1169. Topics to Follow in 2025

This year's first Pick Up will introduce science and research topics to watch in 2025, related to agriculture, forestry, and fisheries, as well as to food systems, including the new anti-obesity drug, climate and environmental policies under the new U.S. administration, COP30, and forest monitoring, as indicated in the Nature article. 

Weight Loss Drugs

Following the huge success of the "miracle" drug Wegovy (semaglutide, a GLP-1 receptor agonist developed by Novo Nordisk used to treat type II diabetes and long-term weight management), new drugs targeting obesity could be approved in 2025, which could be cheaper to manufacture than existing treatments.

➡As of 2023, one in 11 people in the world faced hunger, and while it is perceived difficult to eradicate hunger by 2030, more than 25% of the adult population in the Americas, Europe, and Oceania suffer from obesity, which has been also on the rise in urban areas in low- and middle-income countries in recent years. Obesity is associated with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as heart disease, stroke, and diabetes, and is estimated to outweigh the costs associated with environmental degradation and social inequality. In order to provide nutritious food to the world's population, which is expected to approach 10 billion by 2050, in light of the sustainability of planetary health, it is necessary to fundamentally rethink the nature of food systems, where obesity and undernutrition coexist.

 

US Administration's Climate and Environmental Policies

During his last term, Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the 2015 Paris Agreement, an international commitment to limit global warming to 1.5-2°C above pre-industrial levels. Some researchers are concerned that the United States will once again withdraw from climate action.

➡ In the United States, the change in administration can drastically alter the stance on climate change policies.

COP 30th Anniversary

At UNFCCC COP30 in Belém, Brazil in November 2025, countries will discuss unresolved topics at COP29 in 2024, including climate finance to support developing countries

➡ At COP30, there will be a special focus on tropical forests.

Forest Monitoring

Two satellites are scheduled to be launched to monitor deforestation and natural disasters from space. The NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) mission, in collaboration with NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation, regularly maps the Earth's land and ice-covered surface. ESA’s Biomass mission, which will be launched from French Guiana, will use radar to study the role of forest biomass in the carbon cycle. New findings, based on highly accurate and high-frequency data, could inform discussions on commitments to curb deforestation.

➡ According to the IPCC AR6 Report, among agriculture, forestry, and other land use (AFOLU)-related options, reducing tropical deforestation has the greatest mitigation potential. On the other hand, in order to resolve the trade-off with multiple objectives, including food security, demand-side measures (shift to healthy diets and reduction of food loss and waste) and sustainable agricultural intensification are necessary. Since these measures contribute to the conservation of ecosystems and the reduction of methane and nitrous oxide emissions, the implementation of AFOLU response measures should integrate biological, socioeconomic, and other GHG-reducing measures from the perspective of the food systems approach.

➡In 2025, a four-year follow-up meeting of the 2021 United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) will be held to assess progress towards promoting sustainable food system transformation.
 

Reference
Miryam Naddaf. Science in 2025: the events to watch for in the coming year. 17 December 2024．Nature 637, 9-11 (2025) doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-03943-9

Contributor: IIYAMA Miyuki, Information Program