What do we want 2025 to look like? Climate resolutions we want others to make this year

6 Jan

Everyone has a role to play in combatting climate change, some just haven’t cottoned on to how much they can do yet. As 2025 rolls in, we’re lending a helping hand and suggesting some key changes we’d like to see big players resolve to make in the new year.

My resolution is for all CEOs: resolve to ensure your paternity leave matches the maternity leave you offer. There is no good reason in 2025 why only women should have the chance to stay at home for a period with any new baby. Paternity leave is good for Dads, the baby and crucially for women’s pay. Where CEOs are serious about equality and ensuring women have a real chance at leadership, making sure their paternity leave is up to scratch, and that men actually take it, is one huge concrete step they can take.

The UK government must resolve to make 2025 the year we get an updated Clean Maritime Plan. The plan is seriously out of date, having not been reviewed since 2019, and as a result the UK is falling behind its nearest neighbours in putting plans in place to decarbonise shipping. 

If the updated plan is to seriously drive shipping's decarbonisation, it must set ambitious overall and interim targets for alternative maritime fuels requiring a minimum uptake of green hydrogen-derived fuels from 2030. That’s a key step for driving the transition – but we also need to make sure it’s equitable: the Clean Maritime Plan must provide a framework to channel industry funding to be invested into developing green hydrogen fuels for the sector's decarbonisation.

**James Meadway**

Senior Director, Economics

My New Year’s resolution is for the economics profession to start taking climate change seriously. I don’t just mean thinking it exists, and that we need to decarbonise our economies, which by now most economists will agree with: I mean understanding and taking seriously its consequences for all economic decision making, from selling insurance to growing crops to setting interest rates. Climate change is no longer some distant, rather abstract threat but a here-and-now presence in all our lives. For most of us, most of the time, it means more costs and disruption: delayed and cancelled travel plans; a more expensive weekly shop. Sometimes it might also mean disasters and real tragedy. In all cases, our lives are being reshaped.

Yet conventional economic models tend not to see it like this. When the Bank of England sets interest rates, for example, its main computer model assumes the near-future will be calm, with steady growth and no price “shocks” like we have seen in energy and some foods in the last few years. This means it’s disconnected from what we know that the (far more reliable!) scientific models of the climate are telling us. Joining these two models up properly, as some researchers are now working on, would be an important step towards making sure we live in a society that is able to adapt fairly and effectively to a changed world.

It’s been too easy for economists (and economic policymakers) to pretend business as usual will continue. 2025 should be the year when this stops.

**Aqila K. Indra**

Policy Assistant, Climate Diplomacy

The destructive impacts of the climate crisis are disproportionately shouldered by climate vulnerable countries, yet it is often those countries with most at stake that lack a seat at the table. It’s more important than ever to amplify the voices of those on the frontlines of the climate crisis, and so my resolution is for richer countries to donate more funds to the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Voluntary Multi-Donor Trust Fund (VMDTF).

The VMDTF provides financial support to delegates from climate vulnerable countries to attend IMO meetings in person. The IMO emissions reductions measures set to be adopted in 2025 should ensure the transition is just and equitable, leaving no country behind – the only surefire way of doing this in practice is removing the barriers for climate vulnerable countries’ participation. The IMO’s VMDTF is an admirable initiative, and we need to see similar mechanisms put into action at all levels of climate action, from the grassroots all the way to international negotiations.

Agriculture and land use is a complex sector, given the combination of its vulnerability to climate change and its high levels of greenhouse gas emissions.  In 2025, we’re going to be developing OG’s legal strategy to help decarbonise agriculture, but there’s more work to be done...

One key new year resolution the UK Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) could adopt is to prioritise replacing the digital infrastructure used for payments under agri-environment schemes.

The 'legacy' payment system used under the EU's Common Agricultural Policy is still in use and whilst improvements have been made, the 2024 National Audit Office report on Defra's Farming and Countryside Programme notes the relevant contract is expiring in 2025 and cannot be extended further, which they categorise as a 'major risk' for the programme.

Replacing the system will minimise the risk of operational failure and cybersecurity attacks, as well as enabling Defra to develop farmer support as set out in the Farming and Countryside Programme. This would be a vital stepin lowering greenhouse gas emissions from the sector and supporting UK food security.

**Beatrice Oyadoke**

Operations Assistant

As someone who's passionate about sustainability, I propose that Transport for London (TFL) resolve to reduce waste and pollution. Most importantly, this means bringing in a fully paperless ticketing system, which would have a substantial impact on reducing pollution and promoting sustainability.

Moreover, a paperless system would also help alleviate congestion at train stations, reducing wait times and minimising the risk of missing trains. This is particularly beneficial for international travellers who may be unfamiliar with the train system. Embracing a paperless future, TFL can create a win-win situation for both the environment and its passengers.

My 2025 resolution is for all public and private financial institutions out there: adopt bold plans to reduce your financed emissions in the shipping and aviation sectors.

Often slipping under the radar, financed emissions are the greenhouse gas emissions linked to a financial institution's investment and lending activities. The clear first step to cutting these emissions is halting all investments for both new fossil fuel infrastructures (such as airports), and false solutions (such as Liquified Natural Gas (LNG)). Financial institutions must in parallel ramp up financing for truly sustainable and low-carbon solutions, such as high-speed trains and e-fuels from renewable energy.

The EU’s recent adoption of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and key court rulings (see my blogpost on the Shell appeal ) have confirmed that high-emitting companies are legally required to significantly reduce their emissions. By extension, financial institutions are themselves exposed to legal risks by financing high-emitting activities, something BNP Paribas in France and ING in the Netherlands have recently experienced firsthand. To take responsibility for the emissions they fund, financiers must ensure their clients in 2025 comply with their climate obligations – or run the risk of winding up in court.

What change do you want to see happen in climate in 2025? Connect with us on LinkedIn, Bluesky, and Twitter/X to let us know!

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