State of Global Environmental Governance 2025

The report details a year of significant friction in global environmental governance, where geopolitical fragmentation and a UN liquidity crisis hindered consensus on critical issues like fossil fuel phase-out and a plastics treaty. Despite these setbacks, it highlights successes in ozone recovery, the growth of renewable energy, and the establishment of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Panel on Chemicals, Waste and Pollution. It emphasizes the need for synergies between multilateral environmental agreements and a shift toward more accountable, integrated national reporting to improve efficiency amid shrinking budgets.

• Geopolitical fragmentation in 2025 severely strained the rules-based global order, with the number of major international conflicts rising to 59, the highest since World War II.
• The United Nations faced a severe liquidity crisis in 2025, owing nearly USD 1.6 billion in mandatory contributions by the end of the third quarter, leading to job losses and operational constraints at UNEP.
• The United States significantly withdrew from multilateral engagement in 2025, failing to send an official delegation to the Belém climate conference and rejecting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• The 2025 Planetary Health Check indicates that seven out of nine Planetary Boundaries have been breached, all showing trends of increasing pressure.
• Despite a reported 80+ governments supporting a roadmap, the Belém climate conference failed to reach an agreement on the phase-out of fossil fuels or the halting and reversing of deforestation.
• Renewable energy reached a milestone in the first half of 2025, overtaking coal in the global electricity mix for the first time on record and accounting for one-third of global power generation.
• Negotiations for a global plastics treaty failed to produce an agreement in 2025 due to intractable positions on the scope of the mandate and production caps, exacerbated by a U.S. policy reversal.
• A new science-policy body, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Panel on Chemicals, Waste and Pollution (ISP-CWP), was established to complement the IPCC and IPBES in addressing the triple planetary crisis.
• The International Court of Justice issued a 2025 Advisory Opinion clarifying that climate mitigation and adaptation are legal duties of states, and that treaty withdrawal does not cancel existing legal obligations.
• The BRS Conventions (Basel, Rotterdam, and Stockholm) serve as a model for governance efficiency by holding joint Conferences of the Parties to create administrative and operational synergies.

APA

Kosolapova, E., Allan, J., Templeton, J., & Wagner, L. (2025). State of Global Environmental Governance 2025. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2026-02/state-global-environmental-governance-2025.pdf

Chicago

Kosolapova, Elena, Jen Allan, Jessica Templeton, and Lynn Wagner. State of Global Environmental Governance 2025. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2025. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2026-02/state-global-environmental-governance-2025.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Kosolapova |first1=Elena |last2=Allan |first2=Jen |last3=Templeton |first3=Jessica |last4=Wagner |first4=Lynn |title=State of Global Environmental Governance 2025 |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=2025 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2026-02/state-global-environmental-governance-2025.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{kosolapova2025state, author = {Kosolapova, Elena and Allan, Jen and Templeton, Jessica and Wagner, Lynn}, title = {{State of Global Environmental Governance 2025}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2025}, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2026-02/state-global-environmental-governance-2025.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }