Search Climate Insights Directory

The document analyzes global oil demand scenarios from the IEA and CER, concluding that climate policies and technological shifts—particularly in road transport—will lead to a permanent decline in oil demand starting before 2030. It highlights that road transport, the largest consumer of oil at 44%, is seeing an exponential shift toward electric vehicles. Other sectors, including buildings, power, aviation, shipping, and plastics, are also expected to contribute to demand destruction, though at different paces. The brief asserts that Canada must prepare for this structural decline to ensure economic resilience.

The Mijares River basin faces significant environmental threats, including a 56% reduction in summer storms since 1950 and high risks of desertification and forest fires. To address these, the document proposes five targeted adaptation measures: recovering extensive grazing in the headwaters, creating mosaic landscapes, restoring traditional orchards in the upper and middle reaches, maintaining rain-fed crops in the middle reach, and diversifying citrus plantations with sustainable woody crops in the lower reach. Implementation is hindered by fragmented private land ownership (minifundios), rugged terrain, and the loss of traditional knowledge. The brief advocates for a participatory, integrated territorial approach involving payments for ecosystem services and the integration of women and youth into rural employment.

The document challenges the belief that social grants create a 'culture of dependency' or discourage labour market participation in South Africa. By reviewing international and local evidence, it argues that cash transfers often facilitate job searches, stimulate local economies, and empower women. The authors advocate for a UBIG indexed to the upper-bound poverty line, funded through progressive taxation, as a means to eliminate poverty while supporting inclusive economic growth.

The document analyzes China's strategic efforts to increase its presence in West Africa, contrasting the deep, multi-sectoral engagement in Ghana with the more recent and technology-focused growth in Senegal. It attributes these differences to the length of diplomatic relations and the lingering influence of former colonial powers, particularly France.

The author argues that a gas tax holiday is an ineffective, short-term response to high fuel prices and instead proposes four 'quick wins': discounting public transit fares, creating pre-tax sustainable transport savings accounts, improving electric vehicle incentives via point-of-sale rebates, and incentivizing remote work. These measures are intended to provide immediate financial relief while supporting the long-term 'Avoid-Shift-Improve' framework to reduce oil dependence through electrification, reduced trip distances, and improved shared mobility.

The Canadian Climate Institute outlines four recommendations to improve Ontario's electricity policy: clarifying long-term emissions targets, expanding the mandates of the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) and Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) to include climate goals, replacing ad hoc directives with a comprehensive long-term plan, and commissioning periodic technical pathway reports.

The document analyzes the impact of the Financial Compensation for Mineral Exploration (CFEM) in Pará, Brazil, between 2007 and 2020. It finds that mining royalties, which are highly concentrated in a few municipalities and subject to commodity price volatility, have not improved local development indices. Instead, a significant portion of these funds is diverted toward salaries and pensions, contrary to regulatory intentions. The authors recommend stricter spending regulations and the creation of financial instruments to smooth revenue volatility.

This policy brief discusses the barriers cities face in accessing climate finance and proposes financial aggregation as a strategy to scale up investment for urban climate mitigation and adaptation.

The report examines BNDES's role in the Legal Amazon, finding that while the North Region receives the highest share of disbursements relative to its GDP, it receives the lowest total share of BNDES funds. Financing is heavily concentrated in large-scale hydroelectric infrastructure, often serving the rest of Brazil while local populations remain dependent on expensive, polluting diesel generation. The authors argue for a transition toward renewable energy, decentralized solar power, and improved basic services to reduce regional inequality.

The document examines the potential of information and communication technologies (ICT) to improve economic accessibility in the Legal Amazon. It reviews global evidence showing that mobile and broadband services increase productivity, employment, and market access in developing regions. In the Legal Amazon, the brief identifies significant gaps in 3G/4G mobile internet access in rural areas and broadband access in both urban and rural sectors compared to the rest of Brazil, recommending targeted infrastructure investments to overcome these barriers.

The document argues that disarmament negotiations are highly masculinized, leading to the routine exclusion of women despite their roles as combatants or leaders of anti-weapon campaigns. It identifies three primary barriers to inclusion: conceptual beliefs that women are irrelevant to war issues, technical portrayals of women as lacking military expertise, and political barriers related to the lack of women in leadership. Using case studies from five countries, the brief demonstrates a continuum of inclusion from total exclusion (Nepal, South Sudan, Sri Lanka) to meaningful inclusion (Philippines, Colombia). It recommends that third parties push for compulsory quotas and capacity-building to ensure diverse, horizontal, and vertical inclusion of women in all stages of peace processes.

The document argues that while Aid for Trade (AfT) is a vital tool for sustainable development, there is a significant mismatch between the low levels of development assistance for plastic pollution and the high financial flows to the petrochemical sector. It identifies specific capacity-building needs for developing countries—such as circular economy strategies, technology access, and regulatory frameworks—and proposes short- and medium-term deliverables for WTO members to integrate plastic pollution priorities into AfT work programmes.

The policy brief argues that reliable, granular trade data is essential for evidence-based policymaking to tackle plastic pollution, but the current World Customs Organization (WCO) Harmonized System (HS) lacks sufficient detail. It highlights seven key shortfalls in the HS, including inadequate differentiation of primary plastics, gaps in identifying harmful chemical additives, and a failure to track 'hidden' plastics embedded in other products. The authors propose a series of amendments for the 2022–2027 HS cycle, focusing on disaggregating polymer types, improving the classification of plastic waste to align with the Basel Convention, and revealing information on single-use plastics and packaging.

The US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) lacks transparency regarding the greenhouse gas emissions intensities of the oils it stores, which hinders the ability to minimize climate impacts during drawdowns. The document notes that different oils vary significantly in their climate footprints based on production and refining methods, and that a mismatch exists between the SPR's lighter crudes and the deep-conversion refineries in Texas and Louisiana that primarily process them. It suggests that selectively purchasing the lowest climate-intensive oils for the current one-million-barrel daily withdrawal could save an estimated 90 million tons of CO2e.

The document argues that Kenya's coffee sector, which employs 30% of the agricultural workforce, faces existential risks from climate change and declining production. It proposes 17 specific Sustainable Consumption and Production Practices (SCPs) across the value chain—from farm-level organic fertilizers and shade trees to factory-level eco-pulping and the use of renewable energy in milling—to increase yields and reduce environmental impacts. The brief recommends that the Kenyan government incorporate SCPs into national coffee reforms, provide subsidies for sustainable technology, and enhance capacity-building through extension officers.

The document analyzes how end-user subsidies—direct or indirect payments to consumers—can bridge the affordability gap for basic electricity access. It evaluates two primary methodologies for calculating this gap (SEforALL's 'Taking the Pulse' and the World Bank's 'Off-Grid Solar Market Trends Report') and identifies key design attributes such as financing structures, delivery modalities, and verification systems. Through case studies, it finds that Ghana's programme succeeded due to accurate targeting and pricing, while Uganda's faced challenges with high costs and payment delays. Togo's CIZO programme is highlighted for its innovative use of mobile money for subsidy delivery. The brief concludes that improving demographic and consumption data is essential to avoid market distortion and ensure subsidies reach the poorest households.

The document examines the dual role of U.S. ports as both significant emitters of greenhouse gases and vulnerable infrastructure facing climate threats like sea level rise. It details mitigation strategies, including electrification of machinery and shore powering for ships, and adaptation methods, such as nature-based shoreline protection and improved stormwater management. The brief highlights specific initiatives at ports in California, Georgia, and Florida, while noting the importance of federal resources like the EPA Ports Initiative in supporting these transitions.

The document presents Project Drawdown's 'Health and Education' solution, which advocates for universal education for girls and boys and voluntary family planning for women and couples. It argues that these interventions reduce greenhouse gas emissions by slowing population growth and improving individual decision-making agency. The brief estimates that adopting this solution could avoid roughly 70 gigatons of CO2-equivalent by 2050, with significant impacts in both low- and high-income countries. It calls for the integration of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and education into national climate strategies and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

The document argues that COVID-19 exacerbated pre-existing gender inequalities in the artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector, disproportionately affecting women through job losses, reduced incomes, and increased vulnerability to gender-based violence. Using case studies from Zimbabwe, Peru, and the Philippines, it highlights how women's roles—often considered 'peripheral' or informal—left them without government support and increased their domestic burdens. The brief recommends the adoption of rapid gender analyses, sex-disaggregated data collection, and gender-responsive budgeting to create emergency and long-term structural reforms that protect marginalized women in the mining sector.

The document examines how the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated pre-existing gender inequalities in the artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector globally, with a focus on women's disproportionate loss of income, increased food insecurity, and limited access to healthcare. Through case studies in Zimbabwe, Peru, and the Philippines, it illustrates how women's roles—often classified as 'secondary'—led to higher layoff rates and exclusion from government aid. The brief argues for a three-tiered policy approach: emergency rapid gender assessments, short-term resilience measures based on gender-disaggregated data, and long-term structural reforms including gender-responsive budgeting and formalization of the sector.