Three Positive Takeaways from 2025 in the Sustainability Environment

At first glance, 2025 can feel like a year of mixed signals for sustainability. Political headwinds, debates about scaling back reporting requirements, and slower-than-expected regulatory rollouts have led some to question whether momentum is fading.

Look a little closer, however, and a more constructive picture emerges. Beneath the noise, 2025 has delivered several developments that reinforce a simple truth: sustainability is not going away. It is maturing, globalising, and becoming more firmly embedded in law and business practice.

Here are three positive takeaways from 2025 that underline why carbon accounting and sustainability reporting will remain relevant for all businesses.

1. Climate action is no longer just policy - it is law

On 23 July 2025, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a landmark Advisory Opinion on the obligations of states to protect the climate system and the environment. While non-binding, its implications are profound.

The Court made clear that all states, not just those that have signed specific climate treaties, have obligations under international law (including human rights law and customary international law) to protect the climate from human-driven greenhouse-gas emissions. These obligations require due diligence: mitigating emissions, adopting progressive climate policies, cooperating internationally, and supporting adaptation.

Crucially, the ICJ also stated that failing to meet these obligations, for example by neglecting regulation, approving new fossil-fuel projects, or maintaining harmful subsidies, may constitute an internationally wrongful act.

The positive takeaway? Climate action has been firmly reframed as a legal duty, not merely a moral aspiration or political preference. This strengthens accountability, empowers courts and policymakers, and sends a clear signal to businesses and investors that environmental, social and governance (ESG) commitments increasingly carry legal weight alongside reputational considerations.

2. Carbon accounting is becoming standard business practice - even if the pace has changed

It’s true that sustainability reporting has faced political scrutiny in 2025. Discussions around simplification - such as the EU’s Omnibus debate - have led some to expect a slowdown or even a reversal. Yet in practice, carbon accounting continues to expand. The number of companies measuring and reporting their emissions keeps rising. Growth may be slower than the most optimistic forecasts from a year ago, but it remains solid and consistent.

Across Europe, sustainability consultants report the same pattern: the market is not shrinking; it is growing more gradually. Companies are still investing in understanding their carbon footprints, building internal capabilities, and preparing for regulatory and stakeholder expectations. The positive takeaway here is maturity. Carbon accounting is shifting from a rapid, compliance-driven surge to a more deliberate phase where it becomes a normal part of how businesses operate, integrated into risk management, strategy, and decision-making rather than treated as a one-off reporting exercise.

3. Sustainability reporting is becoming truly global

While much of the European debate focuses on adjusting reporting requirements from a relatively high baseline, the rest of the world is moving decisively in the opposite direction: from voluntary to mandatory sustainability reporting.

In 2025 alone:

The positive takeaway is clear: sustainability reporting is no longer a regional experiment or a European peculiarity. It is becoming a global norm, increasingly aligned around common frameworks and expectations.

Looking ahead

2025 may not have delivered sustainability progress in the neat, linear way many hoped for. But it has delivered something arguably more important: consolidation.

Climate obligations are being anchored in law. Carbon accounting is becoming routine business practice. And sustainability reporting is expanding across jurisdictions worldwide. Progress is still happening, just more quietly, more globally, and on firmer foundations than before.

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