Accelerating accountability: Milestones and momentum in 2025

18/12/2025

By Natasha Matic, Executive Director, Accountability Accelerator

As this year draws to a close, I am proud to reflect on all that we have achieved in 2025. 

It has been a year of firsts, of successes, and of perseverance in the face of adversity. Despite challenging geopolitical headwinds, the urgency of the interlocking climate, nature and justice crisis – and the compelling case for action – keeps driving us forward. Progress is accelerating in the real economy and among people and communities, and this is where we must continue looking for the leadership and solutions this moment requires. 

Our grantees working around the world are a prime example. They have made important strides at the local level this year. To highlight just a few examples:

• Accountability Counsel represented villagers in Lesotho in filing a complaint to the African Development Bank about damage from a large-scale water project; 
• Inclusive Development International reported on the impacts of bauxite mining on communities in Guinea; 
• Our partners in Indonesia revealed the social and environmental costs of nickel mining tied to the electric-vehicle supply chain; 
• InfoAmazonia published findings of its year-long investigation uncovering the impacts of oil exploration in the Amazon; and 
• WWF-US piloted a new model for regional freshwater SBTN implementation in the Mississippi River Basin. 

This year has also seen us expand the breadth of our work on corporate accountability for nature. In February, the Accelerator launched the official validation service for science-based targets for nature, a huge milestone for credible, meaningful corporate action. Momentum is building: through the Step Up for Nature initiative, we are mobilizing companies to publicly signal their ambition and share when they will submit their work to the Accelerator for validation. 

Robust legal architecture is another key lever for driving corporate accountability for nature. This year we carried out an extensive global mapping of legal approaches at the intersection of corporate accountability, law and nature, with the goal of helping build a stronger legal framework to prevent corporate harms to nature, climate and communities. This will be an important focus area for our work going into next year. 

Our energy transition work also picked up pace in 2025 with convenings in Jakarta and London and the publication of a whitepaper sharing key learnings and recommendations. Across these touchpoints we brought together a wide group of stakeholders to develop concrete strategies for enhancing corporate accountability, protecting Indigenous rights, and fostering environmental justice, with a strong focus on collective action, local leadership and consensus-building. 

As we look ahead to 2026 there is much to do. 

We’ll be publishing the insights from the legal mapping process and developing strategies for turning those into action; looking for ways to build further synergies in the accountability ecosystem between nature, climate and human rights; strengthening our accountable energy transition work; and kicking off our work on food and agriculture accountability in the US Midwest. We will also continue to fund the vital work of NGOs delivering impact on the ground around the world. 

We look forward to sharing more on our work in the new year.

From all of us at the Accountability Accelerator, we wish you and your families a peaceful and restorative December, and a very happy new year. The team and I look forward to collaborating with you in 2026.