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The document finds that climate adaptation planning in Spanish cities is in its early stages, with only 11 of 54 analyzed cities having specific plans, most of which were developed in the last three years. While these plans show strengths in international network adherence and risk assessment, they lack binding legislation, dedicated budgets, and sufficient integration of equity and justice. The brief highlights Barcelona, Córdoba, and Murcia as high-performing cities and suggests that the Spanish state and regional governments should provide more technical and financial support, potentially through mandatory planning regulations similar to those in the UK, Denmark, France, and Slovakia.

The report finds that currently agreed EU and Member State policies are on track to deliver a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 1990 levels, surpassing the existing 40% target. Using the E3ME model, the analysis suggests that further adjustments to coal phase-outs, energy efficiency, and electric vehicle penetration could increase this reduction to 58%. However, the report warns that the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) remains vulnerable to a growing surplus of allowances as emissions fall faster than the current cap, necessitating reforms such as a one-off cap reset in 2026 to maintain a meaningful carbon price.

The report analyzes the sustainability of off-grid solar PV systems in public health and education facilities across Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Using a framework based on three pillars—organizational, technical, and economic sustainability—and four project lifecycle phases, it examines seven retrospective case studies and several emerging and hypothetical models. Key findings highlight that many systems fail within 3–5 years due to a lack of long-term operation and maintenance (O&M) planning, insufficient funding for component replacement (especially batteries), and a tendency to devolve responsibility to under-resourced local actors. The report argues that sustainability requires aligning public and private incentives, securing lifetime funding upfront, and utilizing centralized O&M management or performance-based private contracts to avoid the 'responsibility vacuum' that often occurs after initial project funding ends.

The report analyzes the distribution of Mexico's electricity subsidies and evaluates reform options based on socioeconomic impacts. In 2016, total subsidies reached MXN 130 billion, with the vast majority benefiting households.

The Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) 2019 assesses the climate performance of 56 countries and the EU to inform the revision of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) by 2020. The index evaluates progress across four categories: GHG Emissions, Renewable Energy, Energy Use, and climate policy, specifically measuring compatibility with the Paris Agreement's goals of limiting warming to 1.5°C or well below 2°C.

The report finds that Estonia's 2005 ecological tax reform was only partially implemented, with success largely limited to fiscal goals rather than behavioral or environmental changes. While excise duties on energy products and electricity were generally increased, transport and pollution taxes saw minimal progress. Consequently, several negative trends persisted or worsened between 2005 and 2017, including a 43% increase in direct material input, a rise in the number of passenger cars, and continued reliance on oil shale for electricity production. Positive developments were noted in the growth of renewable electricity and a reduction in certain air pollutants, though greenhouse gas emissions from transport increased by 10%.

The report finds that while some progress has been made in forest transparency and law enforcement, governance improvements are too slow to significantly reduce deforestation. It highlights critical failures in securing indigenous land rights, persistent corruption, and increasing violence against land defenders. While some Asian economies have adopted demand-side regulations against illegal logging, systemic weaknesses in enforcement and transparency continue to hinder forest protection.

Synapse Energy Economics identifies several critical flaws in South Africa's draft 2018 IRP, arguing that it relies on an unreasonably high load forecast, overstates the costs of renewable energy and battery storage, and ignores the economic optimality of retiring aging coal plants. The report highlights a significant disconnect between the IRP's optimized modeling—which suggests no new coal in the 2020s—and the proposed resource plan, which calls for over 6,500 MW of new coal capacity. Additionally, the authors criticize the plan for inadequate carbon budgeting, failure to account for water scarcity, and a lack of transparency in providing modeling data to stakeholders.

The document analyzes the economic pressures facing the US nuclear fleet, finding that over one-third of plants are unprofitable or scheduled to close. It warns that without carbon-reduction policies, these closures could increase power sector emissions by 4 to 6 percent as natural gas and coal fill the void. The report advocates for a national carbon price or a low-carbon electricity standard to maintain low-carbon generation and triple renewable energy by 2035, noting that the public health and economic benefits of such policies would outweigh the costs.

The report examines downstream beneficiation—the domestic processing of raw materials—noting that policies are often driven by political goals rather than economic analysis. It identifies key prerequisites for success, including guaranteed market demand, infrastructure, and inexpensive energy, while arguing that proximity to raw materials is increasingly less important than proximity to consumers. The document analyzes five policy options: incentives, prescriptive measures, negotiations, bidding, and government-led investments, highlighting that without a strong business case, these can lead to inefficient 'white elephant' projects. It concludes with recommendations for governments to use market and cost-benefit analyses, including considerations for environmental externalities and the risk of stranded assets in the oil and gas sector due to global decarbonization targets.

The report examines water security in Burkina Faso's Nouaho sub-basin, finding that climate-exacerbated hazards like water scarcity and flooding disproportionately affect women and girls due to gendered divisions of labour and social norms. While women primarily manage domestic water collection and often lead off-farm income activities, they are largely excluded from community-level decision-making and water association leadership. The document argues that WASH adaptation must move beyond technical infrastructure to address gender discrimination and empower marginalized groups to ensure long-term water security.

The report evaluates the global viscose industry's transition to sustainable production, highlighting a divide between 'front-runner' brands adopting closed-loop standards and 'laggards'—including several luxury and low-cost retailers—who lack transparency. It specifically analyzes the commitments of major producers Lenzing and Aditya Birla Group, and the emerging Collaboration for Sustainable Development of Viscose in China, while arguing that current certifications like the EU Ecolabel and OEKO-TEX STeP are insufficient compared to EU Best Available Techniques (BAT) standards.

The report argues that inclusivity is vital for sustaining peace and must be integrated into every stage of the peace continuum, from mediation to state-building. Using Liberia and South Sudan as case studies, it contrasts Liberia's relatively successful inclusive frameworks and unified regional support from ECOWAS with South Sudan's elite-driven processes and fragmented regional response from IGAD. The document highlights that technical exercises in security sector reform (SSR) and disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) often fail if they do not address underlying political power structures and incentives for spoilers. It concludes with recommendations for the UN to prioritise joint analysis, community consultation, and support for institutionalised regional governance frameworks to ensure sustainable, inclusive peace.

The report analyzes the health and economic costs of coal in Indonesia, highlighting that coal-related air pollution causes thousands of premature deaths and significant financial burdens on low-income households. It argues that the Indonesian government's continued subsidies for coal production and power plants contradict public health goals and that transitioning to cheaper renewable energy would reduce these burdens.

The report examines how civil society organizations (CSOs) engage with the Open Government Partnership (OGP), a multi-stakeholder initiative (MSI) designed to increase government transparency and civic participation. Through case studies of Georgia, South Africa, and Indonesia, the authors analyze the gap between the OGP's 'co-creation' aspirations and the reality of government dominance. Georgia is presented as a success story where a permanent multi-stakeholder forum fostered genuine partnership, while South Africa is characterized by tokenism and a lack of political will. Indonesia's experience is described as mixed, with active CSOs facing logistical hurdles and a restrictive political environment. The report concludes that while MSIs can open spaces for dialogue, their success depends on political commitment, institutional structures like permanent forums, and the ability of CSOs to form strategic coalitions.

The analysis finds that the Pan-Canadian Framework (PCF), if fully implemented, will leave a 2030 emissions gap of 161 million metric tons (MMT), which is 3.7 times larger than the 44 MMT shortfall predicted by the Canadian government. While an 'Extended' scenario—strengthening PCF policies through 2050—comes closer to the 2030 target, it still falls short of Canada's mid-century goal to reduce emissions by 80-90 percent below 2005 levels. The report highlights that the carbon tax and methane capture are the most effective PCF policies for 2030, and that both the PCF and PCF Extended scenarios would result in significant annual economic savings and thousands of lives saved by 2050 due to reduced particulate matter emissions.

The report examines the restructuring of Poland's coal sector following the 1989 transition to a market economy. While the sector successfully reduced its workforce from 388,000 in 1990 to 98,000 in 2015 and closed 40 of 70 collieries, it struggled with persistent lack of profitability and significant social costs. The authors analyze the Mining Social Package (MSP) and special privileges for mining communes, noting that while the MSP effectively reduced employment, it led to long-term labor market inactivity due to a lack of comprehensive job-seeking support. The report concludes that coal phase-out requires integrated regional development and mandatory professional retraining to avoid social exclusion.

This policy brief develops a metric for 'convenient access' to public transit by combining spatial (distance to stop) and temporal (bus frequency) data. Applying this to Winnipeg, the analysis finds that only 53% of the population has convenient access during peak hours. It further demonstrates that proposed cuts to 22 bus routes would have resulted in 5.6% of residents losing convenient access and 5.54% losing all access to transit. The brief argues that such quantitative monitoring is essential for informing sustainable urban development and evaluating the impact of policy changes on ridership.

The document argues that the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) system is flawed due to a lack of representation for the Global South, a lack of checks and balances, and jurisprudential incoherence. It examines 'revolutionary' European proposals like the Investment Court System (ICS) in the TTIP and CETA, which introduce permanent judges and appellate mechanisms. It also analyzes the more ad hoc responses of India, which introduced a model BIT requiring the exhaustion of domestic remedies, and South Africa, which replaced BITs with the Protection of Investment Act 2015 to shift toward state-to-state arbitration. The author recommends that African nations avoid purely domestic remedies and instead pursue regional, institutionalized court systems—such as an AU-EU or China-Africa Investment Court—to ensure fair representation and legal coherence.

The report argues that SADC countries can reduce processed food trade deficits and mitigate climate change risks by shifting from national industrial policies to regional value chains (RVCs). It identifies a significant opportunity for Zambia, Tanzania, and Mozambique to replace South Africa's deep-sea soya oilcake imports with regional production. However, it notes that the sugar sector is hindered by protectionist policies and the market power of dominant firms, which keep industrial sugar prices high and stifle downstream confectionery processing. The author proposes practical interventions, including a regional transportation information system to solve 'backhaul' constraints and the harmonisation of quality standards to facilitate intra-regional trade.