A sustainability outlook‘ and this last article of the year aims to be a comparison to that, looking at whether we managed to keep to our sustainability agenda, and if there were any other fun things that you may have missed out in this rollercoaster of a year.
However as a promised quick side quest, for those who did vote on my social media poll, here is a small fun fact about a snail…
For anyone who has started reading this later, as I was researching sustainability news of 2025, I came across a rather entertaining article about a snail that I put on my social media, jokingly offering to write about if the public voted so…which I should have known would get unanimous votes from the public…So as promised:
In New Zealand, a carnivorous snail which has thus far been somewhat of a mystery, was recorded laying an egg. Why, you future may readers may ask, did the general public of November 2025 care so much about a snail laying eggs? Well, because this egg was laid, emerging from the snail’s neck!
This was apparently the first time this has been observed by the team who have been protecting the species from extinction for two decades! The snail is of the species Powelliphanta, and they are considered some of the world’s largest snails, feeding on earthworms.
So there lovely readers, my side quest on snails as promised. Now, on with the article!
So first, let’s have a direct look at my original article and see how we did as a planet.
Firstly, I mentioned that Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) were due as part of the 2015 Paris Agreement upkeep. How did that go? Well, between January 1st 2024 and September 30th 2025, 64 new NDCs were pledged, accounting for just under a third of global emissions as of 2019.
The synthesis report on all the NDC pledges, confirms that combined emissions are in fact being reduced however “still not quickly enough” and that “major acceleration is still needed in terms of delivering faster and deeper emissions reductions and ensuring that the vast benefits of strong climate action reach all countries and peoples” [pg 4].
Whilst the report does caveat that global conclusions cannot be drawn from a limited dataset such as this list of pledges, it does go on to say that all NDCs also go further than simply mitigation, also including (amongst other things) adaptation, addressing loss, and addressing damages.
As a collective, the 64 new NDCs pledge a Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions reduction of around 13.0 gigatonnes (billion metric tonnes) of C02 equivalent by 2035; this is 6% lower than those respective previous NDCs, and this will result in a combined peaking of GHG emissions in this group of countries by 2030. This leads us quite nicely to part II of the initial sustainability outlook: Peak GHG Emissions.
In order to achieve goals set out in the Paris Agreement, 2025 was supposed to mark the peak year for global greenhouse gas emissions. It would be easy (and oh so convenient) for me to defer to my last point and say we have not achieved this goal, however as the UNFCCC noted in their synthesis report, 64 countries is not enough to conclude anything on a global level, so I went on a bit of a search to see if there was any other environmental news I may have missed that can help draw a conclusion here.
Obviously, I wasn’t going to find a crystal ball that lets me know if this was the year we made it to peak emissions, but I did (on my increasingly random search of environmental news) manage to find some information on energy use and renewables which may prove insightful to understanding our position on GHG emissions.
To start with an initial fun fact: it was announced by the BBC earlier this year that for the first 6 months of 2025, coal was surpassed by renewable energy as the globe’s leading electricity source! Even though energy demand grew across the year, all extra supply was drawn from solar and wind energy sources. Initially, this would present a good indicator for us managing to curb our GHG emissions by this year, however on deeper reflection, there is an element of disparity between the supply and demand of energy here. According to the report, the reliance on renewables was seen mostly in “developing countries, especially China” whereas “the US and EU relied more than before on planet-warming fossil fuels”. Unfortunately I had a bit of trouble locating the original IEA report, or else I would have done a nice little comparison on some future thought that it may pose.
However, never fear, there’s another update yet, which zooms in on the UK specifically and an update scheduled for 2025: the UK Seventh Carbon Budget which was due as part of the Climate Change Act of 2008, as I mentioned here. A huge caveat from me to begin with: I did misread my original source report, and the Carbon Budget is due in 2026 not 2025…so obviously this has not been released yet (and there’s a lesson on how authors get reading wrong as well…), but the as part of my original article, I mentioned that the Climate Change Committee (CCC) would be publishing an advice and update article on the path to net zero, and luckily I managed to find that!
In their article, the CCC recommends that the UK should limit their GHG between 2038-2042 to 535 mt (megatonnes/1 million tonnes) of C02 equivalent, which they say should include emissions from shipping and international aviation. Though they appreciate that this is a large goal, the CCC poses that “the best way forward is now clear”, crediting electrification and low carbon electricity supply for a huge chunk of energy reduction: 60% by 2040.
The CCC also acknowledge that whatever the UK Government reports, their actions must be adaptable to climate change that is already underway, and must be adaptable to future change. Within their recommendations, the CCC pose five routes to achieve the goals they anticipate:
- The first, centred around electricity, sees renewable energy supplying the majority of the UK’s energy system, replacing oil and gas in the economy, and requiring double the electricity as we have today by 2040.
- The second, is based on low carbon fuels, applying these to areas that are unable to electrify such as aviation and shipping. This also acknowledges the role alternate fuels and carbon capture and storage plays as lower carbon fuel where renewable is not feasible.
- Increasing the cover of nature, through new woodlands and peatland restoration which. According to CCC Calculations, if peatland proportion in natural/rewetted conditions rose by 29% between 2023-2040, would achieve “over half the land use emissions reductions by 2040”
- Using bioenergy and carbon capture & storage, as well as direct air capture to remove carbon from the atmosphere.
- Reduce demand for “high carbon goods” where it is not feasible to deploy any previous options, bu either changing the choices avialable or incerasing efficiency.
Thought these are quite sigbnficiant, the CCC do layout that they “have considered economic and social factors to ensure” their advice can be used.
I guess this leads onto the next time I do a policy review….do the UK government follow suit when they release their budget?
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