On 17 November 2025, the seventh day of the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) published the 2025 Global Methane Status Report and the Adaptation Fund secured over US$133m in new pledges. In addition, Brazil hosted a ministerial dialogue focused on expanding financial mechanisms for global forest protection and launched a consultation on its National Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy.

On 18 November 2025, the eighth day of the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the COP30 Presidency published a draft decision that forms part of the decisions expected to be adopted on 19 November 2025, calling for a ‘Global Mutirão’ to close the 1.5°C ambition and implementation gap. In addition, Brazil and France announced the establishment of a Task Force on Oceans during a high-level ministerial meeting and the Alliance for the Implementation of National Adaptation Plans was launched.

On 19 November 2025, the ninth day of the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the UK and Brazil launched the Belém Declaration on Fertilisers, while the UK and New Zealand signed a memorandum of co-operation to establish a clean energy partnership. In addition, the Resilient Agriculture Investment for Net-Zero Land Degradation (RAIZ) Accelerator was launched to support the restoration of degraded agricultural land and the Global Climate Action Agenda High-Level Event was convened to recognise progress and celebrate achievements under the redefined COP30 Action Agenda.

On 21 November 2025, the last scheduled day of the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), negotiations extended into overtime. The following day, 22 November 2025, the COP30 Presidency, together with the Climate High-Level Champions, unveiled a Five-Year Vision for the Global Climate Action Agenda and released the COP30 Outcomes Report. A total of 195 Parties also adopted the Belém Package, comprising 29 consensus-approved decisions. In addition, COP accepted Türkiye’s offer to host COP31 and welcomed the arrangement between Türkiye and Australia to jointly hold the COP31 Presidency. It also accepted Ethiopia’s offer to host COP32 in 2027, marking the first time the governing bodies will convene in a least developed country.

Environment analysis: On the Saturday morning after the 30th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP30) in Brazil was supposed to have closed, the parties reached a deal. It will be known as the ‘Global Mutirão: Uniting humanity in a global mobilization against climate change’. The term ‘Global Mutirão’ is drawn from the Tupi-Guarani language and reflects what was billed as a COP focused on action and delivery. What resulted was an agreement that self-consciously kept the multilateral process alive and contained fragments of progress but failed to make any direct reference to fossil fuels or to forests; the latter despite the conference having been held in the Amazon. This article sets out the key developments from COP30. Written by Estelle Dehon KC, barrister, Cornerstone Barrister.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has announced a new Work-Related Deaths Protocol, jointly signed by eight organisations, including Police Scotland, the Health and Safety Executive, among others. The Protocol sets out the liaison arrangements between agencies reporting to COPFS and outlines how they will collaborate to investigate, prosecute, and prepare Fatal Accident Inquiries into work-related deaths in Scotland. It establishes a framework for parallel investigations, with different agencies either leading or jointly investigating various lines of enquiry, and includes mechanisms for managing investigation timelines and enhancing information sharing. The Lord Advocate, Dorothy Bain KC, has also welcomed the introduction of the Protocol.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has announced the expansion of its self-reporting policy for economic crimes, building on an initiative first introduced in 2011. The updated guidance now covers four categories of corporate offences: failure to prevent bribery under the Bribery Act 2010, failure to prevent tax evasion under the Criminal Finances Act 2017, and two new offences under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023—failure to prevent fraud and senior manager attributed offences.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has launched the digital platform 'Witness Gateway' which allows witnesses and victims to access their witness statements and information as well as receive relevant case updates online. COPFS reported that the Witness Gateway will support online interactions between members of the public and prosecutors and reduce the need for victims and witnesses to travel to COPFS in person and enhances access to case information. COPFS anticipates that the Witness Gateway will be expanded and rolled out throughout 2024.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has published the statement made by Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC to the Scottish Parliament on 16 January 2024, pertaining to Post Office Horizon IT prosecutions. In the statement, the Lord Advocate has said that it is clear the Post Office failed in its duty to reveal to prosecutors all material which may be relevant to the issue of whether the accused is innocent or guilty. The Lord Advocate has said that ‘where miscarriages of justice have happened, it is because prosecutors in Scotland accepted, as they were entitled to, evidence and explanations at face value from the Post Office’. The Lord Advocate has provided a summary, dating from the year 2000, of the history of the work of Scotland’s prosecutors when dealing with the Horizon cases and has said that she is ‘very deeply troubled by what has occurred’ and remains ‘acutely concerned that the COPFS was repeatedly misled by the Post Office’. The Lord Advocate has also apologised to those wrongfully convicted ‘for the way you have been failed by trusted institutions and the criminal justice system’.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has published information on emergency release of short-term prisoners in Scotland, using the Victim Notification Scheme (VNS). VNS offers victims information about the release of an offender. Those eligible to receive information under VNS include all victims aged under 12 and over; parents, guardians or carers of victims under the age of 12; carers of incapacitated victims and lastly, the four highest listed nearest relatives of a deceased person (which have been listed in by COPFS).

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has published a revised Prosecution Code, introduced by the Lord Advocate, Dorothy Bain KC. The revised Code updates the evidential stage of the prosecutorial test by adding a realistic prospect of conviction test, which applies alongside the existing requirement for legal sufficiency of evidence. Under the new test, where there is a legal sufficiency of evidence, prosecutors must be satisfied that an objective, impartial and reasonable jury, sheriff or justice of the peace, properly directed and acting in accordance with the law, is more likely than not to convict the accused. The public interest test remains unchanged.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has published a report titled ‘Domestic Abuse and Stalking charges in Scotland 2022—23’. In the report, the COPFS has said that, from April 2022 to March 2023, 30,139 charges were reported to it with a domestic abuse identifier. This was a decrease of 8% compared with the 2021—22 total. The report includes statistics and information on decisions taken regarding prosecution, types of offences, demographics of the accused and the location of charges. Key findings include that an initial decision was made to proceed to court with 94% of charges reported with a connection to domestic abuse. Further, the most common types of offences with a domestic abuse identifier were threatening and abusive behaviour offences (27%), common assault (24%) and crimes against public justice (23% including bail offences). In a comment on the report, Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC has said that ‘at COPFS, we recognise domestic abuse as a scourge on our society, to be tackled with every means at our disposal’.