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By Laura Millan, Coco Liu, Olivia Rudgard,
and Kyle Stock
Planet-warming
greenhouse gas emissions kept rising in 2025 and
country pledges to cut them are nowhere near
where they need to be to avoid catastrophic
climate change, but there were silver linings,
too.
The world is
decarbonizing faster than was expected 10 years
ago and global investment into the clean energy
transition is expected to reach a record $2.2
trillion in 2025, according to research by the
Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, a London
non-profit.
“Is this enough to
keep us safe? No, it clearly isn’t,” said Gareth
Redmond-King, international lead at the ECIU.
“Is it remarkable progress compared to where we
were headed? Clearly it is.”
Wind
turbines at sunrise. Photographer: Patrick
Pleul/picture alliance/Getty Images
This was also the
year when renewable power capacity reached new
highs, batteries became cheaper than ever and an
unprecedented level of protection for the high
seas became a reality. Artificial intelligence
made climate research faster and more efficient,
and weather forecasting more precise. And even
as the ravages of climate change became more
apparent, economies and people were able to
access a growing number of instruments to shield
themselves.
Here’s a look at
these and other investments, innovations and
policy changes that went right for climate in
2025.
Clean
energy boomed
Global investment
in clean tech far outpaced what went into
polluting industries. For every $1 funding
fossil fuel projects, $2 went into clean power, according
to the ECIU. For China, the EU, the US and
India, the four largest polluters, it was $2.60.
Funds flowing into
renewable power set another record in the first
half of this year and were up 10% compared to
the same period in 2024, to $386 billion,
according to the latest available research by
BloombergNEF.
Solar and wind grew
fast enough to meet all new electricity demand
globally in the first three quarters of 2025,
according to UK-based energy think tank Ember.
That means renewable capacity is set to hit a
new record globally this year, with Ember
forecasting an 11% increase from 2024.
Over the past three
years, renewable capacity grew by nearly 30% on
average. That puts the world within reach of the
goal set at COP 28 in Dubai in 2023 to triple
clean power by 2030.
AI
provided climate benefits
The explosive power
demand from artificial intelligence is also
driving an uptick in green technology
investment. For the first three quarters of this
year, global clean tech investment, which was
dominated by funding in next-generation nuclear
reactors, renewables and other solutions that
help power data centers, has already surpassed all
of 2024. That marks the sector’s first annual
increase since the 2022 peak.
The S&P’s main
gauge tracking clean energy is outperforming most
other stock indexes and even gold. That same
enthusiasm has also helped channel
more capital into developing and upgrading
the power grid, a backbone of the global energy
transition.
The rise of
artificial intelligence is also playing a role
in enabling new climate solutions and expediting
scientific research, from sustainable materials
to protecting biodiversity.
Batteries
got cheaper
Battery prices,
long a sticking point in the electrification of
a range of products, continue to decline.
Prices per
kilowatt-hour of battery capacity fell by
8% to a record $108 this year and they’re
expected to decline a further 3% next year,
according to BloombergNEF. The decrease is a
result of better manufacturing, cheaper chemical
recipes and a glut of production, factors that
have outweighed higher prices for the metals
that go into batteries.
The US Energy
Information Administration estimates
18.2 gigawatts of storage capacity will
have come online in 2025, which represents a 77%
increase over the prior year and nearly
one-third of the country’s new power.
International
progress
In the year when
President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the
Paris Agreement and railed against clean tech,
the global community scored some big wins.
A diver
swims by fish and coral. Photographer:
Alexis Rosenfeld/Getty Images
Three years after
being adopted, the so-called High Seas Treaty
finally got the needed number of ratifications
to come into force in January 2026. It will
allow for the protection of the 60% of seas that
don't fall within any country's jurisdiction,
regulating what can and cannot be done in
international waters for the first time ever.
The International
Court of Justice, meanwhile, issued a
first-of-its-kind ruling in favor of climate
action, which promises to transform the way that
NGOs and campaigners hold governments to
account. In July, the court determined that
countries risk
being in violation of international law if
they don’t work towards keeping global warming
to the 1.5C threshold agreed upon at the Paris
climate conference in 2015.
Read the full
story to see some of the climate policy
and adaptation wins.
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