Oxford Monitor finds climate policy strengthened across all 37 jurisdictions since 2020

The 2025 Oxford Climate Policy Monitor Annual Review found that all 37 jurisdictions assessed strengthened their climate policies since 2020, with formal rollbacks in only the United States. For corporate compliance, the resilience signals that decarbonisation pathways are being cemented into statutory frameworks, shifting focus from setting targets to the quality and integrity of implementation.

The 2025 Oxford Climate Policy Monitor Annual Review, published by the Oxford Climate Policy Hub, assessed 37 jurisdictions representing over 85 percent of global emissions and 87 percent of global GDP, analysing more than 600 policies across six domains and four metrics: Ambition, Stringency, Implementation, and Comprehensiveness. Since 2020, every one of the 37 jurisdictions showed an overall increase in policy strength, even amid political leadership changes, with formal rollbacks in only the United States. In the most recent period, ambition strengthened in 82 instances against 42 instances of weakening.

The findings affect companies, financial institutions, and investors across major economies. Rule-making was most pronounced in climate-related disclosures, carbon crediting, and methane abatement, though low-integrity credits continue fuelling greenwashing allegations. Progress was more incremental in green prudential standards, public procurement rules, and corporate transition planning. While 33 of 37 jurisdictions now have policies recommending or requiring transition plans, with requirements outweighing recommendations, plan quality varies considerably, with third-party verification, detailed scenario analyses, and alignment of corporate lobbying with transition goals remaining rare.

Corporate compliance efforts should shift from merely establishing climate targets to addressing the quality and integrity of implementation mechanisms, including third-party verification, detailed scenario analyses, and aligning lobbying with transition goals. Companies should recognise that decarbonisation pathways are being cemented into statutory frameworks less susceptible to short-term political shifts. For sustainable finance, investors and regulators should maintain vigilance as incremental progress on prudential rules suggests explicit capital requirements and strong green lending mandates have yet to reach critical mass.

Key figure — Policy strengthening: all 37 jurisdictions increased policy strength since 2020