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This report examines the tension between trade liberalization and environmental conservation in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). It highlights how rapid economic growth and infrastructure development have exacerbated illegal wildlife and timber trade and increased vulnerability to climate change, while regional governance remains hampered by non-binding agreements and limited administrative capacity.

This report analyzes the clean energy market for electricity generation in Chile, examining the current state of the electricity grid, investment trends, and the regulatory framework. It identifies significant potential for non-conventional renewable energy (NCRE) but highlights substantial economic, regulatory, and financial barriers that hinder large-scale adoption.

This report examines the potential, status, and barriers facing Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) in developing countries. It analyzes how ESCOs use energy performance contracting (EPC) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption, highlighting China as a major success story while identifying systemic financing, administrative, and policy hurdles in other regions.

This guide provides a glossary of basic concepts related to fisheries subsidies negotiations, defining maritime zones, the roles of different states, and technical terms regarding fish stock sustainability and capacity.

This fact sheet outlines the economic and environmental benefits of Green Public Procurement (GPP) based on the IISD GPP model, highlighting that GPP can offset its own costs through energy, health, and environmental savings.

This report by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) examines how performance requirements (PRs)—stipulations imposed on foreign investors to achieve specific development goals—are treated in international investment treaties. It analyzes the tension between the use of PRs to foster sustainable development and the prohibitions on such measures found in WTO agreements and bilateral investment treaties (BITs), highlighting the risks to the policy space of developing countries.

This report by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) analyzes how the definition of 'investor' in Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) can be exploited through 'treaty shopping' and recommends stricter nationality criteria to protect host States from unintended international arbitration claims.

This guide by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) analyzes the use of registration and approval requirements in investment treaties to limit their scope of application. It examines how these criteria are used by states to control the quality of investments and limit exposure to international arbitration, providing a comparative analysis of regional agreements (ASEAN, COMESA) and bilateral investment treaties (BITs), alongside an analysis of arbitral awards that have interpreted these provisions.

This report analyzes the fiscal implications of the clean energy transition for the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), focusing on the reliance of government budgets on fossil fuel revenues and the impact of existing subsidies.

This case study examines South Africa's heavy reliance on coal and the resulting fiscal implications for its energy transition. It details the role of state-owned enterprises, the structure of fossil fuel revenues and subsidies, and the government's climate commitments via its Nationally Determined Contribution.

This report by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) provides a set of guidelines for the design and implementation of Border Carbon Adjustment (BCA) regimes. Based on two years of national stakeholder consultations and Global Stakeholder Dialogues, the document offers recommendations to help policy-makers balance climate ambition with the need to avoid trade frictions and regulatory fragmentation.

This policy brief by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) examines the need for international cooperation on the design and implementation of Border Carbon Adjustments (BCAs). It identifies key technical and political friction points—such as emissions calculation standards, geographical exemptions, and revenue use—and evaluates various multilateral, regional, and bilateral forums that could facilitate a coordinated approach to avoid trade tensions and administrative burdens.

This policy brief by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) examines why the costs of carbon capture and storage (CCS) remain high, particularly within Canada's oil and gas sector. It argues that high design complexity and the need for customization prevent the cost reductions seen in renewable energy technologies, making CCS an inefficient use of public funds for oil and gas, though potentially useful for hard-to-abate industrial sectors like cement.

This briefing note evaluates the alignment of subnational indicator systems with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) using the Province of Manitoba as a test case. While thematic alignment is found in over 20% of provincial indicators, there is a significant structural gap: provincial systems rely almost exclusively on 'state' indicators, lacking the 'finance' and 'policy' indicators present in the SDG framework. The authors argue that aligning these systems is critical for aggregating subnational data into national progress reports.

Socio-economic and ecological vulnerability assessment of the Lake Balaton region in Hungary, focusing on the development of an integrated assessment model to inform adaptation strategies and policy-making. The project, implemented by the Lake Balaton Development Coordination Agency and funded by the GEF through the UNDP, aims toSS to address vulnerabilities related to water quality, water quantity, land use, biodiversity, and demographics. It focuses on building local capacity and implementing pilot projects to enhance resilience against climate change and other environmental pressures.

The provided document is a fact sheet describing CRiSTAL (Community-based Risk Screening Tool – Adaptation and Livelihoods), a project planning and management tool designed to integrate risk reduction and climate change adaptation into community-level work.

This fact sheet describes CRiSTAL (Community Risk Identification Tool - Adaptation and Livelihoods), a project management and planning tool designed to integrate climate change adaptation and risk reduction into community-level work. Developed by a consortium including the IUCN, IISD, SEI, and Intercooperation, the tool uses a structured analytical framework implemented via Microsoft Excel to help planners understand the links between climate threats, local livelihoods, and project activities.

CRiSTAL is a community-level planning tool developed by IUCN, IISD, SEI, and Intercooperation to integrate climate change adaptation and risk reduction into project management. Using a structured four-step analytical process implemented via Microsoft Excel, it helps users assess the impact of climate hazards on local livelihoods and adjust project activities to improve community resilience. Since its 2007 launch, it has been used in over 20 countries, with initial field trials conducted in Mali, Bangladesh, Tanzania, Nicaragua, and Sri Lanka.

This fact sheet from the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) introduces 'Ecohealth,' a conceptual approach that links human well-being to the health of ecosystems, specifically focusing on the role of watershed management in improving both social and environmental determinants of health.

The Entrepreneur’s Toolkit is a collaborative, wiki-based online platform launched in 2008 to provide social and environmental entrepreneurs with resources, knowledge, and peer-to-peer advice to enhance business performance and sustainable development impacts.