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The report finds strong evidence of a 'greenium' (pricing at a lower yield than vanilla equivalents) for 79% of the sampled green bonds in H2 2020. It highlights the success of Germany's twin bond structure and the emergence of the automotive sector as a source of green bonds, while noting that 56% of these bonds were allocated to dedicated green or ESG investors.

The document argues that Brazilian municipalities, particularly small and medium-sized ones, face significant credit and technical barriers to financing infrastructure. It proposes the use of Pooled Financial Management Mechanisms (MFGCs) to aggregate demand and reduce risk, drawing on international examples from France, the Nordic countries, Mexico, India, and the Philippines. The brief identifies regulatory hurdles in Brazil, such as the Fiscal Responsibility Law, and recommends updating the legal framework to allow subnational consortia more autonomy in raising funds and improving governance to attract green and sustainable capital.

The document argues that Brazilian municipalities, particularly small and medium-sized ones, face significant financial and regulatory barriers to infrastructure investment. It suggests that subnational consortia can overcome these hurdles by adopting Pooled Finance Mechanisms (PFMs)—such as club deals, aggregation platforms, and bond banks—to access capital markets and attract green investment. The brief identifies a USD 1.3 trillion green investment opportunity in Brazil and recommends updating Law 11,107/2005 and the Law of Fiscal Responsibility to facilitate autonomous fundraising and improve governance for public consortia.

This study examines how perceptions of peace agreements influence political trust in three post-war societies: Guatemala, Nepal, and Northern Ireland. Using a 2016 survey of 3,229 respondents, the authors find that approval of peace agreement provisions and the belief that these agreements have been implemented are positively associated with higher political trust. The analysis suggests that these perceptions provide significant explanatory power beyond conventional cultural and institutional theories of trust. Specifically, support for institutional reforms—such as demilitarization in Guatemala, federalization in Nepal, and power-sharing in Northern Ireland—serves as a primary driver of political trust.

The paper explores 'Buen Vivir', an indigenous-rooted concept from Latin America that challenges anthropocentrism and infinite economic growth. It examines the concept's formal introduction into EU-Latin American relations via a 2015 EuroLat resolution and contrasts it with the 'Green Economy' and 'European Green Deal', which the authors argue maintain a growth-centric logic. While governmental adoption in Europe remains limited, the text identifies local 'post-developmentalist' practices in countries like Spain, Greece, and the Netherlands—such as agroecology and the recognition of nature's rights—as aligned with Buen Vivir principles.

The document examines urban flood challenges in five Sub-Saharan cities, highlighting the transition from traditional grey infrastructure to Integrated Flood Risk Management (IFRM) and Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA). It details specific interventions across Accra, Cape Town, Durban, Nairobi, and Mombasa, emphasizing that effective flood governance requires multi-stakeholder collaboration and the integration of social principles to protect vulnerable populations in informal settlements.

The report examines urban flooding in five cities across Ghana, South Africa, and Kenya, highlighting the vulnerability of informal settlements to climate-exacerbated rainfall and poor urban planning. It compares the maturity of South African cities in integrating EbA into policy against the more response-oriented, 'grey' infrastructure bias in Kenyan cities. Key findings emphasize that collaborative, whole-of-society governance and the integration of green and grey infrastructure are most effective for long-term resilience.

The document examines the critical role of mine closure planning and financial guarantees to prevent abandoned mines and protect public interests. It highlights Chile and Peru as the only South American countries with comprehensive national legislation requiring financial assurances. While both align with international best practices regarding technical stability and financial transparency, the report notes a lack of emphasis on social transition and post-closure land use in both jurisdictions.

The document argues that transparency is a prerequisite for public trust and democratic accountability in the digital sphere. It critiques current corporate transparency reports as insufficient, citing evidence that platforms like Facebook often underreport the scale of coordinated inauthentic activity. The report details a shift from 'notice-and-takedown' content regulation toward 'systemic' approaches, such as 'Safety by Design,' which require platforms to mitigate risks through their architecture and algorithms. It provides a detailed analysis of the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA) and the UK's Online Safety Bill (OSB), highlighting their tiered obligations based on platform size and the introduction of independent audits. Finally, it presents five theoretical models of internet governance—Corporate, Autocratic, Libertarian, Machine, and EU/Liberal-Democratic—to illustrate the geopolitical struggle over the future of digital sovereignty and human rights.

The document provides a comprehensive analysis of the shift from content-based 'notice-and-takedown' regulation to systemic 'safety-by-design' approaches. It evaluates the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA) and the UK's Online Safety Bill, emphasizing the need for transparency, data access for researchers, and a balance between state, corporate, and individual power to protect liberal democratic values in the digital sphere.

The document assesses Turkmenistan's institutional capacity for climate adaptation, highlighting the vulnerability of its water and agricultural sectors. It recommends the development of a National Adaptation Plan (NAP) and the use of the Inter-Sectoral Commission on Environmental Protection to coordinate cross-sectoral integration. The report also identifies key drivers for success, including high-level political support and the need for a National Clean Climate Fund, while drawing lessons from adaptation processes in Turkey, Poland, and the Czech Republic.

The report analyzes the systemic failure of South Africa's public administration due to the unchecked power of political office-bearers over personnel decisions. It proposes a reform model that divides appointment and removal into four stages—process planning, process administration, short-listing, and appointment—to create a functional segregation of duties. For the public service, it suggests empowering the Public Service Commission (PSC) as an independent check. For municipalities, it proposes the creation of independent personnel committees involving professional associations. To overcome political resistance, the author advocates for a 'covering-in' statutory mechanism to implement these reforms incrementally across different organs of state.

The research explores the concept of 'active citizenship' as a differentiating norm in Denmark and Norway, rather than just a descriptive term for civic engagement. Through ethnographic fieldwork in Oslo and Copenhagen, the author finds that while many people align with official policy goals—such as volunteering in local, child-centred, and secular arenas—marginalized individuals often resist these narrow definitions. The study argues that active citizenship is frequently used to create boundaries between 'good citizens' (who are typically imagined as middle-class, able-bodied, and culturally similar) and 'failed' or 'tolerated' citizens. The author advocates for a 'differentiated universalism' that recognizes informal care, faith-based engagement, and transnational activities as valid forms of societal contribution, moving beyond the binary of active versus passive citizenship.

The report assesses green public procurement (GPP) in Tallinn, finding that while 17% of procurements are registered as green, 92% of these rely solely on ISO 14001 certification and do not meet EU GPP definitions. Key barriers include a lack of time, experience, and centralized information. The report recommends establishing a strategic framework, creating a GPP competence center within the procurement sector, and developing product-group-specific model criteria to increase the quality and quantity of sustainable purchases.

The document argues that Colombia has the technical and economic capacity to phase out coal-fired power generation by leveraging its high hydroelectric capacity and expanding non-conventional renewable energy sources. It notes that most existing coal plants are obsolete, with an average age of 34 years, and that new coal projects are largely stalled due to financial and social opposition. The brief highlights a complementarity between hydroelectricity and renewables (solar and wind) that can ensure energy security during droughts, reducing the need for fossil fuel backups. It also warns that relying on natural gas as a transition fuel is risky due to limited national reserves, estimated to last only about eight years. The report recommends that the Colombian government lead the transition by abandoning coal generation and promoting a diversified, carbon-neutral electricity sector by 2050.

The paper explores 'buen vivir' (living well), a biocentric paradigm from Latin America that challenges the modern focus on infinite economic growth. While formal EU-Latin America diplomatic efforts, such as the 2015 EuroLat resolution, have acknowledged the concept, it remains overshadowed by the 'green economy' and 'European Green Deal' frameworks that maintain a focus on productivity. However, the authors identify a rise in local European initiatives—such as granting legal rights to nature in Spain and the Netherlands and the growth of agroecology and commons-based projects—that align with the logic of buen vivir by seeking a harmonious relationship between humans and nature.

The document finds that African LICs' economic responses to COVID-19 were modest and suboptimal compared to developed nations, primarily due to pre-pandemic structural weaknesses such as high debt, inflation, and limited fiscal space. While expansionary monetary policy was the most common tool, fiscal stimulus was generally low (1% to 2% of GDP), with exceptions like Senegal, Niger, and Mozambique. The brief highlights a significant financing gap in donor support and argues that recovery requires a shift toward data-driven policy, increased digital and financial inclusion, and the independence of monetary and debt management authorities.

The report examines the evolution of the digital divide from basic infrastructure access to access to knowledge and data. It evaluates the JSI on E-Commerce, arguing that current negotiations often presume a level of digital readiness that developing countries and LDCs lack. The document details 'enabling issues' necessary for digital inclusion, analyzes the regulatory landscape of cross-border data flows and localization, and discusses the implications of restricting government access to computer source code.

The research evaluates in-home emissions from rocket-style biomass stoves, forced draft gasifiers, and liquified petroleum gas (LPG) stoves in rural India. Utilizing a sample of 253 in-home emission tests—the largest of its kind and the first large-scale study of LPG stoves—the study examines the impact of these stoves on household air pollution and the climate, specifically regarding the release of carbon dioxide and methane.

The report finds that while renewable electricity generation in the EU is projected to nearly double by 2030, the region is not on track to meet the European Commission's recommended 55% emissions reduction. Seven countries—Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Romania—are identified as the primary barriers to the transition, collectively accounting for 80% of projected 2030 power sector emissions.