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Nepal's textiles and clothing sector, particularly readymade garments and hand-knotted woollen carpets, remains a key export earner despite structural constraints and a decline in manufacturing's share of GDP. While the sector leverages unique craftsmanship and LDC-based preferential market access, it faces high logistics costs, skilled labour shortages, and a 25% higher unit cost compared to competitors like Bangladesh and India. LDC graduation threatens this competitiveness through potential tariff increases and stricter rules of origin. The authors argue that the government should move away from ineffective ad-valorem subsidies and poorly located special economic zones, instead focusing on market intelligence, inter-agency coordination, and productivity improvements to adapt to a changing global trade landscape.

The paper contends that traditional industrial policy is overly focused on manufacturing and must be expanded to include services, which now account for roughly two-thirds of global GDP. It identifies five pillars for a services-led industrial policy: infrastructure, investment/FDI, skills and human capital, regulatory quality, and connectivity. The author highlights that services offer developing economies advantages in terms of lower capital intensity, smaller minimum scale, and environmental sustainability. Furthermore, the document notes that the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) provides governments with more policy space for experimentation than the rules governing manufacturing trade.

RMI conducted pilots with BCG, Roland Berger, and Estuaire to compare contrail accounting methods. The results show that a bottom-up, flight-specific approach is significantly more accurate than the standard 1.7x multiplier, revealing that 2% of flights cause 80% of contrail impacts. The report advocates for a phased transition toward high-fidelity accounting to enable targeted corporate travel policies and alignment with emerging EU regulations.

The 2025 G20 presidency under South Africa served as a symbolic platform for African priorities, including debt sustainability and just energy transition, but faced significant challenges due to the absence of the US and a general lack of collective ambition on climate change. While the presidency successfully advanced discussions on critical minerals and disaster resilience, the Final Communiqué failed to mention transitioning away from fossil fuels, reflecting a broader trend of G20 paralysis on environmental leadership.

Africa holds about 30 percent of global proven critical resource mineral (CRM) supplies but primarily exports them in raw form. The document identifies significant barriers to domestic value addition—including technical capacity, infrastructure, and investment gaps—and posits that regional collaboration is the only viable way to achieve the scale necessary for competitive downstream processing amid rising global demand for the energy and digital transitions.

The document analyzes the rising trend of youth emigration from West Africa, driven by high unemployment, insecurity, and structural inequality. It highlights the resulting brain drain in critical sectors and suggests leveraging the digital economy and diaspora skills to create regional opportunities.

Using Kenya as a primary case study, the authors examine how the shift from traditional manufacturing-based industrial policy to a platform-based digital economy risks creating a new form of 'informational dependency'. While Kenya has successfully integrated into global digital services, the authors find that value capture remains limited because data and algorithmic control reside with foreign platforms. The paper advocates for a holistic industrial policy that integrates data governance, decent work standards, and regional cooperation to ensure digital transformation leads to inclusive development rather than extractive accumulation.

Washington State faces escalating risks from drought, wildfires, extreme heat, and coastal flooding, which threaten its economy, ecosystems, and critical US military installations. While federal agencies like NOAA and FEMA provide essential forecasting, funding, and disaster recovery services, the report argues that recent and proposed budget cuts for FY2026—including the termination of key research laboratories and the reduction of grant programs—significantly degrade the state's capacity to prepare for and respond to these hazards.

Hawaiʻi faces significant economic and security risks from sea level rise, wildfires, and drought, which threaten both civilian infrastructure and critical US military hubs like Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. While federal agencies provide essential monitoring and recovery support, proposed FY 2026 budget cuts would eliminate key programs such as the Hawaiʻi Sea Grant and the Pacific Islands Climate Adaptation Science Center, potentially reducing disaster relief and hindering climate adaptation efforts.

Colombia is projected to face a gas supply deficit starting in 2030, with domestic production and import capacity unable to meet demand. The report argues that this vulnerability can be mitigated by implementing energy efficiency measures in the industrial sector and electrifying cooking and water heating in the residential sector. Together, these actions could reduce 2030 gas demand by 21,545 GBtu, which is 1.5 times the projected deficit for that year. The authors recommend a planned exit from gas, including a national appliance replacement programme, the reorientation of subsidies toward electrification, and the limitation of new fossil fuel infrastructure to avoid carbon lock-in.

The author contends that while central bank independence must be protected from populist right-wing capture—citing attempts by Donald Trump in the US and leaders in Turkey and India—the current technocratic orthodoxy is failing. The text argues that the ECB's focus on price stability via interest rate hikes has been ineffective against 'cost-push' inflation and 'greedflation', and has actively hindered the green transition by increasing capital costs for renewables. To remedy this, the document proposes a 'whole-of-government approach' involving a coordination council and the definition of time-bound secondary objectives, such as 'green interest rate' policies, to align monetary policy with democratic goals without requiring treaty changes.

This research paper by Steven Haig of the International Institute for Sustainable Development argues that expanding liquefied natural gas (LNG) production in Canada will increase domestic and global emissions, hinder the transition to renewable energy, and divert public funds from climate solutions.

Colombia faces a projected gas supply deficit from 2030 onwards as domestic production declines. The report argues that the country can mitigate this risk and avoid costly imports by implementing energy efficiency in industry and electrifying cooking and water heating in the residential sector. It recommends a planned, just transition that includes a national appliance replacement programme, the reorientation of subsidies, and the limitation of new fossil fuel infrastructure to avoid carbon lock-in.

Colombia faces a projected gas supply deficit starting in 2030, as national production declines and import capacity becomes insufficient. The report argues that this vulnerability can be mitigated by reducing demand through a 14% increase in industrial energy efficiency and the electrification of residential cooking and water heating. Specifically, replacing 10% of gas stoves and 30% of water heaters with electric alternatives could significantly lower demand. The authors recommend a planned, just transition that includes reorienting subsidies toward electrification, implementing a national equipment replacement program, and avoiding long-term fossil fuel lock-ins like fracking.

The COP30 summit in Belém concluded with the "Mutirão global" agreement, which maintained negotiations but postponed key decisions on fossil fuels and adaptation finance. While the summit saw record indigenous participation and significant funding commitments for tropical forests and energy infrastructure, it failed to establish a clear mechanism to limit warming to 1.5°C and lacked a process for reviewing Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The document urges reporters to translate these diplomatic results into human-centric stories focusing on vulnerable communities and territorial rights.

The report defines intergenerational justice as an ethical obligation to balance present needs with the needs of future generations, incorporating distributive, procedural, and recognitional dimensions. It highlights that youth view themselves as current stakeholders and proxies for the future, provided they have meaningful participation and institutional support. The document identifies a broad range of youth concerns, including climate change, biodiversity loss, and mental health, and argues for integrated solutions over single-issue fixes. It examines various European participatory mechanisms, such as Youth Councils and participatory budgeting, and recommends strengthening these through improved accountability, diversity, and intergenerational dialogue.

The Clean Air Task Force (CATF) contends that the Department of Energy's (DOE) "Restoring Reliability: Coal Recommissioning And Modernization" funding opportunity redirects up to $350 million from carbon capture pilot programs to maintain aging coal plants without requiring carbon capture installation. CATF argues that targeting plants scheduled for retirement before 2032 makes carbon capture infeasible due to the 3-7 year construction timeline and the 12-20 year operational period needed to recover capital costs. Furthermore, the document states that allocating $350 million across up to five plants is too diluted, as a single large-scale retrofit often exceeds $500 million. CATF recommends that the DOE limit eligibility to plants expected to operate beyond 2040 and mandate explicit capture performance requirements to meet the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) mandate for two coal-based carbon capture demonstrations.

The U.S. pulp and paper industry, which accounts for 9% of industrial energy consumption, offers significant potential for net-negative emissions through CCS due to its reliance on waste biomass. A new mapping tool evaluates facilities based on capture costs, capture potential, storage costs, infrastructure clustering, and co-benefits. The analysis identifies the Gulf Coast—specifically Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas—as having the highest opportunity scores. While private sector interest is growing, the document argues that the 45Q tax credit requires enhancement and regulatory certainty for transport infrastructure is needed to scale these technologies.

The report examines the diverse strategies employed by three major ASEAN economies—Viet Nam, the Philippines, and Indonesia—to unlock clean energy investments. Viet Nam is focusing on gradual liberalisation and corporate power purchase agreements (DPPA) to potentially double its renewable energy share. The Philippines is leveraging a long-standing liberalised market, utilizing Green Energy Auctions (GEA) and 100% foreign ownership to attract capital. Indonesia is implementing PPA reforms to manage currency risk and integrating carbon market mechanisms to incentivise developers, with solar identified as the most viable near-term expansion option.

Viet Nam, the Philippines, and Indonesia are transitioning from coal-reliant economies to renewable energy hotspots, collectively accounting for nearly 60% of ASEAN's power demand and emissions. While all three have set ambitious 2030 targets for renewables to exceed 50% of installed capacity, they face bottlenecks in permitting, grid infrastructure, and financial risk. The report highlights that solar-plus-battery integration significantly improves internal rates of return (IRR), particularly in Indonesia, and emphasizes the role of market reforms—such as Viet Nam's Direct Power Purchase Agreements and the Philippines' removal of foreign ownership restrictions—in attracting private capital.