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A fact sheet analyzing 210 U.S. coal plants, finding that 99% are more expensive to operate than replacing them with new wind or solar. It highlights the potential for $589 billion in investment in energy communities and the feasibility of integrating battery storage to maintain grid reliability.

Analysis shows that the weighted average cost of coal power in the U.S. rose from $36/MWh in 2021 to $46/MWh in 2024, a 28 percent increase that outpaced inflation. This rise is attributed to higher fuel, operations, and maintenance costs, as well as declining capacity factors. Despite these economics, some U.S. federal policies and state regulators have extended the lives of expensive plants, such as Plant Bowen in Georgia and the Hunter and Huntington plants in Utah, potentially increasing the financial burden on electricity consumers.

The report examines the 'death spiral' facing traditional U.S. electric utilities caused by falling costs of renewables, energy efficiency, and declining demand. It proposes a regulatory shift by Public Utilities Commissions (PUCs) toward 'performance-based regulation,' where utilities are rewarded for meeting reliability, affordability, and environmental goals rather than the volume of electricity sold. The author suggests that utilities, given their infrastructure and market reach, are the ideal vehicles for decarbonization if incentivized to prioritize system optimization over electron supply.

The report finds that achieving an 80% non-fossil electricity share by 2035 is technically feasible and would lower wholesale electricity costs compared to current policy trajectories. This transition would be driven by the declining costs of wind, solar, and battery storage, which the authors argue are now more cost-effective than new coal generation. The 'Clean Energy' scenario would significantly reduce CO2 emissions and premature deaths from air pollution, while resulting in a net increase in employment, despite losses in the coal mining sector. Reliability analysis suggests the system can maintain a 10% operating reserve margin even with high variable renewable penetration and the retirement of 250 to 300 GW of coal capacity.

The report criticizes COVAX as a multistakeholder initiative that functions more like a merchant bank than a humanitarian effort, arguing that it marginalizes the World Health Organization (WHO) and lacks public accountability. It contends that the mechanism is designed to protect the global pharmaceutical market and business interests rather than ensuring equitable, low-cost vaccine access for developing countries.

The document argues that the current global economic system, driven by neoliberal ideology, has failed by causing environmental destruction and extreme inequality. It proposes five key pillars for transformation: ensuring universal public services through tax justice, scaling up social ownership and cooperatives, supporting local markets and fair trade, adopting wellbeing-based economic indicators instead of GDP, and establishing binding international rules to hold transnational corporations accountable for human rights and environmental abuses.

The document evaluates how fiscal, budgetary, monetary, and trade policies in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic integrated or ignored natural capital in the Legal Amazon. It finds that the vast majority of economic stimulus measures had a negative impact on natural capital, with 87.2% categorized as 'high negative'. While some positive measures exist in bioeconomy and low-carbon agriculture, the report argues that nature was not central to economic decision-making and recommends a shift toward a 'green recovery' that values standing forests.

South Korea aims to triple its renewable energy capacity to 100GW by 2030 to mitigate the economic impact of volatile fossil fuel prices. Since 2010, wind and solar have saved the country USD 25 billion in LNG import costs. While the country possesses strong industrial capabilities in solar panels, batteries, and transformers, it faces significant land constraints and grid bottlenecks, particularly in transmitting power from Honam to Seoul. The government is prioritizing a high-voltage direct current energy highway and digital grid integration to support this transition.

The report details the long-term struggle to pass the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) in Nigeria, starting from 2000. It highlights how political disagreements and institutional distrust have led to significant economic losses, estimated at $120 billion over eight years. The document analyzes the transition to the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) under the Buhari administration, which aims to unbundle the NNPC and limit the discretionary powers of the Petroleum Minister to improve transparency and attract investment.

Between 2021 and 2023, mining for copper, cobalt, lithium, and nickel was linked to 334 incidents of violence or protest across 19 top-producing countries, averaging 111 per year. Nearly 90% of these events occurred in emerging and developing economies, while the majority of production is controlled by companies from advanced economies and major consumer countries, primarily China. The report warns that social unrest is likely to increase as production is forecast to spike by 2028 to meet climate goals, potentially destabilizing supply chains and increasing costs for renewable technologies.

The document examines the role of Russian fossil fuel exports in funding the war in Ukraine and critiques the reluctance of European governments to implement full embargoes. It highlights the discrepancy between corporate rhetoric and continued business operations in Russia, termed 'peace-washing', and argues against replacing Russian imports with other fossil fuel sources due to human rights concerns and climate commitments. Instead, it promotes a transition to renewables, citing that global electricity needs could be met by renewables by 2035.

Global Witness argues that the UK government should leverage the high profits of the oil and gas industry to fund climate loss and damage both globally and domestically. The briefing highlights that the oil industry made an average of £5 billion in annual profits from UK production over the last 30 years, while the UN Loss and Damage Fund remains severely underfunded, with initial pledges totaling only £504 million as of March 2024. The document proposes a 'Climate Damages Tax' (CDT) that would charge companies for every tonne of carbon from extracted fuels, potentially raising £20 billion in the UK over 10 years. This revenue would be split between the international fund and a 'domestic dividend' to support a worker-led North Sea transition, which is estimated to require an additional £1.9 billion per year until 2030.

A case study of an 80-hectare sugarcane cooperative in KwaZulu-Natal demonstrates that switching from tractor-mounted boom sprayers to precision drone spraying reduced total spraying costs by approximately 25% and chemical usage by 20–30%. The transition eliminated operational downtime after rainfall and reduced labour requirements from 10 man-days per hectare to 2 man-days. These efficiencies, combined with yield increases of 6–12.5 tonnes per hectare and a 2 percentage point increase in estimated recoverable crystal (ERC), resulted in a net financial benefit of approximately R8,400 per hectare per year, totaling R672,000 for the cooperative. The document notes that direct drone ownership, costing between R250,000 and R400,000, has an estimated payback period of 1–1.5 seasons, while shared-service models lower the entry barrier for smallholders.

The document outlines how anaerobic digestion (AD) in South African wastewater treatment works can be leveraged via combined heat and power (CHP) systems to produce electricity and heat, reducing municipal energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions. It provides technical benchmarks, such as an average electrical yield of 70kWh per tonne of sludge, and financial estimates, noting that retrofitting existing AD systems with CHP can have a payback period of 5-15 years and an IRR of 18-30%. The factsheet identifies that projects are generally financially feasible for WWTWs with an inflow capacity exceeding 15 million litres per day.

The report analyzes the impact of the Green-Blue County Program on forest cover in 28 selected counties in São Paulo State, Brazil, amidst expanding sugarcane production. Using multiple and simple linear regression models, the study examines the relationship between forest cover changes and various socioeconomic, agricultural, and policy indicators. While the quantitative models showed limited statistical significance in explaining forest cover variability, the analysis suggests that 'green' certified counties generally experienced higher forest preservation and restoration compared to 'non-green' counties. The report concludes that the program's broad scope and the low weighting of forest-specific directives may limit its direct impact on vegetation cover, and suggests that more targeted policies and primary data collection are needed to better understand land use drivers.

The MAP-FIRE project focuses on the 'MAP region' (Madre de Dios in Peru, Acre in Brazil, and Pando in Bolivia) to address increasing vulnerability to droughts and wildfires. The project found that drought-induced fire emissions are often excluded from national carbon inventories and that gross emissions from wildfires can exceed 50% of primary forest deforestation during drought years. In Acre, Brazil, economic losses from forest fires between 2008 and 2012 were estimated at US$ 307.46 ± 85.41 million, representing 9.07 ± 2.46% of the state's GDP. To mitigate these risks, the project co-developed monitoring platforms for fire occurrence and air quality, which have since influenced the installation of air quality sensor networks across all Brazilian Amazonian states and informed a new project in the Pantanal region. The initiative also produced 10 technical reports and 34 collaborative events to integrate fire risk knowledge into school curricula and decision-making processes.

The policy brief highlights a severe economic downturn in South Africa during the third quarter of 2021, characterized by a 1.5% GDP contraction and record-high unemployment. It identifies specific vulnerabilities among youth, Black African women, and informal workers, while noting significant job losses in retail, hospitality, and community services. To mitigate these effects and prevent social instability, the author recommends a suite of interventions including wage support, expanded social grants, sector-specific loans for tourism, and increased funding for industrial policy.

The analysis highlights a dual challenge for Latin America: direct trade disruptions from US tariffs and indirect vulnerability to China's economic health. While Mexico and Central American countries face the highest effective tariff rates due to exports of steel, aluminum, and auto parts, South American nations are more exposed to a potential decline in Chinese demand for raw materials. The authors argue that China's ability to implement counter-cyclical fiscal and monetary policies to mitigate US tariff impacts will be critical for regional stability.

The report finds that gas projects in low- and middle-income countries receive four times more international public finance than wind or solar, despite renewable alternatives being cheaper or expected to be soon. It argues that gas expansion is inconsistent with IPCC 1.5°C scenarios, which project a 55% decline in global gas consumption by 2050. Through case studies of Argentina, Egypt, and India, the report highlights risks such as asset stranding and debt, recommending that international public finance cease supporting fossil fuels and instead focus on enabling renewable energy systems.

The document highlights the hidden costs of coal power in Indonesia, noting that coal producers received at least IDR 12.4 trillion (USD 946 million) in subsidies in 2014, which was five times the total subsidies for renewables from 2010 to 2015. It asserts that renewable energy is more cost-competitive when air pollution and CO2 externalities are included in the cost structure. Additionally, it emphasizes that significant investment in renewables is required to provide sustainable electricity access to millions of Indonesian households currently without connections.