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The author critiques current foreign policy as anachronistic and dominated by neoliberal interests, calling for a 'Green Foreign Policy' (GFP) that transcends ecology to include human development, social integration, and the rights of all living beings. The text advocates for the creation of a Global Government with direct citizen participation to replace the perceived democratic deficit in international organisations like the UN, World Bank, and IMF. It positions the EU as a potential driver for this paradigm shift, moving from top-down advocacy to a model of human empowerment and collective consciousness.

The document details a 2014 expert meeting hosted by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) to rethink international investment dispute settlement. Experts argued that the current status quo is unsatisfactory and proposed moving away from a focus solely on investor rights and state obligations. They emphasized the need for inclusive mechanisms that allow individuals, local communities, and other affected stakeholders to seek remedies for issues such as human rights abuses and environmental damage. The report outlines four proposed models: a 'toolbox' of ad hoc mechanisms, a dedicated International Investment Mediation Service (IIMS), a multilayered procedure involving mandatory fact-finding and a choice between judicial or arbitral paths, and a comprehensive treaty-based institution with judicial, investigative, and mediation functions.

The document argues that the 2015 climate change agreement requires a new mitigation architecture that balances national ownership with multilateral coherence to keep global temperature rise below 2°C. It suggests a system of "levels" of guidance for emission reduction offers, starting with simple common parameters and increasing in complexity, alongside a systematic and frequent approach to submitting and reviewing offers to drive necessary reductions.

The authors call for a comprehensive overhaul of the UK's constitutional and democratic framework to address a 'crisis of democracy' characterized by voter disillusionment and inadequate representation. Proposed reforms include the adoption of proportional representation for both houses of parliament and local elections, the creation of a written constitution with a citizens bill of rights, and the establishment of directly-elected regional assemblies. The text emphasizes the need to protect local governments from corporate influence and opposes the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) on the grounds that it would undermine local democratic decision-making and public services.

The briefing proposes that China can avoid energy insecurity and pollution by 'reinventing fire'—transitioning from fossil fuels to energy efficiency and renewables. It identifies three key areas for transformation: oil-free mobility, integrative design for buildings and industry, and redefining the electric grid. The text focuses on oil-free mobility, suggesting that combining vehicle lightweighting (using carbon-fiber composites) with electrification can reduce energy needs by half to two-thirds and make electric vehicles more economic. It also emphasizes the need for logistics optimization to address low loading rates and the use of advanced biofuels or hydrogen for heavy-duty transport where electrification is not viable.

The document outlines a proposal to introduce a 'Charge' for carbon-intensive goods, such as steel and clinker, based on the EU ETS permit price and Best Available Technology (BAT) benchmarks. Drawing on the European excise system, it suggests a 'Production Sphere' where registered 'Carbon Keepers' and 'Carbon Warehouses' can handle goods under duty suspension, and a 'Consumption Sphere' where the charge is triggered upon sale to unregistered entities or final consumers. The report recommends a Carbon Monitoring and Control System (CMCS) for tracking movements and the use of de minimis thresholds for imports based on the ratio of carbon value to product value.

The Green Primary served as a first-of-its-kind transnational experiment to select leading candidates for the European Green Party in the May 2014 elections. While it faced challenges such as varying national contexts and low turnout in some regions, it demonstrated the potential for European-level party structures. The author argues that the next step for European democratic institution building is the creation of transnational lists, as proposed in the Duff Report, to shift the political narrative from national interests to a collective European vision.

The text proposes a 'third pathway' for the EU that avoids both a federal state and renationalisation by integrating national and European parliaments and strengthening participatory democracy. It calls for a new Convention to redefine EU legislation and suggests that the European Parliament should have a suspensive veto to prevent the dominance of powerful member states like Germany. The author critiques current citizen engagement efforts as mere 'communication' and advocates for more substantive tools, such as citizen panels and consensual conferences, to ensure citizens have a genuine voice in decision-making.

The text advocates for a new fundamental law for the EU, created via an open constituent assembly, to redefine its missions and decision-making processes. It proposes strengthening the role of national parliaments by integrating them with the European Parliament, particularly regarding budgetary rights, to prevent the dominance of powerful states like Germany. Additionally, it calls for the expansion of participatory democracy tools, such as the European Citizens' Initiative, petitions, and citizen panels, arguing that current efforts by the European Commission have often been reduced to mere communication exercises rather than genuine levers for policy influence.

The document proposes a carbon offset mechanism to allow South African firms to reduce their carbon tax liability by up to 10% of actual emissions. It establishes that only South African-based credits from projects outside the carbon tax net are eligible to avoid double counting. The paper identifies a potential national demand for offsets of up to 30 million tonnes of CO2e per annum, with a projected supply exceeding 50 million tonnes, largely driven by land-use, forestry, and renewable energy projects. It suggests an initial reliance on international standards (CDM, VCS, GS, CCBS) while proposing the medium-term development of a domestic standard managed by the Designated National Authority (DNA), supported by an independent expert committee, a national registry, and accredited third-party verifiers.

The World Resources Institute outlines six key functions for the 2015 international climate agreement: providing a strong signal for decarbonization, connecting climate goals to national economic priorities, ensuring transparency and accountability, accelerating low-carbon investment, ensuring fairness through equity indicators, and supporting resilience and adaptation for vulnerable populations.

Margaret Bowman of the Walton Family Foundation outlines a vision for water resilience in the Colorado River basin to address a projected gap of 3.2 million acre feet between water supply and demand by 2060. The proposed strategy relies on three primary pillars: upgrading agricultural irrigation to save an estimated one million acre feet, implementing urban water efficiency programs to save another one million acre feet, and utilizing wastewater and stormwater recycling to gain 1.2 million acre feet. Bowman advocates for market-based water banking and targeted augmentation over large-scale water import schemes. She emphasizes the interdependence of urban and agricultural sectors and highlights the 2012 international agreement between the United States and Mexico as a model for cooperation, citing a recent pulse flow experiment in the Colorado River delta as an example of ecological and social co-benefits.

The author contends that the eurozone is facing a critical risk of deflation due to flawed austerity policies and the failure of the European Central Bank's conventional monetary tools. The text argues that standard quantitative easing (QE) is ineffective because it primarily benefits the wealthy and fails to stimulate lending during a 'liquidity trap'. As a solution, the document proposes 'overt money financing' or 'quantitative easing for the people' (QEP), which would involve the central bank providing debt-free money directly to governments to fund public works, tax cuts, or an unconditional basic income, thereby boosting demand without increasing public debt.

The report analyzes the deadlock of the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) and the subsequent shift toward preferential trade agreements (PTAs). It argues that the rise of international supply chain trade (SCT) requires the WTO to move away from a 'silo approach' to policy and instead adopt a framework that addresses the joint impact of tariffs, services, and regulations on value chains. The author suggests using the WTO as a forum for deliberation on new issues—such as digital trade and environmental policies—and proposes a 'code of conduct' for plurilateral agreements to allow subsets of members to advance without requiring full consensus.

The Clean Air Task Force (CATF) proposes that the EPA set specific emission rate standards for fossil-fueled utility boilers and natural gas combustion turbines to reduce CO2 emissions. This strategy aims to leverage existing natural-gas capacity to displace coal generation, resulting in significant carbon and pollutant reductions with minimal impact on retail electric rates.

The Clean Air Task Force (CATF) recommends that the EPA establish specific emission rate standards for existing fossil fuel-fired utility boilers (1,450 lbs/MWh) and natural gas combustion turbines (1,100 lbs/MWh). The proposal centers on a 'model' interstate emission credit trading rule that allows states flexibility in compliance, including the use of state-specific emission budgets. Analysis by The NorthBridge Group indicates this approach could reduce electric sector carbon dioxide emissions by 27 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, resulting in a total reduction of 636 million metric tons. The report argues that nearly 70 percent of these reductions would come from optimizing fossil dispatch. Beyond climate benefits, the proposal is estimated to avoid over 2,000 premature deaths annually due to reductions in sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. The total monetized health and climate benefits are estimated at $34 billion in 2020, significantly outweighing the $9.4 billion compliance cost.

The policy brief argues that market discount rates are unsuitable for evaluating long-term environmental impacts and proposes the 'equivalency principle' to determine social discount rates. This principle assumes that undeveloped and developed land of identical attributes should provide equal utility to future generations. Using a case study of a proposed seaport in Pasaia, Basque Country, the authors demonstrate that applying this principle results in lower, site-specific discount rates (between 0.96% and 3%) that would lead to the rejection of the project, whereas a market rate of 11% would justify it in some scenarios.

The document argues that fossil fuel subsidies undermine climate mitigation and the trading system, yet remain under-reported at the WTO due to definitional ambiguities and Member reluctance. It concludes that while formal rules on such subsidies are unlikely in the near term, the Trade Policy Review Mechanism (TPRM) provides a non-coercive forum for transparency. The authors propose a standardized notification template for NGOs to provide publicly available data on fossil fuel subsidies to the WTO Secretariat, thereby encouraging government accountability and potential reform without immediately triggering legal disputes.

The text advocates for degrowth to counter ecological collapse and social inequality, proposing a shift from GDP-driven growth to a model based on an Unconditional Autonomy Allowance (UAA). This UAA would provide non-monetary drawing rights on resources and local currencies rather than standard monetary allocations. The authors suggest three implementation scenarios: leveraging existing local alternatives, reducing working time to share labour, or establishing a basic income coupled with a Maximum Acceptable Income (MAI) and debt cancellation. The goal is to relocate production locally to make environmental and social externalities visible and to transition from 'recession by necessity' to 'degrowth by choice'.

The report proposes a transition for China from fossil fuels to a system based on radical efficiency and renewable energy. It identifies three key areas for innovation: ultralighting and electrifying vehicles to eliminate oil dependence, using 'integrative design' to drastically reduce energy use in industry and buildings, and shifting toward a hybridized, distributed electric grid. The authors suggest these changes can be driven by profit and business innovation rather than just regulation.