India Carbon Emissions Show Signs of Slowdown
India recorded a notable moderation in fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions in 2025, rising by only 1.4 percent compared to the 4 percent growth in 2024. Two main factors contributed to this slowdown. Rapid expansion of renewable energy capacity, especially solar and wind, displaced coal-based power generation. This shift kept coal consumption growth very low for the year. The trend follows a long-term decline in emission growth, with the average annual rise falling from 6.4 percent between 2005 and 2014 to 3.6 percent from 2015 to 2024. In the first half of 2025, clean energy growth outpaced electricity demand, resulting in a rare drop in emissions from the power sector.
A strong monsoon in 2025 also played a role. Cooler temperatures during the hottest months reduced demand for air conditioning and other electricity-intensive cooling. Higher rainfall supported hydropower generation, providing a clean alternative to thermal power. The combination of structural change in energy sources and favorable weather conditions explains the moderation in emission growth.
Global emissions continue to rise despite this progress. Fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions worldwide are projected to reach a record 38.1 billion tonnes in 2025, an increase of 1.1 percent from 2024. Among major emitters, the United States is expected to see the largest rise at 1.9 percent, followed by India at 1.4 percent, while China and the European Union show smaller increases of 0.4 percent each. The remaining global carbon budget to keep warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius is estimated at only 170 billion tonnes of COâ‚‚. At the current rate, this budget will be used up in about four years, emphasizing the need for immediate and significant reductions in emissions globally.
India’s progress shows that a shift toward renewable energy can have a real impact. Continuing and accelerating this transition is critical to turning small growth into an actual decline in emissions. Measures in energy efficiency, expansion of renewable capacity, and low-carbon technologies will be essential to support global climate goals and ensure long-term environmental sustainability.
Back Transforming Education for a Sustainable World
Education plays a critical role in addressing the climate crisis. The UNESCO Greening Education Partnership aims to reshape the global education system, guiding institutions to do more than deliver lessons—they instill environmental responsibility. The initiative focuses on equipping learners with the knowledge, skills, and values necessary to respond effectively to climate challenges.
The partnership applies a system-wide approach, affecting every aspect of education from classroom instruction to school infrastructure. The vision extends beyond textbooks, encouraging schools to model sustainability through their operations. A clear goal has been set: by 2030, at least 50 percent of schools, colleges, and universities worldwide will meet green accreditation standards and operate sustainably.
Substantial progress has already been achieved. Ninety-six thousand institutions in ninety-three countries have been recognized as green schools under the Green School Quality Standard introduced by UNESCO in 2024. This standard sets minimum requirements for creating environmentally responsible learning environments, including energy efficiency, waste management, water conservation, and climate-resilient infrastructure. These measures provide a concrete roadmap for schools to implement sustainable practices.
The partnership is built around four main pillars. The first emphasizes greening schools, ensuring that both operations and infrastructure align with sustainability objectives. The second focuses on greening the curriculum, integrating climate education across all subjects and age levels so that learners develop a clear understanding of environmental challenges and solutions. The third strengthens the capacity of education systems, providing teacher training and guidance for policymakers to support the implementation of green standards. The fourth pillar links schools to local communities, promoting lifelong learning, youth engagement, and collective climate action.
The Greening Education Partnership demonstrates the growing recognition that education must adapt to the scale of the climate crisis. It responds to the demand for lessons that prepare learners for a sustainable future while fostering institutions that embody the values they teach. Every green-certified school, every trained teacher, and every engaged community contributes to building global responsibility and resilience.
Through coordinated action, ongoing support, and practical implementation, the partnership is redefining education in the context of environmental urgency. Significant challenges remain, but current progress provides a clear path toward a future where education and sustainability advance together.
Back Conservation Efforts at Risk
Conservation abandonment exposes a growing threat to efforts aimed at protecting the planet. International agreements, including the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, outline ambitious targets, yet many protected areas exist only in name, without proper management, enforcement, or funding. Legal or policy changes, known as PADDD events, further reduce the effectiveness of these areas. The combined size of abandoned and reversed protections is comparable to Greenland, showing that actual progress toward global biodiversity goals is far below reported levels.
Industrial-scale resource extraction drives much of this abandonment. Mining, oil and gas projects, and large-scale logging often encroach on lands meant for protection. Short-term funding cycles and political shifts leave governments and local communities without the resources needed for sustained management. Projects that do not consider the needs of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities are also more likely to fail, as local populations lose incentives to uphold protections.
The consequences are serious. Progress reports often overstate success while species and ecosystems continue to decline. Achieving the 30x30 target to protect 30 percent of land and sea by 2030 becomes much harder if existing areas are neglected. Abandoned conservation sites also fail to serve as effective carbon sinks, releasing stored carbon and undermining climate mitigation efforts.
A global monitoring system is urgently required to track the real impact of conservation commitments. Protecting new areas provides limited benefit if previously protected lands are left to degrade. Addressing this gap is essential for meaningful progress in biodiversity conservation and climate stability.
Back Climate Action Still Falls Short
The UNEP Emissions Gap Report 2025 highlights that current global efforts are insufficient to prevent dangerous warming. Even if all existing Nationally Determined Contributions are fully implemented, global temperatures are projected to rise between 2.3 and 2.5 degrees Celsius this century. This exceeds the limits set by the Paris Agreement and shows a clear mismatch between climate goals and actual commitments.
The emissions gap appears through two scenarios. Policies already in place could push warming to nearly 2.8 degrees Celsius. Full implementation of current NDCs offers a modest improvement but still leaves the world vulnerable to serious climate impacts. The difference between necessary emission reductions and pledged cuts emphasizes the scale of the problem. To follow a pathway compatible with 1.5 degrees Celsius, global emissions must drop by about 55 percent by 2035 from 2019 levels. Current pledges would achieve only 12 to 15 percent reductions. Meanwhile, emissions continue to rise, with greenhouse gases increasing by 2.3 percent in 2024 and reaching record levels.
Exceeding safe temperature thresholds carries severe consequences. Melting ice sheets, collapsing ecosystems, extreme weather events, and widespread loss of biodiversity are projected outcomes of failing to close the emissions gap. Urgent action across all major sectors is necessary. Immediate reductions in coal and oil use, rapid expansion of clean energy, and strengthened climate targets, particularly by G20 nations responsible for most emissions, are essential. Temporary overshoot of the 1.5-degree target appears increasingly likely, making fast emission reductions crucial. Reliance on unproven carbon removal solutions cannot replace immediate action.
The UNEP report makes clear that small adjustments are no longer enough. Closing the emissions gap requires decisive, coordinated, and accelerated global action to avoid the most dangerous impacts of climate change.
Back Record Temperatures Continue to Climb
The World Meteorological Organization reports that global temperatures are rising at unprecedented rates. Observations show that 2025 is likely to rank among the three hottest years in recorded history, following the record-breaking years of 2023 and 2024. The decade from 2015 to 2025 is shaping up as the warmest since systematic measurements began, highlighting a steady upward trend in global climate.
Global average near-surface temperatures from January to August 2025 were 1.42 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. This is slightly lower than the 1.55 degrees Celsius observed in 2024, as natural climate cycles shifted from El Niño to neutral or La Niña conditions. Despite these changes, monthly temperature records continued to be set from June 2023 through August 2025, showing the strong influence of human-induced warming.
Levels of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide reached record highs, driving continued global temperature increases. Ocean heat content also rose further, storing most of the extra heat in the climate system. Arctic and Antarctic sea ice remained well below average, reflecting ongoing stress on the planet. These conditions make meeting the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius increasingly difficult.
Climate experts warn that temporary overshooting of the 1.5-degree limit is becoming more likely without immediate reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The fact that three consecutive years have approached this threshold underlines the urgency of addressing global warming before its impacts become even more severe.
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