Global Environment Outlook 2025 | 10 Dec 2025

Source: ET 

Why in News? 

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has released the 7^th edition of Global Environment Outlook 2025 (GEO-7) during the 7^th session of the UNEP in Nairobi. 

What are the Key Highlights of Global Environment Outlook Report 2025? 

• Rising Greenhouse Gas: Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have increased by 1.5% annually since 1990, reaching record highs (1.55°C) in 2024 and intensifying climate impacts. 
• Biodiversity Loss: One million species out of an estimated eight million are threatened with extinction. 20–40% of the global land area is degraded, affecting over 3 billion people. 
• Economic Costs: Climate-related extreme weather events cost approximately USD 143 billion annually over the last two decades; air pollution induced health damages alone cost USD8.1 trillion in 2019 (6.1% of global GDP). 
  • 9 million deaths occur annually from pollution-related causes. 
  • The report states that strategic investments in climate stability, biodiversity, and pollution reduction could yield USD 20 trillion annually by 2070, whereas inaction risks devastating both economies and ecosystems. 
• Plastic Crisis: 8,000 million tonnes of plastic waste pollute the planet, with toxic chemical exposure causing USD1.5 trillion in annual health-related economic losses.

What can be the Various Impacts of Environmental Degradation? 

• Crossing Dangerous Tipping Points: Likely to exceed 1.5°C by the early 2030s and 2.0°C by the 2040s, causing irreversible ecosystem collapse and mass displacement. 
• Global Economies Collapse: Annual global GDP could fall 4% by 2050 and 20% by 2100, leading to mass unemployment, poverty, and systemic instability. 
• Loss of Fertile Land: Equivalent to a Colombia or Ethiopia of fertile land lost each year, threatening agriculture and water availability, destroying livelihoods, fueling conflict, and eroding biodiversity. 
• Nutritional Decline: Per-person food availability could drop 3.4% by 2050, intensifying hunger, malnutrition, famine, and social unrest. 
• Financial Drain: Already trillions annually, these costs will grow, diverting vital resources and trapping societies in perpetual crisis. 

What Transformative Actions are Recommended by GEO-7 to Prevent Environmental Collapse? 

• Economy and Finance: Transition to comprehensive wealth metrics and price externalities to reflect the true value of GDP. Reform policies to incentivize decarbonization, sustainable agriculture, and ecosystem restoration. 
  • Achieving net-zero by 2050 and funding biodiversity needs approximately USD 8 trillion in annual investment until 2050—a fraction of the cost of inaction. 
  • Global benefits could reach USD 20 trillion per year by 2070, booming thereafter to a potential USD 100 trillion per year. 
• Materials and Waste: Implement transparent, traceable circular design, shift investments to circular and regenerative models, and reshape consumption through circular mindsets. 
• Energy: Decarbonize the energy supply, improve energy efficiency across sectors, ensure sustainable critical mineral value chains, and address global energy access and energy poverty. 
  • 9 million premature deaths could be avoided by 2050 via measures like cutting air pollution. By 2050. 
• Food Systems: Promote healthy, sustainable diets, increase agricultural circularity and efficiency, and sharply cut food loss and waste. 
  • Almost 200 million people could be lifted out of undernourishment. Over 100 million people could escape extreme poverty. 
• Environment: Accelerate ecosystem conservation and restoration, enhance climate adaptation via Nature-based Solutions, and enforce strong climate mitigation strategies. 
• Collaboration: Requires co-development of solutions by governments, private sector, civil society, academia, and Indigenous Peoples, whose knowledge is crucial. 
• Integrated Action: Policies across the five key areas must be implemented in parallel, not in isolation, to ensure a just transition for all.

What Should be India's Strategic Priorities to Prevent Environmental Degradation? 

• Green GDP Framework: Develop and implement an "Inclusive Wealth Index" or "Green GDP" that accounts for the depreciation of natural capital (forests, soil, water, air quality) alongside economic growth. 
• Transition to Circular Economy: Launch a National Circular Economy Mission with sector-specific (construction, plastic, electronics, textiles) roadmaps. Mandate recycled content in packaging, and create strong markets for secondary raw materials.  
• Subsidy Reforms: Gradually phase out petrol, diesel, and coal subsidies, redirecting them to renewable energy, electric mobility, organic farming, and sustainable public transport.  
• Scale Up Nature-Based Solutions (NbS): Mainstream Nature-Based Solutions into public infrastructure budgets. Treat mangrove restoration as coastal defense, wetland rejuvenation as water security, and urban green spaces as public health infrastructure. 

Conclusion 

GEO-7 presents humanity with a defining choice: embrace systemic transformation across the economy, energy, food, materials, and environment to unlock USD 20 trillion annually by 2070, or face catastrophic GDP losses, ecosystem collapse, and mass displacement. Whole-of-government approaches, Indigenous knowledge integration, and USD 8 trillion annual investment until 2050 are critical to securing planetary and human well-being.