Deena Robinson & Martina Igini / Global Commons
The world is grappling with a host of pressing environmental challenges that demand immediate attention and action. From climate change-induced disasters, biodiversity loss and plastic pollution to the rise of artificial intelligence, the 16 biggest environmental problems of 2026 paint a stark picture of the urgent need for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Earth.Org / January 9, 2026
- Global Warming From Fossil Fuels
Another year marked by record-breaking heatwaves and catastrophic extreme weather events has just concluded, with 2025 set to be among the three warmest on record. This wraps up more than a decade of unprecedented global heat, fuelled by human activities, with each of the past 11 years (2015-2025) among the 10 warmest on record. Currently, 2024 tops the ranking, followed by 2023.
Undoubtedly, among the biggest environmental problems of our lifetime is the rise in greenhouse gas emissions, which trap heat from the sun in the atmosphere, raising Earth’s surface temperature and leading to longer and hotter heatwaves. Atmospheric concentrations of all three major planet-warming gases – carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and nitrous oxide – have never been so high. Because of these gases’ extremely long durability in the atmosphere, the world is now committed to “more long-term temperature increase,” Ko Barret, Deputy Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organisation, said last month.
“The heat trapped by CO2 and other greenhouse gases is turbo-charging our climate and leading to more extreme weather. Reducing emissions is therefore essential not just for our climate but also for our economic security and community well-being,” Barrett added.
Increased emissions of greenhouse gases have led to a rapid and steady increase in global temperatures, which in turn is causing catastrophic events all over the world – from Australia and the US experiencing some of the most devastating bushfire seasons ever recorded and locusts swarming decimating crops across parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia to a heatwave in Antarctica that saw temperatures rise above 20C for the first time.
Scientists are constantly warning that the planet has crossed a series of tipping points that could have catastrophic consequences, such as advancing permafrost melt in Arctic regions, the Greenland ice sheet melting at an unprecedented rate, accelerating sixth mass extinction and increasing deforestation in the Amazon rainforest.
The climate crisis is causing tropical storms and other weather events such as tropical cyclones (better known as hurricanes and typhoons), heatwaves and flooding to be more intense and frequent than seen before.
Even if all greenhouse gas emissions were halted immediately, global temperatures would continue to rise in the coming years. That is why it is absolutely imperative that we start now to drastically reduce emissions, invest in renewable energy sources, and phase our fossil fuels as fast as possible.
- Politicisation of the Climate Crisis
The undeniable reality of the climate crisis failed to prevent its politicisation. Particularly in recent years, what was once just a scientific issue has become a partisan battleground where views often align with political ideology, fueled by misinformation campaigns, economic interests tied to fossil fuels, and differing views on government intervention, making consensus difficult and hindering action.
This has been particularly true in countries like the US, which, under President Donald Trump, has backpedalled tremendously on climate action. Since taking office in January 2025, Trump has implemented significant rollbacks of environmental policies and regulations, abandoned international organisations and climate treaties, dismantled climate research and sought to bring back destructive practices, from deep ocean mining and logging to fossil fuel production.
Dozens of companies, from social media platforms and energy companies to investment firms, airlines, big banks and even philanthropic organisations, have also backtracked on their environmental pledges to fall in line with the Trump administration’s anti-climate agenda.
The US’s example reflects a broader change in the priority that governments around the world assign to climate change. The European Union is another good example of this, having recently backtracked on its climate agenda, which was once regarded as the world’s most ambitious plan to tackle the climate crisis.
Globally, recent climate conferences have been criticised for failing to achieve anything meaningful as fossil fuel influence grows larger and more powerful. Last November’s COP30 ended without a mention of fossil fuels, despite pressure from more than 80 countries to include a phase-out plan in the final agreement. One in 25 attendees (some 1,600 people) represented the fossil fuel industry.
- Biodiversity Loss
The past 50 years have seen rapid growth in human consumption, population, global trade, and urbanisation, resulting in humanity using more of the Earth’s resources than it can replenish naturally.
A 2020 WWF report found that the population sizes of mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, and amphibians have declined by an average of 68% between 1970 and 2016. The report attributes this biodiversity loss to a variety of factors, but mainly land-use change, particularly the conversion of habitats, like forests, grasslands and mangroves, into agricultural systems. Animals such as pangolins, sharks and seahorses are significantly affected by the illegal wildlife trade, and pangolins are critically endangered because of it.
More broadly, a 2021 analysis has found that the sixth mass extinction of wildlife on Earth is accelerating. More than 500 species of land animals are on the brink of extinction and are likely to be lost within 20 years; the same number were lost over the whole of the last century. The scientists say that without the human destruction of nature, this rate of loss would have taken thousands of years.
In Antarctica, climate change-triggered sea ice melting is taking a heavy toll on emperor penguins and could wipe out entire populations by as early as 2100, according to 2023 research.
Under the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, countries have pledged to protect and conserve at least 30% of the world’s land and water by 2030 (also known as the “30 by 30” target). Global protection currently falls short of this goal, with only 9.6% of the ocean effectively protected.
And yet it is not all doom and gloom. Around the world, governments, civil society organizations and communities made meaningful strides to protect the natural world, preserving precious ecosystems, strengthening legislation and taking destructive industries to court.
Last year, Morocco became the 60th country to ratify the High Seas Treaty, meeting the ratification threshold for its entry into force. The treaty establishes a legal framework to create networks of marine protected areas (MPAs) in international waters – a critical step, given that protecting national waters alone will not be sufficient to meet the 30 by 30 goal. And last year, many countries, including Australia and Argentina, Portugal, Colombia and São Tomé and Príncipe, French Polynesia, Spain and Pakistan took a step in the right direction.
On terra firma, governments also stepped up to expand protections. While 17.6% of land is protected globally, announcements made in 2025 suggest that momentum is building towards the 30 by 30 target. Colombia, for example, designated a first-of-its-kind territory to protect an uncontacted Indigenous group. Spanning over 1 million hectares, the new area prohibits all economic development and forced human contact, protecting both the Yuri-Passé people and the rich biodiversity that call it their home.