By Elena Kosolapova and Lynn Wagner, SDG Knowledge Hub
Amid global challenges, waning trust between governments, and financial constraints, 2025 was a difficult twelve-month period. Yet, our readers’ continued interest in sustainable development outcomes, multilateral engagement, and assessments of progress and challenges to implementation reveals a commitment to the sustainable development agenda that is critical as we near the 2030 milestone and begin to think about what lies beyond.
Some of the most popular stories of 2025 focus on the outcomes in key environmental and sustainable development processes. Preparations for and follow up on key events for the sustainable development agenda also attracted a lot of pageviews. Stories about implementation progress, SDG data, and accountability and reporting continued to see active engagement.
Stories about the UN Secretary-General’s UN80 Initiative to reform the way the organization does business were among the most read.
To do justice to the breadth of our audience’s interests, we have expanded the Policy Brief on the SDG Knowledge Hub’s most read articles of 2025 to include our top 20 stories. Beginning with #20, these are:
20. ICJ Climate Change Advisory Opinion: Noteworthy Trends
In 2025, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered its landmark advisory opinion on obligations of States with respect to climate change and clarified the legal consequences of such obligations’ breach. In a dedicated series, we continued to unpack the ruling’s far-reaching implications for climate law, policy, and action. A guest article reflecting on some of the major themes that emerged during the proceedings was among our most popular reads.
19. Draft Programme for HLPF 2025 Published
Our readers closely tracked the preparations for the main sustainable development event of the year – the 2025 UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF). The meeting, held under the auspices of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), convened under the theme, ‘Advancing sustainable, inclusive, science- and evidence-based solutions for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its SDGs for leaving no one behind.’ HLPF 2025 conducted in-depth reviews of SDG 3 (good health and well-being), SDG 5 (gender equality), SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth), SDG 14 (life below water), and SDG 17 (partnerships for the Goals).
18. OECD Issues 2025 Update of Health Statistics
To support SDG 3 in-depth review by the HLPF, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) updated its Health Statistics – a comprehensive source for international comparisons of health and health systems across OECD and partner countries. These data help policymakers, researchers, journalists, and citizens carry out comparative analyses and draw lessons from international comparisons of diverse health systems.
17. New Fund to Support Global Biodiversity Framework, Indigenous Peoples
The Cali Fund for the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits from the Use of Digital Sequence Information on Genetic Resources (DSI), launched in the margins of the resumed UN Biodiversity Conference, aims to mobilize new streams of funding for biodiversity action. The Cali Fund will allocate 50% of the resources to the self-identified needs of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, including women and youth.
16. 39 Countries to Present VNRs at HLPF 2025
Voluntary national reviews (VNRs) are a key accountability tool for SDG implementation, and our stories regarding the enduring interest among countries to prepare these voluntary documents remains strong. The original list of 39 presenters for 2025 was later revised down to include 35 countries. The Bahamas, Jordan, Palestine, and South Africa ended up not presenting VNRs in 2025. The majority of those countries that did present VNRs were third-time presenters. Guatemala, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Qatar presented their fourth VNRs. There were no first-time presenters in 2025.
15. Political Declaration for Adoption by Third UN Ocean Conference Finalized
President of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) Philemon Yang circulated the political declaration of the Third UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3) in May. In June, UNOC3 adopted the intergovernmentally agreed outcome document by consensus. Titled, ‘Our Ocean, Our Future: United for Urgent Action,’ the declaration features provisions on accelerating action on the Ocean, including through “significant and accessible finance and the fulfilment of existing commitments and obligations under relevant intergovernmental agreements.”
14. 2025: Advancing the Pact for the Future as Nations United
Our policy brief previewing the areas of sustainable development to watch in 2025 was one of several agenda reviews that our readers gravitated to. Tackling the climate crisis, delivering for chemicals and waste, accelerating action for the Ocean, reforming the global financial architecture, and advancing social development to implement the 2030 Agenda were forecast as themes of significance.
13. 15 of 195 Parties to Paris Agreement Meet Deadline to Communicate New NDCs
National climate plans received a lot of attention in 2025, as a key accountability tool for the Paris Agreement. While only 15 of the 195 parties to the Paris Agreement on climate change met the 10 February 2025 deadline to communicate their 2035 nationally determined contributions (NDCs), as of 21 January 2026, this number sits at 130. Together, they represent 78% of global emissions.
12. UNGA Adopts Six Themes for UN 2026 Water Conference
Our readers were already looking towards 2026 in 2025, with our news about preparations for the 2026 UN Water Conference capturing the attention of many. The high-level conference, which will aim to ‘Accelerate the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all,’ will take place in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from 2-4 December 2026. It will be co-hosted by Senegal and the UAE. Its six themes have to do with water for people, water for prosperity, water for the planet, water for cooperation, water for multilateral processes, and investments for water.
11. Environmental Risks Dominate Ten-year Horizon: Global Risks Report 2025
The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Risks Report 2025 highlighted misinformation and disinformation as the top risk over the next two years, followed by extreme weather events and state-based armed conflict. Over the ten-year horizon, perceived risks were dominated by environmental concerns.
Against the backdrop of multilateralism facing strong headwinds and the geopolitical landscape undergoing a dramatic transformation, our top ten stories point to a hunger for solutions – and an appetite for change.
10. Breaking the Deadlock in the Plastics Negotiations
A guest article we published in January outlined possible avenues toward success of the plastic agreement talks. However, delegates left the last round of negotiations in August without having reached a final agreement. Following the Chair’s subsequent resignation, the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) will hold a one-day INC session on 7 February 2026 for organizational and administrative purposes. The resumed meeting will focus on election of officers, and no substantive negotiations will take place.
9. Commitment to SDGs Remains High, Global Financial Reform Needed: SDSN Report
SDSN’s 2025 SDG Index and Dashboards ranking of the performance of all UN Member States on the SDGs revealed that East and South Asia outperformed all other regions in SDG progress. Among countries to have shown faster progress than others were Benin, Costa Rica, Nepal, Peru, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Uzbekistan. In terms of overall performance on the SDGs, Finland, Sweden, and Denmark emerged at the top.
8. In a Message of Hope, UN Secretary-General Outlines Priorities for 2025
In a January briefing to the UNGA, Secretary-General António Guterres outlined his priorities for 2025. He highlighted acceleration and transformation, oriented around the Pact for the Future, as a central priority in promoting peace, addressing inequalities, and tackling the climate crisis.
7. UN Secretary-General Updates on UN80, Pact for the Future Implementation
Implementation of the Pact for the Future and the UN80 Initiative to reform the organization peaked our readers’ interest throughout the year. Launched in March, the UN80 Initiative is advancing in three workstreams. It aims to: achieve efficiencies and improvements; review mandate implementation; and introduce structural changes and programme realignments. Guterres said the initiative responds to drastic cuts in critical funding to achieve the SDGs, and underscored that amid geopolitical divisions and mistrust, “with some actively questioning the value of international cooperation and the multilateral system itself,” the Pact and its two annexes – the Global Digital Compact and the Declaration on Future Generations – “are more important than ever.”
6. G7 Agrees to Deepen Cooperation on Critical Minerals Supply Chains
Cooperation outside the halls of the UN was also top of mind for our readers. The G7 Critical Minerals Action Plan, agreed at the 2025 G7 Summit, aims to anticipate critical minerals shortages, coordinate responses to deliberate market disruption, and diversify and onshore, where possible, mining, processing, manufacturing, and recycling. The Summit also issued joint statements on: adopting, powering, and sharing AI; collaborating on quantum innovation; preventing, fighting, and recovering from wildfires; countering foreign interference, including transnational repression; and fighting transnational crime, such as migrant smuggling.
5. Secretary-General: UN80 Initiative to “Move as Quickly as Possible”
In a May briefing, Guterres highlighted priority areas for action under UN80’s three workstreams through seven clusters, coordinated by the UN80 Task Force in close cooperation with the Secretariat’s Working Group. Responding to the calls contained in the Pact for the Future, he said these clusters were intended to serve as “the locomotive force for concrete proposals.”
4. FfD4 Outcome Document Agreed Ahead of Conference
Approved ahead of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), the ‘Compromiso de Sevilla’ recognized the annual financing for development (FfD) gap of USD 4 trillion and launched “an ambitious package of reforms and actions to close this financing gap with urgency,” while catalyzing sustainable development investments at scale.
3. UN Secretary-General’s SDG Progress Report Shows Change is Possible
Issued in preparation for HLPF 2025, the Secretary-General’s annual report on SDG progress “highlight[ed] areas requiring decisive action to reach the 2030 goalpost.” Emphasizing sustainable development as a core pillar of multilateral cooperation, as reaffirmed by the Political Declaration of the 2023 SDG Summit and the 2024 Pact for the Future, the report underscored that “[s]ustained multilateral engagement is essential to keep the SDGs within reach.”
2. Brazil Shares Priorities for COP 30
More than eight months before the Belém Climate Change Conference, Brazil briefed Member States on its priorities and preparations for the Conference. Elaborating on Brazil’s vision in a letter to parties, the President-designate highlighted the urgent need to “address, in a comprehensive and synergetic manner, the interlinked global crises of climate change and biodiversity loss in the broader context of achieving the SDGs.”
1. WHO Member States Adopt Pandemic Agreement
As in previous years, a good news story tops our list. After more than three years of talks, set in motion by the COVID-19 crisis, countries adopted the first global agreement on pandemic preparedness and response. The World Health Organization (WHO) Pandemic Agreement sets out the principles, approaches, and tools for better international coordination across a range of areas, including equitable and timely access to vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics.
At the SDG Knowledge Hub, we will continue to track developments that bring our global goals closer – be it data highlights, multilateral initiatives, or UN reform. As conversations about the future of sustainable development post-2030 gain prominence, we hope to inform thinking that is solutions-oriented, future-centric, and filled with hope.
Happy New Year!