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This report summarizes a February 2015 midterm review meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, regarding an international project led by Natural Justice and the Heinrich Böll Foundation. The project, which began in July 2013, examines the development and use of biocultural community protocols (BCPs) to help Indigenous peoples and local communities safeguard their rights and interests when engaging with extractive industries and infrastructure development.

This briefing by the NewClimate Institute examines the feasibility, timing, and technical requirements for phasing out net global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to meet the 2°C temperature target. It defines 'net phase out' as the point where anthropogenic emissions are equal to or smaller than anthropogenic removals, and discusses the role of carbon budgets, renewable energy, and specific sectoral challenges.

A February 2015 report by the International Institute for Sustainable Development, based on a survey of 1,015 adults, examines public opinion in Manitoba regarding the conservation and development of the province's boreal forest. The findings indicate a strong public preference for conservation over industrial development, with a majority of respondents supporting the protection of more than 50% of the region.

This research paper describes the application of a nexus toolkit, utilizing WEAP and LEAP, to evaluate the interdependencies and potential conflicts between agricultural transformation and energy transition in Ethiopia's Lake Tana Sub-basin.

Earthjustice issued a statement regarding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) final rule to update air pollution performance standards for new residential wood heaters, a move prompted by a legal challenge filed by Earthjustice on behalf of several health and environmental organizations.

This research paper details a participatory process using Knowledge elicitation tools (KnETs) in southeast Cameroon to formalize qualitative data on livelihood decision-making, which is then used to inform social simulation models for sustainable forest management.

The World Resources Institute (WRI) produced this draft list to provide detailed guidance on the types of upfront information Parties may include when submitting their intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs) to enhance transparency, as referenced in paragraph 14 of the Lima Call for Climate Action.

This briefing paper by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) and CARE International argues that climate change is a critical human rights challenge. It examines how climate impacts and the responses to them threaten fundamental rights and provides a set of policy recommendations to integrate a human rights-based approach into the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process.

This briefing, prepared by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) and CARE International, argues that climate change is the greatest human rights challenge of the current era. It calls for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to integrate human rights protections into its policies, particularly as the international community negotiated the 2015 climate agreement. The document outlines how climate impacts threaten fundamental rights and provides specific policy recommendations to ensure that climate mitigation and adaptation efforts do not further violate human rights.

The Obama administration's FY 2016 budget proposal requests significant funding increases for clean energy, climate resilience, and sustainable infrastructure. Key highlights include a $29.9 billion request for the Department of Energy, a $94.7 billion request for the Department of Transportation, and the creation of a $4 billion Clean Power Plan Incentive Fund. The budget emphasizes a transition to a low-carbon economy through investments in renewable energy, energy efficiency in buildings, and the modernization of transportation networks.

This report details the results of an expert meeting hosted by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) in October 2014 in Montreux, Switzerland. The meeting focused on rethinking international investment-related dispute settlement to move beyond the singular focus on investor rights and state obligations, proposing more inclusive models that allow stakeholders such as local communities and individuals to seek remedies for injuries or human rights abuses.

This policy brief, published by the Institute for Security Studies in February 2015, analyzes the integrity of Kenya's 2013 general elections. Based on a post-election survey by the Comparative National Elections Project (CNEP), the document examines voter perceptions of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), the fairness of the process, and the influence of ethnic and partisan dynamics on public trust.

This policy briefing by the South African Institute of International Affairs evaluates the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), arguing that while it provides duty-free access to the US market, it remains underutilised. The author proposes a four-pillar strategy for the October 2015 renewal: timely and extended renewal, addressing non-tariff barriers, improving structural competitiveness through infrastructure and finance, and aligning with global trading shifts like the TPP and TTIP.

This policy briefing by the South African Institute of International Affairs provides recommendations to the South African Parliament on establishing an inclusive blue economy for small-scale fishers. It examines the historical impact of apartheid-era dispossession, the challenges of implementing the 2012 Policy for the Small Scale Fisheries Sector (SSF policy), and the tension between social justice and environmental sustainability in fisheries governance.

This research paper, produced by the Stockholm Environment Institute for the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (Naturvårdsverket), examines policy instruments and interventions to reduce the negative impacts of Swedish consumption on health and the environment in other countries. It focuses on the international dimension of Sweden's 'generational goal' (generationsmålet), identifying key 'hotspots' such as electronics from China and soy from Brazil, and proposing a mix of economic, administrative, informative, and collaborative measures to drive systemic change toward sustainable consumption.

This research paper presents the results of multi-stakeholder Participatory GIS (PGIS) workshops held in June 2014 in the Tanga region of Tanzania. The workshops aimed to map small-scale dairy production systems, feed sources, and environmental resources in the Lushoto and Handeni districts to provide data for the CLEANED-VCs environmental assessment framework.

This research paper provides a spatially explicit assessment of woodfuel supply and demand across the tropics for the year 2009, estimating the levels of unsustainable harvesting and the resulting greenhouse gas emissions.

This report examines the challenges of agricultural water use and productivity in the Limpopo River Basin, highlighting the vulnerability of small-scale farmers to rainfall variability and proposing policy improvements for water management and land tenure across the basin's four countries.

This report recommends establishing a Trusted Third Party (TTP) system and a biometric-based recipient registration process to manage AML/CFT risks in the UK-Somalia remittance corridor. It proposes a pilot phase in 2015 involving 500 customers to test these mechanisms, which include contactless cards and TTP-led audits of Money Service Businesses (MSBs) to ensure the legitimacy of fund disbursements in Somalia.

This research paper by Marie Wilke, Laura Letourneau-Tremblay, and Stephanie Booker examines community-company engagement in the extractive industries, specifically focusing on communities that struggle to engage with companies and seek to use formal agreements to secure commitments and manage conflicts.