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If you felt like the summer heat arrived before summer itself, you’re not imagining things. This June has sounded the alarm, not with sirens, but with thermometers, satellite data, and scorched dry earth.
Let’s start with the weather. Or, more accurately, the climate doing a very good impression of extreme weather.
Cities across the U.S., Canada, southern Europe, and the UK saw record-breaking June temperatures, some exceeding typical July and August highs. Forest fires even erupted in Greece.
In parallel with this heat, scientists delivered a particularly sobering reality check. We are just three years away from likely overshooting the 1.5 °C global warming threshold.
A study by Earth System Science Data, highlights how little “carbon budget” we have left, just 130 billion tonnes, a figure we’re chewing through faster than anyone hoped.
But amidst the heat and the hard truths, there were glimmers of momentum. A recent report shows that the UK is capable of reaching net zero by 2050, if it makes electricity cheaper than gas and secures long-term water supply.
Speaking of water, to mark World Environment Day, the EU announced a €15 billion water preservation programme to tackle water pollution, reduce waste, and build resilience into threatened rivers and agricultural systems.
Simultaneously, plastic pollution returned to the top of the agenda, as negotiations for a binding global plastics treaty gained new traction.
The message from Brussels is becoming harder to ignore, if climate is the canvas, water and waste are the brushstrokes that define the outcome.
Innovation, too, had its moment. In a symbolic but headline-grabbing move, the RAF’s Red Arrows took to the skies for the King’s Birthday flypast powered by sustainable aviation fuel, a first for the iconic display team.
Globally, energy efficiency remains the quiet achiever. According to a June report presented ahead of international energy talks, countries like China have collectively made gains in energy use per unit of GDP, especially across manufacturing and industry.
As tech shifts, geopolitics jolts, and demand continues to rise, efficiency can’t simply be a bonus, it has to be the backbone.
And finally, deforestation. According to satellite data released this month, soy production, often presented as an industry that had learned its lesson, is once again encroaching on regrowth forests, particularly in Brazil.
The 2006 Amazon Soy Moratorium technically prevents deforestation for new soy, but secondary forests, it seems, are fair game. It’s a loophole that exposes the fragility of corporate pledges when policy and enforcement fall behind.
So, where does this all leave us? June 2025 has been a month of striking contrast, between progress and pressure, between visible ambition and invisible tipping points.
The heat arrived early this year, but the warnings arrived earlier still. Whether they’ve been heard remains to be seen.