Conference primer - Environment & Climate Change: 2025

- The Court’s approach to its advisory opinion, as well as the particular areas it may choose to address or expand upon, remain to be seen.
- It speaks volumes that legal teams from over 90 participants still could not cover, let alone do justice to, all aspects of international law that concern the problem of climate change.
- Even so, systemic integration was at the forefront of many of the arguments and, it is hoped, may become a tool for the Court to strengthen and enhance the international law of climate change.

- The impacts of climate change, driven by increasing global average temperatures, are significant threats to the ability of countries to pursue and achieve their sustainable development objectives.
- These disproportionately affect developing countries, which often lack the resources and infrastructure to effectively respond, thereby exacerbating existing development-based economic and social inequities and vulnerabilities and posing further obstacles to their sustainable development progress and the achievement of the SDGs and the right to development.
- The submissions and comments made by States during the proceedings before the ICJ, particularly those coming from many developing countries, sought to link together international law obligations of States in respect of climate change and the real-world adverse effects of climate change, including the downstream impacts on people’s lives and livelihoods and the development prospects of countries.

The announcement that Bloomberg will provide funding to the UN comes after Trump said US should end financial commitments under the UNFCCC.

The world’s political and business elite present in Davos on Wednesday faced an uncompromising address from UN chief António Guterres as he rounded on a lack of multilateral collaboration in an “increasingly rudderless world” at risk from two existential dangers: climate change and unregulated Artificial Intelligence (AI).

President Donald Trump’s first day in office saw a barrage of executive orders aimed at dismantling US climate policy, boosting fossil fuel production and undercutting green energy technologies.

António Guterres issues warning at Davos, days after Donald Trump pulled US out of Paris climate agreement

President Donald Trump has given everyone at Davos something to talk about with his actions on the first day of his second term.

Last year was the hottest on record, bringing a range of natural disasters including fires and floods.

The threshold has been exceeded for only one year so far, but humanity is nearing the end of what many thought was a ‘safe zone’ as climate change worsens.

African leaders and global financial institutions have launched a landmark $40 billion Africa Energy Fund to fast-track investments in renewable energy and bridge the continent’s persistent financing gap.

- Themed, ‘Plastics Treaty: State of Play and Priorities for an Ambitious Outcome,’ the dialogue served as an opportunity to review the progress made in the talks and discuss key priorities for an ambitious outcome.
- The dialogue highlighted what the negotiations must focus on and offered thoughts on key challenges – and ways to address them.

Despite progress, negotiations stalled at the end of 2024 due to diverging views on the scope, measures, financing, responsibilities and other issues.

WHO Member States appeared to give strong backing to a proposed new WHO roadmap to reduce air pollution’s health impacts - with the ambitious global goal of cutting mortality attributable to human-produced sources by 50% by 2040.

The health risks posed by air pollution in the 23 Asian countries sandwiched between Russia and Australia have been analysed together for the first time – and over 3.4 million deaths occurred in this area in 2021, representing 40% of global air pollution deaths.

- Citing President Muhamad, the ENB analysis of the meeting notes that decisions coming out of COP 16 give the GBF the “arms, legs, and muscles” to ensure “it does not remain an empty shell”.
- Per ENB, the meeting’s success also revealed a renewed commitment to multilateralism, “sending a light within dark times”.

Countries agreed to raise $200 billion a year by 2030 to help developing countries conserve biodiversity at the resumed Conference of Party (COP16) of the UN Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) in Rome last week.

Governments have delayed for the third time a key decision on the timing of an influential climate science assessment, after failing to resolve deep divisions at a meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) over whether and how to align its work with UN climate policy.

Suspended summit in Colombia finishes in Rome - Delegates from more than 140 nations hammered out a last-minute agreement to mobilize at least $200 billion a year by 2030 for protecting biodiversity.

Governments on Friday reached agreement on a strategy to raise an additional $200 billion each year to better protect the world’s flora and fauna by 2030.

“Without the farmers, it is only political policy without implementation” – that was the stark message delivered by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s Director-General on Tuesday to delegates attending the latest round of UN biodiversity talks in Rome.

UN CBD COP 16 to reconvene at UN Food and Agriculture Organization Headquarters. Parties will seek consensus on Cali’s important unfinished business, including resource mobilization, financial mechanism, and KMGBF monitoring and planning.

- It is time to rethink the role of greening education in our approach to the global climate crisis.
- To overcome humanity’s greatest challenge, we must begin in the most critical place where knowledge is cultivated: the classroom.
- Greening education must go from a “nice to have” in school curricula to a “must have,” to ensure our very survival.

- Despite extensive discussions that wrapped up “more than 30 hours after the scheduled conclusion,” delegates were unable to reach an agreement on the timeline for the reports’ delivery.
- Unresolved since IPCC-60 in January 2024, this debate will continue at IPCC-63, which is expected to convene in late 2025, “with hope that the Panel can finally break its deadlock”.

- Much of the current investment comes from public financing, official development assistance, and philanthropy.
- They are important in their conventional forms, but they can also be merged creatively to generate more impact as we embrace new, innovative approaches.
- We need to focus on those who care directly for the environment, such as Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

UNEP FI and WWF’s Greening Financial Regulation Initiative have jointly authored a new publication, Navigating Nature-related Regulations for Banks: Mapping the Policy Landscape. As nature-related regulatory initiatives for banks are picking up globally, this report helps make sense of these developments, and how broader policy frameworks interact.

- Among Brazil’s key priorities for the Conference, COP 30 President-designate André Aranha Corrêa do Lago highlighted the defense of multilateralism and respect for science.
- Underscoring the UNFCCC’s role in inaugurating multilateral climate governance, he called for deep, rapid, and sustained cooperation of all countries.
- Among other initiatives, the incoming COP 30 Presidency will form a ‘Circle of Presidencies’ and a ‘Circle of Indigenous Leadership’ and undertake a ‘Global Ethical Stocktake’.

Ocean degradation threatens communities and affects human rights worldwide, including the right to a healthy environment, a UN independent expert said today.“The protection of marine ecosystems is part of States’ obligations to protect human rights,” said Astrid Puentes Riaño, Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.