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The document highlights the risks posed by outdated and opaque investment contracts, such as stabilization clauses and tax incentives, which can limit a state's regulatory space and lead to costly international arbitration. It proposes a three-step national reform strategy: improving inter-ministerial coordination, centralizing and evaluating existing contracts, and developing standardized model contracts. It also calls for greater alignment between contract reform and broader regional and global efforts to modernize investment governance.

The report argues that South Africa must elevate the Southern Ocean and Antarctica in its strategic planning, as the region is critical for global climate regulation, food security, and maritime safety. While South Africa is the only African state party to the Antarctic Treaty, its diplomatic engagement has been inconsistent. The document highlights rising risks from climate change, such as sea-level rise threatening African coasts, and geopolitical tensions, including Russia's seismic surveying and the blocking of Marine Protected Areas by China and Russia. It suggests South Africa leverage its non-claimant status and role as a logistical gateway to enhance its influence, while warning that its under-resourced navy may struggle with increasing search and rescue demands from growing Antarctic tourism and rerouted shipping traffic around the Cape of Good Hope.

Saint Lucia's second NAP progress report (2022–2024) documents the transition from planning to implementation across eight priority sectors. While five sectoral plans (water, agriculture, fisheries, resilient ecosystems, and health) are complete, three others (infrastructure, education, and tourism) are being finalized via GCF support. The report highlights achievements in water resource management, climate-resilient agriculture, and blue economy initiatives, while recommending a standardized, simplified monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system to address data gaps and staffing constraints.

The report examines the growing instability of France's 'Cat-Nat' insurance regime, where the public reinsurer (CCR) is seeing its reserves deplete while private insurers maintain record profitability. It highlights an emerging insurability crisis for local authorities, particularly in overseas territories and northern France, and argues that the financial burden of climate change is unfairly shifted toward the public sector and policyholders. Reclaim Finance calls for a revision of the financial effort sharing to ensure that major listed insurers contribute more to prevention and repair.

Between September 1 and December 18, 2025, 22,158 lobbyist entries were recorded at the European Parliament, with private interests accounting for 59% of visits. The report highlights a pervasive presence of American lobbyists (95% presence rate) and fossil fuel representatives (87.5% presence rate), who utilized direct access and professional consultancies to influence the Omnibus I law. A case study on ExxonMobil reveals the company spent between €1.3 million and €1.7 million on consultancies alone in 2025 to target climate legislation. The analysis concludes that this lobbying effort, supported by a right-wing/far-right parliamentary majority, successfully secured the removal of climate transition plans from the legislation.

Between September 1 and December 18, 2025, the European Parliament recorded 22,158 lobbyist entries, with private interests accounting for 59% of these visits. The report highlights a disproportionate presence of US-based lobbyists and fossil fuel interests, who were present 87.5% of the time during the studied period. This influence was particularly concentrated around the negotiation of the Omnibus I law, which modified the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). The analysis reveals that fossil fuel lobbyists often entered the Parliament without declared appointments to engage in informal interactions. A case study of ExxonMobil demonstrates a complex lobbying chain involving direct visits, professional consultancies, and trade associations, totaling over 650 entries in four months to push for the removal of climate transition plans.

The European Central Bank (ECB) will introduce a 'climate factor' on 15 June 2026 to adjust the valuation of marketable assets issued by non-financial corporations used as collateral. The factor penalizes assets tied to high-emission activities based on sector-specific stressors, issuer-specific climate scores, and asset maturity. Reclaim Finance argues the measure is a positive step but suffers from transparency gaps and a flawed annual calculation cycle that may misrepresent risks for short-term assets. The briefing recommends making climate factors public, automating calculations, and extending the framework to credit claims and other asset classes to ensure comprehensive integration of climate risks into monetary policy.

The document analyzes the transition of South Africa from dominant-party rule to a coalition-based political landscape. It examines the formation and fragility of the 10-party Government of National Unity (GNU), provincial coalitions in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Northern Cape, and the chronic instability of municipal coalitions. The authors argue that while coalitions can broaden representation and introduce checks and balances, South Africa's current reliance on informal, non-binding agreements leads to gridlock and a reliance on courts for dispute resolution. The paper recommends formalizing coalition pacts, limiting motions of no confidence, and establishing transparent monitoring mechanisms to restore public trust.

The document argues that African diplomacy at the UN is evolving into a distinct form of realpolitik that blends enduring values with strategic calculation. This approach is evidenced by voting patterns on conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, where states use abstentions to maintain strategic autonomy. The brief highlights key institutional gains, such as the AU's permanent G20 seat and UN Security Council Resolution 2719 for financing AU-led peace operations, while noting that challenges in coordination, capacity, and consistency persist. Ultimately, it posits that Africa uses moral and legal narratives not to cloak domination, but to resist it and negotiate influence within an asymmetrical international system.

The Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) 2025 results report details the organization's progress in driving sustainable development through scientific research, capacity building, and policy engagement. Key achievements include the development of the 2025 Production Gap Report, the creation of the Integrated Guide for Business Greenhouse Gas and Air Pollutant Emission Assessment, and the support of Kazakhstan's NDC 3.0. SEI also highlights its 'One-SEI' programs, which foster cross-centre collaboration on themes such as sustainable transport, food systems, and finance. Organizationally, SEI reports a 52% reduction in air travel emissions per employee since 2017 and an increase in peer-reviewed journal outputs by 30% over 2024.

The briefing critiques Sweden's Social Climate Plan for its limited focus on a single electric vehicle premium, arguing that it ignores 120,000 heating-poor households and fails to address the root causes of transport poverty. Using the Transitional Assistance Framework, the authors categorize the plan as 'adaptive' but 'narrow' because it provides financial aid without addressing structural barriers like charging infrastructure or public transport. The document contrasts Sweden's approach with more comprehensive proposals from Greece, Latvia, and Poland, and recommends that EU member states prioritize structural investments over short-term technology subsidies to ensure a truly just transition.

The document argues that the global military carbon footprint estimates provided by Bohigas et al (ranging from 0.5% to 1.3% of global emissions) are unreliable due to implausible assumptions and incomplete data. Specifically, it notes that the lower estimate assumes non-US militaries have zero emissions, while the upper estimate relies on US emissions intensity which may not reflect the higher fossil-fuel intensity of other major military spenders like China, Russia, India, and Saudi Arabia. The author further highlights the omission of aviation's upper-atmosphere heating effects, 'scope 3+' war-fighting impacts, and the potential of environmentally-extended input output models (EEIOMs) to provide more accurate data.

The document examines energy storage as a structural resource for flexibility in Latin American electrical systems facing high penetration of variable renewable energy. It highlights that while Chile leads in battery deployment to manage curtailment, other countries like Colombia, Peru, and Brazil are at earlier stages, often focusing on reliability or specific industrial uses. The report argues that the primary barriers to deployment are institutional and regulatory rather than technological, and recommends shifting from a capacity-focused approach to a functional one that prioritizes specific flexibility needs.

The document is a comprehensive glossary designed to bridge the communication gap between the scientific and legal communities in the context of climate litigation. It defines key terms across seven thematic areas: foundational scientific concepts, measurement and data methods, climate and environmental science, risk and impact, public health, Indigenous Knowledge, and socioeconomic policy. The guide emphasizes the distinctions between scientific and legal interpretations of terms like 'bias', 'significance', and 'uncertainty', and explains how attribution science and climate modeling can be used to establish causation and responsibility in court.

The Union of Concerned Scientists reports that the Trump administration has granted Clean Air Act exemptions to over one-third of 546 eligible industrial facilities, including coal plants and chemical manufacturers. This policy affects nearly 4.6 million people and over 4,300 schools and daycares, with a disproportionate impact on communities already facing high environmental and social stressors. The administration utilized a national emergency provision in March 2025 to allow a two-year exemption, which the EPA intends to make permanent.

The 2025 assessment by WWF reveals a mixed landscape in asset management's approach to seafood-related E&S risks. While 40% of assessed firms showed improvements—largely through enhanced biodiversity commitments and adoption of TNFD recommendations—43% stagnated and 17% declined, with declines notably concentrated among US-based firms. A critical gap remains: only one asset manager (NBIM) has disclosed seafood-specific E&S expectations for investee companies. Despite the growth of 'blue' financial products, they represent a small fraction of sustainable finance, and most asset managers' engagement with seafood companies remains ad hoc rather than systematic.

A February 2026 survey of 749 registered Hawai‘i voters reveals that 85% view rising homeowners insurance costs as a serious problem, with 79% of homeowners experiencing rate increases in the last 2-3 years. While voters attribute these increases to various factors, including insurance industry profits (31%) and climate change (19%), there is significant support for state intervention. Specifically, 82% favor greater regulations to limit policy cancellations, and 61% support legislation allowing the State of Hawai‘i to sue oil and gas companies to recover insurance-related costs stemming from extreme weather disasters worsened by climate change.

The document provides a comprehensive critique of the South African food system, highlighting how historical land dispossession and post-apartheid deregulation have led to extreme corporate concentration and persistent food insecurity. It advocates for a transition toward agroecology and food sovereignty, emphasizing the need for secure land tenure—particularly for women—and the realignment of social grants to meet the food poverty line. The submission also details the 'triple burden' of malnutrition affecting children and the increasing risks posed by climate change to a water-scarce agricultural sector.

The document analyzes how the Iranian regime and its allies used an 'axis of amplification' to frame nationwide protests as foreign-backed riots. It details the roles of state actors, regional proxies like Hezbollah and the Houthis, and Western far-right and far-left accounts in spreading disinformation, promoting antisemitic tropes, and accusing the US and Israel of orchestrating the unrest to justify state repression.

The analysis finds a very weak correlation between a country's institutional readiness and its citizens' perceived personal preparedness for extreme weather. While some countries like Vietnam show high levels of both, others like Armenia have high institutional readiness but low personal preparedness, and the Philippines shows high personal preparedness despite lower institutional readiness. The study emphasizes that climate resilience requires tailored strategies based on these distinct gaps, noting that 48 of the 68 examined countries rank in the bottom half of global institutional readiness.