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The report analyzes the financing of low carbon transitions for India's MSME sector, which is highly GHG intensive due to fossil fuel reliance. It identifies a significant credit gap—estimated at USD 240 billion in 2018—and a lack of awareness and technical capacity as primary barriers. While national schemes like RAMP and ZED certification exist, the report finds fragmented implementation and varying levels of alignment between central and state policies, noting that Gujarat partially aligns with national goals while Maharashtra shows significant divergence. Recommendations include scaling incentive-based models, leveraging supply chain pressure from large companies, and mobilizing international climate finance.

The report identifies subnational pension funds as a significant source of untapped capital for urban climate action, estimating at least USD 9.5 trillion in assets across Brazil, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, South Africa, the UK, and the US. It details structural barriers such as low risk appetite and limited fund size, as well as external barriers like a lack of bankable project pipelines and ticket size mismatches. To overcome these, the document recommends the use of financial instruments such as blended finance, green bonds, and supply-side aggregation (pooling), while urging funds to make net zero commitments and build internal capacity.

The document identifies key governance challenges for cities implementing circular economy (CE) models, such as administrative silos, lack of holistic visions, and insufficient data for monitoring. It proposes four strategic pillars for urban policymakers: creating shared visions with inclusive strategies, establishing supportive regulatory and financial instruments (particularly circular public procurement), facilitating multi-level collaboration, and utilizing Urban Living Labs to scale innovations from local pilots to city-wide implementation.

The document examines the transition from paper-based to electronic timber tracking in Tanzania via the Timber Tracker system. It finds that while the system has increased royalty revenues and reduced opportunities for bribery and document forgery during transport, corruption risks persist in the initial harvest permitting phase. The report highlights the importance of government buy-in and provides recommendations for expanding the system's coverage and improving technical capacity.

The document focuses on the Bird’s Head Seascape Initiative in West Papua, Indonesia, which was launched in 2004 by Conservation International and a coalition of partners. While the program is described as a successful model of indigenous community-driven conservation, it currently faces a need to transition management to local bodies and establish a sustainable funding model due to shifts in its traditional funding structure.

The document examines the use of backcasting to co-design a 10-year transition roadmap to electric cooking with a rural Kenyan community, finding that participation in the workshop was linked to subsequent grassroots actions.

The authors examine the application of service design tools—specifically experience mapping, archetype construction, and prototyping—to development interventions in Kenya and Uganda. By analyzing a clean cookstove system and a climate-related insurance product through Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach, the paper argues that these design devices can help translate individual needs and values into features that promote environmental sustainability and social well-being.

A student shares a five-step framework for introducing plant-based meals into school cafeterias, detailing the process of contacting nutrition services, proposing changes, marketing new items, educating peers, and planning for long-term sustainability.

The document outlines a five-step advocacy process used by students at Palo Alto High School to transition their cafeteria from offering plant-based options only 2-3 times per month to serving them every day. The process includes gathering student signatures via petitions, conducting taste-testing events for items like vegan nuggets, using social media and incentives for marketing, and implementing pilot programs such as specialty bars. The authors emphasize the importance of partnering with established organizations like Friends of the Earth and the Factory Farming Awareness Coalition, maintaining a cooperative relationship with nutrition services staff, and persisting through administrative apprehension.

The Progressive Community Church in Gary, Indiana, has implemented a multifaceted sustainability strategy to combat high energy burdens and industrial pollution in the Emerson neighborhood. By installing a 7.6 kW solar array and energy efficiency upgrades, the church achieved net-zero electricity for eleven months of the year and assisted community members in accessing weatherization grants. Additionally, the church established the F.A.I.T.H. Farm, producing 15,000 pounds of food annually, and is developing an urban park to mitigate heat stress and improve air quality.

The University of Southampton installed two 13.5 kWp PV-battery mini-grids in rural Uganda to replace kerosene and diesel power. While the project successfully connected over 144 businesses, two health centres, and two schools, rapid demand growth eventually exceeded design capacity, leading to battery failure and blackouts. Future upgrades involving lithium-ion batteries and diesel backup are planned in collaboration with the Rural Electrification Agency (REA).

The case study describes the installation of an off-grid solar photovoltaic system in the village of Ned, Datal Bonglangon, in South Cotabato, Philippines. Supported by the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center and Friends of the Earth International, the project provides essential lighting to 46 of 60 planned households and a community charging station. The initiative is framed as a move toward energy sovereignty for the T’boli-Manobo people, who face threats from industrial coffee plantations and proposed coal power plants, and as a model for low-carbon development in remote areas.

Mongolia utilized technical assistance from the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining (IGF), the OECD, and Tax Inspectors Without Borders (TIWB) to address tax base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) in its mining sector. By establishing a transfer pricing division in 2019 and implementing new regulations on license valuation and ring-fencing, the Mongolian Tax Authority successfully recovered USD 228 million from a single multinational audit and USD 8.7 million from license transfers.

GDS International is implementing a solar mini-grid project in Benin with a capacity of 1.7 to 3 MW to address rural energy poverty. The project, costing less than 10 million EUR and partially funded by the Off-Grid Clean Energy Facility (OCEF), aims to serve up to 6,000 households and 2,400 productive activities over 20 years while promoting local economic development and gender-inclusive employment.

The document details the experience of the Mashujaa group, a collective of young women in Uhamaka, Tanzania, who transitioned from sunflower and maize cultivation to beekeeping after erratic rainfall patterns led to repeated crop failures. With technical support from SEMA and SNV, the group implemented modern beehives, increasing honey production from 5-7 litres per hive to 20 litres. Despite initial community opposition based on gender stereotypes, the initiative has improved the economic and social status of the members, providing a model for locally-led adaptation and the importance of climate-smart technology for smallholder farmers.

The document examines the process and impact of an economic study in Uganda that found the cost of inaction on climate change to be 20–24 times higher than the cost of adaptation. This evidence facilitated the integration of climate change into national development plans (NDP II and NDP III), the elevation of the Climate Change Unit to a Department, and the passage of the National Climate Change Act 2021. Key success factors included continuous engagement with high-level leadership, an in-country presence, and the use of layered communication products like documentary films. However, challenges remain in sub-national implementation and the lack of dedicated climate budget lines in the national budgeting system.

The report examines the challenges poor and vulnerable communities in the global South face when accessing traditional finance and highlights four sustainable, locally-led financing models: Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) groups, the Tresor Women Warriors profit-sharing model, Kiva crowdfunding via field partners, and the Abalimi Bezekhaya subsidised cost model. It argues that financial access must be paired with capacity building and private sector mentorship to effectively strengthen community resilience.

Africa's climate finance needs are estimated at USD 250 billion annually, yet only USD 29.5 billion was mobilized in 2020. The report identifies critical barriers—financial, governance, project-level, and infrastructure-related—across the energy, transport, buildings, and AFOLU sectors. It argues that bridging this gap requires 'climate finance innovation,' defined as using financial instruments to overcome barriers in novel contexts. The document details a toolbox of solutions, including blended finance, capital market instruments like YieldCos and Green Bonds, and results-based finance, while providing case studies such as TerraFund and Acorn to demonstrate how these tools can catalyze private investment.

FSD Africa's Capital Markets team works to address financing gaps in Africa by developing enabling policies, market infrastructure, and innovative financial products. The report highlights the mobilization of approximately GBP 320 million through bond issuances, including pioneering green and gender bonds in countries like Nigeria, Kenya, and Morocco. It details the Africa Regulatory Support Programme (ARSP) and the African Local Currency Bond Fund (ALCB Fund) as key mechanisms for reducing currency risk and increasing private sector investment. Moving forward, FSD Africa is concentrating its efforts on five priority countries—Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, and Nigeria—with a strong emphasis on green capital markets and natural capital finance.

The briefing explores the use of the Sapelli platform to enable indigenous people in Ethiopia's Lower Omo region, regardless of literacy levels, to create digital maps of their territories. By co-designing a pictorial interface, six collaborators from the Nyangatom community recorded over 1,700 map contributions between August 2021 and August 2022, including grazing areas and water sources. The resulting 'land-user generated maps' provided significantly more detail and density than machine-generated or standard user-generated maps, though the authors note that the utility of such data for defending land claims depends on the willingness of legal systems to accept citizen-generated evidence.