According to the latest data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), 2025 is currently on track to be tied with 2023 as the second or third warmest year on record. The monthly climate update also revealed that November 2025 will be the third warmest November globally, with significantly above-average temperatures in northern Canada and the Arctic. This November was marked by a number of extreme weather events, including a tropical cyclone in Southeast Asia that caused widespread, devastating flooding and loss of life.

Urbanization is one of the most significant demographic transitions in human history. The United Nations' World Urbanization Prospects 2025, released last month, estimates that by 2025, 45% of the world's 8.2 billion people will live in cities, 36% in towns, and 19% in rural areas. Projections predict that two-thirds of global population growth between now and 2050 will occur in urban areas, with most of the remaining growth occurring in urban areas. Meanwhile, the rural population is expected to peak in the 2040s and then begin to decline.

World Soil Day 2025, with the theme "Healthy Soils for Healthy Cities," focuses on urban landscapes. Meanwhile, sound management of the world's land, soil, and water will continue to be necessary to ensure stable food supply for urban and rural populations. A recent report (SOLAW 2025) by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) highlights the significant potential of land and water resources to support sustained increases in food production.

Iron is an essential element for plants, but in many parts of Southeast Asia and Africa, there is an excess supply of iron, which has a negative impact on the growth of plants, especially rice. This article introduces research aimed at elucidating the mechanism behind this "iron toxicity" and discovering rice genes that are important for healthy rice growth even under such conditions.

The ocean, Earth's life-support system, is experiencing rapid and widespread changes that extend to its deep layers due to multiple climate-related stressors, including warming, acidification, deoxygenation, and salinity fluctuations. A paper published in Nature Climate Change found that vast areas of the world's oceans are experiencing simultaneous warming, salinity changes (increase or freshening), oxygen depletion, and acidification, providing evidence that climate change is pushing the marine environment into uncharted territory.

Climate change is bringing about more severe and longer-lasting droughts in many regions around the world. A paper published in Science magazine conducted experiments in grasslands and shrublands around the world and found that ecosystems can adapt to multi-year droughts. However, the paper warned that if drought duration and intensity increase, ecosystems may gradually shift to a state where productivity declines significantly.

The Amazon is one of the Earth's key climate stabilizers, and protecting the rainforest and its biodiversity is essential. An editorial published in BMJ argues that the dual threats of biodiversity loss and climate change have clear implications for human health and should be at the center of discussions at COP30.

On Monday, October 27, 2025,the 2025 (19th) Japan International Award for Young Agricultural Researchers (Japan Award) , sponsored by the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Research Council of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries,  and the JIRCAS International Symposium 2025 "Accelerating Application of Agricultural Technologies in the Asia-Monsoon Region: Taking Stock and the Way Forward for Enhancing Production Potentials and Sustainable Food Systems" were held in a hybrid format at the Hitotsubashi Auditorium. Archived videos of both events have now been made available on the YouTube "JIRCAS Channel.

According to the FAO Food Outlook report, in the recent global fertilizer market, fertilizer use increased by 6% in 2024 due to lower fertilizer prices after two years of decline, including a price spike in 2022. While price levels increased by 19% from January to October 2025, the current increase in fertilizer production costs is slower than at previous peaks, due in part to improved structural resilience in fertilizer production, including the import of raw materials from low-cost regions.