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The report assesses Nepal's approach to climate change adaptation, highlighting the country's leadership in country-driven planning and the effectiveness of the Local Adaptation Plans for Action process in promoting decentralized, inclusive planning across sectors such as agriculture, water, energy, health, and urban planning.

The report identifies agriculture, water, fisheries, energy, and health as sectors negatively affected by climate change in Ghana, with a particular emphasis on the vulnerability of the northern region. While the Government of Ghana has integrated climate risk into sectoral policies, the National Climate Change Policy and National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy are designed to provide the concrete actions missing from those documents. Current initiatives are concentrated in the agricultural sector and northern regions to support poverty reduction and economic growth. Future priorities include improving the evidence base for adaptation via monitoring and evaluation and increasing the capacity of sub-national actors and civil society networks.

The report identifies Tajikistan as one of Central Asia's most vulnerable countries to climate change, specifically highlighting risks to water quality, availability, and the increasing severity of natural disasters. While the government has identified these critical concerns, capacity limitations have hindered the integration of climate change into development policies. Current efforts to address these gaps include the Strategic Program for Climate Resilience and the development of a national adaptation strategy and action plan.

The report identifies natural gas-driven pneumatic controllers as the second-largest source of methane emissions in the US oil and gas industry. It concludes that mature, cost-effective zero-emission technologies are available and currently in use in the United States and Canada, with some jurisdictions in both countries implementing regulations to mandate their installation.

The report analyzes the landscape of cosmetic pesticide bans in Canada, evaluating the effectiveness of various provincial and municipal regulatory frameworks. It argues that the most protective laws utilize 'white lists' of approved low-risk pesticides, maintain a broad scope of coverage across all landscaping elements, and combine legal prohibitions with robust public education and enforcement. The document highlights significant gaps in jurisdictions like Alberta and British Columbia, while praising the comprehensive approaches of Ontario and Nova Scotia.

The document outlines Italy's legal framework for the EUTR, the resources allocated for its enforcement, the penalty regime for infringements, and the avenues available for NGOs to challenge illegal timber trade.

The document outlines Germany's legal framework for the EUTR, specifically the Holzhandels-Sicherungs-Gesetz (HolzSiG), and details the roles of the Bundesanstalt für Landwirtschaft und Ernährung (BLE) and regional authorities. It describes the penalty regime, which includes criminal sanctions for intentional offences and administrative fines up to €50,000. Enforcement data shows that between mid-2013 and January 2016, the BLE checked approximately 370 operators, finding around 50 in breach. The brief also notes challenges regarding legal standing for challenging CA inaction in administrative courts.

The document outlines the UK's legal framework for the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR), identifying the Regulatory Delivery as the Competent Authority. It details the penalty regime for illegal timber placement, reports on enforcement activities between 2013 and 2015, and highlights systemic weaknesses regarding the lack of formal appeal procedures and the difficulty for NGOs to obtain legal standing to challenge operators.

The document argues that dual pricing of fuel is generally difficult to implement due to high levels of leakage, illegal diversion, and shortages. It highlights that fuels easy to adulterate or smuggle, such as diesel, gasoline, and kerosene, are the hardest to dual price. The briefing examines various delivery mechanisms, noting that 'one-brand' systems using electronic transfers are generally more robust than 'two-brand' systems. Case studies from India, the Philippines, and El Salvador illustrate these challenges and potential technological solutions, such as smart cards and mobile phone-based subsidy transfers.

The document examines the conceptual and political drivers of corruption in post-apartheid South Africa. It contends that the African National Congress (ANC) deliberately rejected the liberal model of a neutral, meritocratic bureaucracy in favour of 'cadre deployment' and a partisan state to achieve social and economic transformation. This shift, combined with the adoption of 'public management' reforms that reduced rule-based discipline and the decentralisation of procurement to foster a black capitalist class, created a system where political loyalty superseded administrative competence. The author suggests that current 'state capture'—including the influence of the Gupta family—is a consequence of this eroded administrative autonomy and internal ANC factionalism.

The research reviews the SDMPs of Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Odisha, and Uttarakhand, finding that while they provide a foundation for coordination, they overemphasize response and relief over prevention and risk reduction. The report recommends clarifying institutional responsibilities, innovating financing models, mainstreaming risk reduction across state departments, and better incorporating socioeconomic vulnerabilities and climate change risks into assessments.

Ethiopia has established a comprehensive framework for a climate-resilient green economy, led by the Prime Minister's Office and integrated into national development plans. The country has invested significantly from its own budget—approximately 14.5% between 2008 and 2012—and established the Climate Resilient Green Economy Facility to attract international finance, securing US$40 million from bilateral partners by 2015. Key achievements include the 2015 submission of an Intended Nationally Determined Contribution and the development of green infrastructure like the Addis Ababa light rail. However, barriers remain, including the need for deeper integration into operational budgeting, technical capacity gaps, and the challenge of replicating federal success at the regional level.

The report reviews the SDMPs of Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Odisha, and Uttarakhand, finding that while they are sophisticated in disaster response, they lack sufficient focus on risk reduction, socioeconomic vulnerability, and climate change integration. It recommends clarifying institutional roles, operationalising risk-reduction funds, and aligning state plans more closely with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030.

The document examines how foreign agricultural investments in Africa exacerbate water stress and the legal tensions between investor rights and the human right to water. It highlights the vulnerability of customary water rights compared to statutory contracts and the potential for investment treaties to limit a state's ability to reallocate water during shortages. The authors recommend integrating international human rights and environmental law into domestic legislation and investment contracts to ensure sustainable water governance.

The Centre for Environmental Rights (CER) has issued a questionnaire to the eMalahleni Local Municipality (ELM) as part of a "mini shadow review" to evaluate the implementation of the Highveld Priority Area (HPA) Air Quality Management Plan (AQMP). The review seeks to identify resource gaps in the municipality and determine if air quality in the Middelburg and eMalahleni areas of the Nkangala District Municipality (NDM) has improved since the HPA was declared in 2007. The CER notes that despite statutory mechanisms, "air quality remains poor on the Highveld" as of 2016. The questionnaire focuses on several key areas: the clarity of regulatory responsibilities across government spheres; the adequacy of financial resources and budgets allocated to ELM for air quality functions since 2007/8; the qualifications and training of staff, including designated air quality officers and Environmental Management Inspectors; measures taken to reduce dust and emissions from domestic coal burning in low-income settlements; and whether industrial facilities have reduced emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases. Additionally, the document highlights a data gap in assessing air quality improvements, noting that DEA/South African Weather Service data from 2009 to 2015 shows that "the number of exceedances of ambient air quality standards have increased slightly" and that some monitoring instruments have malfunctioned over extended periods.

Grenada has adopted a 'sector-driven' approach to climate adaptation, where individual sectors had already begun integrating adaptation measures before a national coordinating framework was established. The government is now using the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) process to stocktake these efforts, identify gaps, and 'climate-proof' its national development planning. Coordination is led by the Ministry of Agriculture, Lands, Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (MALFFE) and the National Climate Change Committee (NCCC), with a focus on improving climate finance readiness to access the Green Climate Fund.

The New Development Bank (NDB) was established by the BRICS nations to address infrastructure funding deficits in emerging economies and to challenge the dominance of traditional international financial institutions. With an initial subscribed capital of $50 billion and a maximum authorised capital of $100 billion, the bank aims to provide a more equitable alternative to the World Bank and IMF. Initial lending, starting in the second quarter of 2016, is expected to focus on renewable energy projects, including wind, solar, and hydro power, while excluding nuclear energy. The NDB intends to distinguish itself through faster project approval cycles, lending in local currencies to mitigate exchange risks, and a commitment to avoid political conditions on its loans.

The document outlines the environmental, economic, and public health benefits of the fuel efficiency and global warming pollution standards for light-duty vehicles covering model years 2017 to 2025. It highlights significant reductions in oil consumption, consumer cost savings, job creation, and a substantial decrease in global warming emissions by 2030.

The document examines the impact of the 2012 EPA and NHTSA fuel economy and emissions standards for light-duty vehicles (2017–2025). It highlights a market shift toward sport utility vehicles (SUVs), which use approximately 14 percent more fuel than similarly sized cars. The author argues that the current 'footprint-based' standards are effective because they set targets based on vehicle size, encouraging efficiency across all vehicle types rather than just a few models. While these standards are projected to reduce emissions by over 600 million metric tons by 2040, the document suggests that updating them to reflect recent technological advances is necessary to meet original projections due to the rising popularity of larger vehicles.

The Centre for Environmental Rights (CER), on behalf of Earthlife Africa Johannesburg, provides recommendations to improve the scope of the Climate Change Impact Assessment (CCIA) and Palaeontological Impact Assessment Report (PIAR) for the proposed 1200MW Thabametsi coal-fired power station near Lephalale, Limpopo. The CER argues that the current scoping report is too narrow and fails to align with international best practices or South Africa's climate commitments under the Paris Agreement and its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC).