COP30: a PLOS Climate stocktake

With this year’s UNFCCC COP getting underway in Brazil, we decided to take a look at some of the research and comment published in PLOS Climate since delegations last convened.

There can be little doubt that 2025 has been an extremely challenging year for progress on climate change. The geopolitical context has presented numerous obstacles, and PLOS Climate authors have discussed what this means for the global climate as well as implications for specific sectors and contexts; for example, at the intersection of climate and health (Jacobs & Khan, 2025). Meanwhile, the ever-growing threat posed by different forms of climate obstructionism, misinformation and disinformation motivated our Mini Collection on Emerging Themes in Climate Obstruction, led by PLOS Climate Academic Editor Marco Grasso.

Unsurprisingly, a key theme in our publications has been the intensifying current and future impacts of climate change across the globe; whether it be stark projections of heat-related mortality (Cole et al., 2025) or of economic degradation (Mohaddes & Raissi, 2025). PLOS Climate authors have also contributed to dialogue around the metrics and frameworks we use to assess disruption to the earth system, for example by making the case for the inclusion of a wider range of markers in the planetary boundary framework (Ferrer et al., 2025). This year we have also seen discussion of new opportunities for catalytic research, including through the reimagining of CMIP structures for CMIP7 (Hewitt et al., 2025).

Adaptation pathways have been a central theme for PLOS Climate this year, with publications ranging from a Review of approaches to equitable adaptation (Haer & de Ruiter, 2024) to an exploration of climate risks, vulnerabilities and adaptation in Small Island Developing States (Cooper et al., 2025). Other articles have reported on research involving engagement with vulnerable communities (Monteverde et al., 2025), as well as the importance of youth agency in climate action (Tafon & Saunders, 2025), opportunities to pluralise knowledge in decision-making (Mansur et al., 2025), and knowledge co-production with Indigenous communities (Turner et al., 2025).

Options for climate change mitigation- particularly through the lens of sectoral decarbonisation- have also been addressed in contributions to many of the interdisciplinary sections of PLOS Climate. In a PLOS Climate Opinion piece, Rosenow (2025) emphasised the importance of demand-side approaches to mitigation of energy system emissions. Meanwhile, Panda et al. (2025) presented a framework for evaluating green industrial policy, and Sanz (2025) discussed questions relating to land use strategies in an Opinion piece forming part of our BC3 Collection.

Other important themes in research and commentary published in PLOS Climate have been the complex but vital work to transcend scales from the global to the local in climate policymaking (Nestor, 2025; Yule et al., 2025) and the modes by which policy can serve to accelerate climate action (Boasson et al., 2025). Rosenbloom et al. (2025) provided guidance for decision-makers to avoid ‘dead end’ transition pathways that are wasteful of time and resources, whilst Bernauer et al. (2025) explored the dangers of emissions ‘offshoring’ (Bernauer et al., 2025). In addition to public policy and public sector interventions, we have also featured research on the efficacy of climate policies and action in the private sector (Klaaßen et al., 2025), and other contributions have assessed the representation of the rights of nature in the societal and legal discourse on climate (Van den Hoek Ostende & Sorman, 2025) or shared perspectives on systemic redesign (Vidal, 2025).

In terms of UN processes themselves, Harris (2025) shared a sober assessment of the achievements (or otherwise) of COP29, whilst Barrins et al. (2025) provided an analysis of the specifics of institutional arrangements in the UNFCCC (Barrins et al., 2025). We have also featured calls for explicit representation of health in nationally determined contributions (Cresto Aleina & Beagley, 2025), critiques of transparency regimes (Gupta et al., 2025), and warnings of how systemic climate impacts pose significant risks to our ability to fulfil the UN Sustainable Development Goals (Ciullo et al., 2025).

As we keep a close eye on how the next round of deliberations unfolds in Belém, PLOS Climate‘s editors, including those of the journal’s Policy & Governance section (Hsueh et al., 2025), continue to welcome submissions of Research Articles, Reviews, Essays and Opinions that strengthen the basis for future progress on climate change.

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References

Barrins J, McKeown PC, Murray U, Spillane C (2025) What constitutes “institutional arrangements” for Member State reporting within the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement? PLOS Clim 4(1): e0000327. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000327

Bernauer T, Böhmelt T, Henninger E (2025) Shifting environmental pollution abroad contributes to lower emissions in democracies. PLOS Clim 4(5): e0000602. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000602

Boasson EL, Peters GP, Tosun J (2025) Policy-driven acceleration of climate action. PLOS Clim 4(5): e0000626. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000626

Ciullo A, Franzke CLE, Scheffran J, Sillmann J (2025) Climate-driven systemic risk to the sustainable development goals. PLOS Clim 4(4): e0000564. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000564

Cole R, Wan K, Murage P, Macintyre HL, Hajat S, Heaviside C (2025) Projections of heat related mortality under combined climate and socioeconomic adaptation scenarios for England and Wales. PLOS Clim 4(7): e0000553. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000553

Cooper S, Cloos P, Abraham C, McPherson N, Ravaliere T, Harris-Glenville F (2025) What can be said about risks, vulnerabilities, and adaptation to climate change in Caribbean small island developing states (SIDS)? The case of Dominica. A qualitative study. PLOS Clim 4(4): e0000275. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000275

Cresto Aleina F, Beagley J (2025) Health: The missing metric in climate ambition: The case for health-inclusive NDCs – ambitious climate action to save lives. PLOS Clim 4(8): e0000694. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000694

Ferrer EM, Pezner AK, Eddebbar YA, Breitburg D, Crowe S, Garçon V, et al. (2025) Why aquatic deoxygenation belongs in the planetary boundary framework. PLOS Clim 4(5): e0000619. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000619

Gupta A, van Asselt H, van Deursen M, Agarwal R, Biesbroek R, Weikmans R, et al. (2025) Climate transparency’s unmet promises: A necessary stocktaking. PLOS Clim 4(4): e0000613. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000613

Haer T, de Ruiter M (2024) A multi-hazard perspective on equitable adaptation and how to assess it. PLOS Clim 3(12): e0000521. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000521

Harris PG (2025) COP29: From mitigation tragedy to finance farce. PLOS Clim 4(3): e0000588. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000588

Hewitt HT, Flato G, O’Rourke E, Dunne JP, Adloff F, Arblaster JM, et al. (2025) Towards provision of regularly updated climate data from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project. PLOS Clim 4(10): e0000708. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000708

Hsueh L, Egli F, Gilmore E, Prakash A, Barua A, Hsu A (2025) Confronting challenges and opportunities in climate policy and governance. PLOS Clim 4(6): e0000668. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000668

Jacobs JW, Khan SS (2025) Erasing the evidence: United States climate rollbacks and the implications for public health. PLOS Clim 4(7): e0000667. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000667

Klaaßen L, Lohmüller C, Steffen B (2024) Assessing corporate climate action: Corporate climate policies and company-level emission reductions. PLOS Clim 3(11): e0000458. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000458

Mansur AV, Neidig J, Zafra-Calvo N (2025) Challenges of pluralizing knowledge(s) in climate related decision-making. PLOS Clim 4(6): e0000658. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000658

Mohaddes K, Raissi M (2025) Rising temperatures, melting incomes: Country-specific macroeconomic effects of climate scenarios. PLOS Clim 4(9): e0000621. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000621

Monteverde C, Quandt A, Gilberto de Souza Ribeiro J, De Sales F (2024) Changing climates, changing lives: Voices of a Brazilian Amazon farming community in a time of climate crisis. PLOS Clim 3(11): e0000522. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000522

Nestor MA (2025) Bridging the gap between international climate goals and local realities. PLOS Clim 4(1): e0000575. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000575

Panda A, Shears E, Schenuit F, Gong W, Egli F (2025) A framework to assess green industrial policy and inform the public debate. PLOS Clim 4(5): e0000614. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000614

Rosenbloom D, Meadowcroft J, Markard J, Landry J-S, Kabbara M (2025) Dead-end pathways: Conceptualizing, assessing, avoiding. PLOS Clim 4(8): e0000693. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000693

Rosenow J (2025) Beyond Supply: The Case for Decarbonising Energy Demand. PLOS Clim 4(3): e0000590. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000590

Sanz MJ (2025) Enhancing the understanding of the contribution of anthropogenic land system management to the achievement of climate neutrality. PLOS Clim 4(6): e0000663. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000663

Tafon R, Saunders F (2025) Toward transformative youth climate justice: Why youth agency is important and six critical areas for transformative youth activism, policy, and research. PLOS Clim 4(4): e0000472. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000472

Turner DT, Schaeffer JQ, Donatuto J, Landrum L, Nunn C, Lukin MK, et al. (2025) Nunakut naguatun atugluu/Co-stewardship: Co-production’ through the lens of the Study of Environmental Arctic Change’s Human Wellbeing Team. PLOS Clim 4(8): e0000692. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000692

van den Hoek Ostende M, Sorman AH (2025) From separation to relation: The rights of nature vs. nature’s contribution to people. PLOS Clim 4(6): e0000654. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000654

Vidal DG (2025) Social and systemic redesign as a response to climate crises: Reflections on “Alter Nativas” documentary. PLOS Clim 4(1): e0000578. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000578

Yule EL, Kythreotis AP, Harcourt R, Howarth C, Porter J, Falloon P, et al. (2025) The opportunities and challenges of developing and implementing local climate adaptation targets. PLOS Clim 4(5): e0000634. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000634