Global review of 37 countries shows climate policy strengthening, with 200+ new policies since 2024, yet they still fall short. Report from the Oxford Climate Policy Monitor, part of the Oxford Martin Programme on Climate Policy

As countries meet at COP30 in the Amazon, the most detailed view yet of how different nations' laws and regulations are aligning – or not – to climate goals is available in the Climate Policy Monitor 2025 report.

•    Granular survey of 37 major countries’ climate-related laws and regulations, compiled by Oxford University researchers and dozens of leading global law firms, gives most detailed view yet of how climate policy is developing at a time of unprecedented political contestation.

•    Although the Trump Administration has reversed climate rules in the US, companies face increasing global compliance obligations: over 200 new rules were approved across the 37 countries in 2024 and the first half of 2025, 75% of which appeared outside Europe and North America.

•    On balance, climate policies are getting stronger. Across the 37 jurisdictions, policies moved closer to best practice in 82 instances and weakened in 42 instances.  

•    Emerging economies increasingly set the pace of climate action.

•    Overall, however, policies remain insufficient to close the gap between targets and actions and prevent severe climate impacts. 

“Nations and companies have made ambitious climate pledges, but to prevent catastrophic climate change what matters is concrete, implemented, enforceable rules”, says co-lead Professor Thomas Hale at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government. “That’s what we’re surveying.”

Since the last survey in 2024, new and strengthened climate policies can be found across the world, especially in Asia and emerging markets. For instance: Brazil, Kenya and Nigeria operationalised carbon markets. China has set out a regulatory framework for banks and insurance firms to promote carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. The Philippines’ New Government Procurement Act seeks to redirect the country’s USD$52 billion+ in annual procurement spending towards greener and more sustainable purchases. And the State of California adopted ambitious transparency rules requiring companies to disclosure information about their greenhouse gas emissions and the risks they face from climate change.

At the same time, the Trump Administration has rolled back climate policies in the US, and the EU has begun to revise or delay climate rules in areas like corporate disclosure, though the outcome of that process remains unclear.  

“In this climate of contestation climate policy is fragmenting, but even in that fragmented landscape the global direction of travel remains clear and points to transition: the vast majority of nations continue to create and strengthen climate rules in the policy areas we surveyed”, says co-lead Dr Thom Wetzer, Associate Professor at Oxford’s Faculty of Law and Director of the Oxford Sustainable Law Programme.

Professor Hale of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government adds: “The engine of climate policy has moved to emerging economies. In some regulatory domains, like rules requiring companies to disclose their emissions and other information related to climate change, African and Latin American countries now show higher ambition, on average, than European and North American countries. The US rollback has a real impact, but the long-term trend to transition remains increasingly clear even in the face of unprecedented contestation.”

Overall, however, policies are still insufficient to close the persistent gap between targets and actions, and so prevent catastrophic climate change. While countries, companies, and other actors continue to set climate targets – including a 9 percent rise in company net zero targets in the United States over the last year – global emissions also continue to rise.

“Governments need to adopt better climate rules, faster, to align climate policies with the latest science. As countries submit their latest pledges under the Paris Agreement at COP30 in Belem in the Amazon, it is vital they underpin top-level targets with concrete regulations and policies to ensure delivery.”

“In four out of the six policy domains examined by our study, fewer than five governments are meeting key benchmarks for policy ambition. More concerning, no jurisdiction has sufficiently ambitious methane policy”, says Professor Hale.

“Governments need to adopt better climate rules, faster, to align climate policies with the latest science”, says Dr Wetzer. “As countries submit their latest pledges under the Paris Agreement at COP30 in Belem in the Amazon, it is vital they underpin top-level targets with concrete regulations and policies to ensure delivery.”

The study is the second annual report from the Oxford Climate Policy Monitor, a public resource evaluating the ambition, stringency, implementation and comprehensiveness of climate-related regulations against 300+ data points. It evaluates national regulations in six key domains:

  
1.    Carbon credits: Policy tools establishing rules for the generation, use, exchange, and/or governance of carbon credits in both voluntary and compliance markets.   
2.    Public procurement: Rules that align government spending - which typically accounts for 10-15% of a country’s GDP and includes everything from vehicles to new hospitals - with governments’ climate goals. 
3.    Transition planning: Rules that require companies to lay out steps they will take to align with climate goals 
4.    Methane: Policies addressing the reduction of methane emissions from fossil fuels and agricultural sources.
5.    Climate-related disclosure: Obligations on companies and financial institutions to publicly report information on the risks they face from climate change, their contributions to the problem, and/or the policies they have in place  
6.    Green prudential rules: Policy tools issued by central banks and/or financial regulatory authorities that set rules or guidance regarding how financial-related risks emerging from climate change should be identified, assessed, mitigated, and/or monitored.  

Within these domains, the Monitor’s findings show important new trends.

On carbon credits, “African economies (including Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and Tanzania) have emerged as frontrunners on carbon crediting rules, particularly in safeguarding the social and environmental integrity of carbon credits and using carbon markets as a tool to raise climate finance”, says Bhavya Gupta, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Oxford Climate Policy Hub, Oxford University.

On methane, Emma Lecavalier, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Oxford Climate Policy Hub, notes: “There are positive signs that governments are making efforts to manage methane – over 20% of methane measures identified have been issued since 2024. But there is still a long way to go, particularly when it comes to regulating methane sources beyond oil and gas: only two policies we identified tackle methane emissions from coal, and fewer than two-thirds of jurisdictions are confronting agricultural methane emissions.”

On public procurement, which accounts for 12-15% of global GDP, more than 30 new sustainable public procurement policies were approved since 2024.

At COP30, the Monitor’s findings support the work of the UN Taskforce on Net Zero Policy, launched two years ago at COP28, which will issue a major report in Belem to advance efforts to align policy tools to climate goals.

The Monitor’s rich data for 2024/5, which will shortly be open-access, show specific areas where regulators can strengthen and align economic rules to create a level playing field and enabling environment for achieving net zero. The Monitor will be expanded to further domains and jurisdictions going forward. 
 
The Climate Policy Monitor is one of the outputs of the Oxford Climate Policy Hub, a research initiative based at the University of Oxford. It aims to build the evidence base and the capacity to advance net zero regulation and policy that is effective, rigorous and equitable. It is a collaboration between Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government and the Oxford Sustainable Law Programme (the latter is a joint initiative of the Oxford Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment and Oxford's Law Faculty). It is part of the Oxford Net Zero strategic cluster. It was launched in October 2023 as a direct output of the Oxford Martin Programme on Climate Policy with a £1m strategic funding grant from the Oxford Martin School. It is also supported by the EU Horizon ACHIEVE Project.