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Mainstreaming Climate Change Adaptation in Kenya: Lessons from Makueni and Wajir Counties
The paper identifies Makueni and Wajir as early leaders in integrating climate adaptation into local development planning in Kenya. It highlights the critical role of County Climate Change Funds (CCCFs) in providing the financial and technical support necessary to move from planning to implementation. Key success factors include strong leadership from governors and opinion leaders, as well as robust stakeholder engagement involving diverse groups from national experts to nomadic pastoralists. Early results from adaptation projects in these counties include improved water access and conservation. The document recommends strengthening institutional memory through partnerships with universities and enhancing knowledge-sharing via the Council of Governors to scale these successes across all 47 Kenyan counties.
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Document type: Research paper
Emissions Reductions Under Pollution Reduction Proposals in the 111th U.S. Congress
The analysis compares the GHG reduction potential of the APA, ACESA, and CLEARA across three scenarios: emissions caps only, caps plus complementary requirements, and a range of potential additional reductions. The APA's emissions caps alone are projected to achieve a 14 percent reduction relative to 2005 levels by 2020 and a 72 percent reduction by 2050. When including complementary requirements and potential additional measures, the APA could reach reductions of up to 19 percent by 2020 and 77 percent by 2050, though the latter depends on the quality and quantity of international offsets. The APA and ACESA are noted to require greater net annual GHG reductions than CLEARA, although the APA's later start year (2013) results in slightly fewer reductions in the first five years compared to the ACESA.
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Document type: Research paper
A Breakdown of Developed Countries’ Public Climate Finance Contributions Towards the $100 Billion Goal
The document provides a breakdown of public climate finance contributions by developed countries between 2013 and 2018. It aims to increase transparency and accountability regarding the collective $100 billion annual commitment made under the 2009 Copenhagen Accord to support developing countries' emission reductions and climate adaptation. The paper introduces a methodology for analyzing individual country contributions and identifies reporting barriers that must be addressed to improve future accountability.
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Document type: Research paper
Learnings for Tamil Nadu From Grid-Connected Agricultural Solar Photovoltaic Schemes in India
The paper examines three state-level solar irrigation schemes in India to identify lessons for Tamil Nadu's implementation of PM KUSUM Component C. It highlights challenges in farmer financing, trust in solar technology, and the impact of feed-in tariffs on water conservation, while recommending robust monitoring and adequate tariff assessments.
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Document type: Research paper
Sum of Parts
The document analyzes 15 different funds to identify best practices for the Green Climate Fund (GCF) as it develops its formal allocation system. It argues that while no universal model exists, the GCF should balance bottom-up country ownership with top-down global climate benefit tests, prioritize long-term transformational impacts over immediate low-cost reductions, and use ex-post adjustments to ensure equity for low-capacity countries. Additionally, it suggests a balanced approach to flexibility, potentially offering more predictability for adaptation and more flexibility for mitigation.
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Document type: Research paper
The Green Jobs Advantage: How Climate-friendly Investments Are Better Job Creators
The analysis finds that green investments generally create more jobs per US$1 million than unsustainable investments, with ecosystem restoration and building efficiency showing the highest relative gains. However, the paper notes that job quality varies, with informality being a challenge in developing countries and lower wages/benefits compared to unionized traditional sectors in developed countries.
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Document type: Research paper
Comparison of Annual GHG Reduction Rates from 2020-2030 Based on Submitted or Reported Climate Commitments (2020 Pledges and INDCs) for Canada, EU, Japan and US
The document outlines the data sources and assumptions used to calculate annual GHG reduction rates for Canada, the EU-28, Japan, and the US between 2020 and 2030. It specifies that estimates are provided both with and without the land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF) sector to ensure comparability. The calculations rely on historical emissions data from national inventory reports submitted to the UNFCCC and specific target percentages for 2020 and 2030 (or 2025/2050 for the US) relative to various base years.
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Document type: Fact sheet
Defining the Shale Gas Life Cycle
The document introduces a proposed life cycle boundary for shale gas to address inconsistencies in environmental impact studies. WRI notes that variations in how studies define life cycle stages—such as omitting exploration or combustion—lead to differing estimates of greenhouse gas emissions, water use, and wastewater production, thereby hindering constructive dialogue on impact reduction strategies.
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Document type: Research paper
Comparing the Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Dairy and Pork Systems Across Countries Using Land-Use Carbon Opportunity Costs
The research evaluates the lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) costs of dairy and pork production across multiple countries, utilizing a carbon opportunity cost method for land use. It finds that emissions variability is driven by feeding conversion efficiency, manure management, and temperature, while noting that developed agricultural countries show similar emission levels, suggesting a need for innovation over the adoption of existing methods to achieve further reductions.
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Document type: Research paper
Comparing Global and National Approaches to Estimating Deforestation Rates in REDD+ Countries
The paper evaluates the differences between national deforestation estimates reported by REDD+ countries and the Global Forest Change (GFC) data. It finds that GFC data serve as an unbiased proxy for tropical deforestation and are significantly cheaper to produce than national systems, suggesting that adapting global data for national reporting could improve sustainability and comparability.
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Document type: Research paper
Study on International Practices for Low Emission Zone and Congestion Charging
The document examines the implementation of Low Emission Zones (LEZ) and Congestion Charging (CC) in London, Singapore, and Stockholm to inform policy development in China. It identifies key areas for analysis, including scheme design, technology, and public communication, and provides specific recommendations for Chinese national and municipal governments to ensure successful adoption, such as aligning local schemes with national strategies and dedicating revenues to transportation improvements.
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Document type: Research paper
Baseline Water Stress: China
The World Resources Institute (WRI) developed BWS-China to provide more granular water risk mapping by using prefecture-level water withdrawal data for over 300 cities. While BWS-China shares similar spatial patterns with Aqueduct's global indicator, the use of detailed country-specific data reveals more accurate spatial patterns and sector-specific risks in certain catchments. This approach serves as a model for other countries to develop detailed baseline water stress indicators to support corporate investment decisions and government policymaking.
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Document type: Briefing
Bus Rapid Transit in China: A Comparison of Design Features with International Systems
The document compares BRT systems in 18 Chinese cities against international counterparts across 30 indicators. It finds that Chinese systems score significantly lower in 11 design areas and recommends improvements in infrastructure, network planning, and vehicle technology to help China reach its goal of 5,000 kilometers of BRT by 2020.
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Document type: Research paper
Sustainable Development Impacts of Renewable Power: Insights from Three Indian States
The analysis evaluates the economic rate of return (ERR) for solar photovoltaic, small hydropower, and wind energy across three Indian states, incorporating health, water, land, and climate impacts against a coal baseline. It finds that most assessed technologies justify public investment based on an 8 percent social discount rate, with the highest returns occurring in Maharashtra.
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Document type: Research paper
Equity Lessons from Multilateral Regimes for the New Climate Agreement
The analysis argues that equity is essential for achieving consensus in international agreements and should be addressed through both the differentiation of commitments and the design of supporting institutions. Key recommendations include using objective criteria for negotiating differentiated obligations, allowing for the timing of obligations to vary based on capacity, and prioritizing facilitative compliance over sanctions for developing countries. The paper emphasizes that equity requires not only financial support but also technology access and country ownership of implementation strategies.
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Document type: Research paper
Developing an Electric Mobility Roadmap: International Experiences from Subnational Case Studies for Vietnamese Cities
The document examines international subnational case studies to guide Vietnamese cities in creating electric mobility roadmaps. It highlights that while Vietnamese cities share contexts with other Asian cities, they are comparable to Californian cities regarding public transit usage. The paper suggests that Vietnam can move beyond narrow e-mobility uptake goals toward broader climate and air quality objectives, noting the unique presence of a local OEM, Vinfast.
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Document type: Briefing
State of the Nationally Determined Contributions: Enhancing Adaptation Ambition
The paper analyzes the evolution of adaptation components in the NDCs of 86 countries, finding that while updated submissions show increased country ownership, better alignment with national adaptation plans, and more detailed sectoral actions, most prioritized actions remain neither investment nor implementation ready.
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Document type: Research paper
Extreme Wildfires: A Growing Threat—and a Call to Support Indigenous and Community Leadership
The paper analyzes tree cover loss from 2001 to 2024 across Australia, Brazil, Canada, and the United States, finding that while Indigenous- and community-held lands generally have the lowest deforestation rates, they face increasing risks from extreme wildfires. These risks are driven by climate change, deforestation, and historical fire suppression policies. The study specifically notes a fifteenfold increase in fire-driven tree cover loss on these lands in Brazil and significant losses in Australia during the 2019–20 fire season. The authors recommend securing land rights, reviving cultural burning, funding community-led fire brigades, and ending land-clearing fires to protect biodiversity and climate stability.
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Document type: Research paper
Global CO2 Emissions Growth in Select Sectors: 2000-2005
Between 2000 and 2005, total global CO2 emissions increased by 12.7%, with an average annual growth rate of 2.4%. While emissions growth across the electricity & heat, transport, industry, and building use sectors was primarily driven by developing countries, developed countries continued to produce the majority of emissions in the transport and building use sectors. Developing countries now account for the majority of emissions in the industry and electricity & heat sectors.
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Document type: Fact sheet
Building International Climate Cooperation
The report analyzes the successes and failures of weapons and trade regimes to provide insights for climate negotiators aiming to limit global temperature increases to 1.5–2 degrees Celsius. It emphasizes that achieving a near-zero-carbon economy by 2050 requires sustained political engagement to resolve conflicts regarding cost, equity, and environmental rigor, specifically concerning emission targets, measurement standards, and verification mechanisms.
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Document type: Report