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This fact sheet describes the proposed South African Wholesale Electricity Market (SAWEM), a short-term trading platform for bulk electricity designed to introduce competition into the energy sector. It outlines the role of the Market Operator, the regulatory oversight of NERSA, and the potential impacts on electricity pricing, renewable energy transition, and municipal operations.

The report analyzes the state of Africa's green technology transition in 2025, highlighting the tension between increasing technology affordability and tightening global trade and regulatory frameworks. It details the impact of US trade policy shifts, the upcoming EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, and continental efforts to mobilize climate finance and integrate energy markets.

This report provides a comprehensive profile of Canada's mining sector, detailing its geological reserves, industrial infrastructure, economic contributions, and the regulatory frameworks governing critical minerals. It highlights Canada's strategic focus on sustainable critical mineral production and the challenges of energy and logistics in northern regions.

This report examines the development and performance of hybrid power plants in Türkiye, focusing on the integration of solar energy with wind and hydroelectric sources to optimize grid connection efficiency and production continuity.

This report by Ember examines the development and performance of hybrid solar power plants in Türkiye, noting that while installed capacity remains low relative to overall solar growth, these systems significantly improve transmission line efficiency and energy production continuity, particularly when paired with wind and hydroelectric resources.

This report by Ember examines the discrepancy between Australia's increasing coal production and its decreasing reported fugitive emissions, attributing the trend to the closure of gassy underground mines and changes in estimation methods for open-cut mining.

This report provides a comprehensive assessment of Bhutan's mining policy framework against the standards of the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development (IGF). Conducted between February and August 2024, the assessment evaluates Bhutan's readiness to implement sustainable mining practices across five themes: laws and institutions, financial benefits, socio-economic benefits, environmental management, and post-mining transition. While the report highlights Bhutan's strong constitutional commitment to environmental conservation and the integration of Gross National Happiness (GNH) into its development philosophy, it identifies critical gaps in legislative coherence, community engagement, and the technical capacity for monitoring and enforcement.

This report by Climate Policy Initiative and Amazônia 2030 analyzes the regulatory framework for legal gold mining (garimpo) in the Brazilian Amazon. It argues that current laws are anachronistic, treating industrial-scale operations as artisanal, which allows them to bypass critical environmental safeguards such as prior mineral research and rigorous environmental licensing. The authors recommend federal regulatory updates to mandate prior research for cooperatives and a reversal of simplified, municipalized licensing processes in the state of Pará to better mitigate socio-environmental damages.

This report by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) analyzes trade frictions arising from national and subnational plastic pollution measures implemented by WTO members. By examining Specific Trade Concerns (STCs) and Trade Policy Review (TPR) questions, the authors identify six primary types of regulatory issues—timing, transparency, stakeholder engagement, proportionality, justification, and discrimination—and provide recommendations to help policy-makers design measures that minimize trade disruptions.

This report examines the role of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in facilitating the transition to a global circular economy to address the 'triple planetary crisis'. It analyzes current trade measures, identifies a disproportionate focus on end-of-life waste management over upstream resource reduction, and proposes a framework for regulatory alignment and mutual recognition of circular goods and services to prevent market fragmentation and 'circular resource nationalism'.

This policy brief by the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI/PUC-Rio) analyzes the regulatory and governance challenges of legal deforestation in Brazil, with a specific focus on the Matopiba region. It examines the issuance of Vegetation Suppression Authorizations (ASV) and the effectiveness of the National System for the Control of the Origin of Forest Products (Sinaflor), concluding that current tools are insufficient for monitoring and controlling legal deforestation.

This report by the Climate Bonds Initiative analyzes the sustainable securitization market in Brazil as of the third quarter of 2022. It examines the regulatory framework for asset-backed securities (ABS), the growth of themed debt instruments (Green, Social, Sustainability, and Sustainability-linked), and the specific potential for these tools to finance small-scale sustainable projects in agriculture, bioenergy, and infrastructure.

The 2023 Water Market Intelligence Report by GreenCape identifies significant investment opportunities in South Africa's public wastewater infrastructure, specifically focusing on metropolitan municipalities. The report highlights a critical state of existing infrastructure, the potential for circular economy solutions through sludge beneficiation, and the need for energy efficiency and renewable energy interventions to combat rising costs and energy insecurity.

The Centre for Environmental Rights (CER) issued a statement to the Petroleum Agency of South Africa (PASA) raising concerns regarding transparency, environmental compliance, and climate impact assessments for onshore gas and petroleum activities. The CER highlights a lack of public information on rights holders and questions the legality of specific projects and the use of hydraulic fracturing.

This report by the Climate Policy Initiative analyzes how Brazilian mining regulations, specifically the distinction between industrial mining and 'garimpeiro' (artisanal) mining, are being exploited by cooperatives to conduct industrial-scale operations under a weaker regulatory framework. It argues that two February 2022 presidential decrees further exacerbate this contradiction by providing incentives and simplified licensing to these cooperatives, which often operate on a larger scale than major industrial mining companies in the Amazon.

This report by the Climate Bonds Initiative analyzes post-issuance reporting practices for green bonds in China, focusing on the availability and quality of Use of Proceeds (UoP) and environmental impact disclosures. While China possesses a stringent regulatory framework, the report finds that reporting availability is lower than global averages, particularly regarding impact disclosure. The study highlights a strong preference for core metrics and cumulative impact reporting among Chinese issuers, while identifying inconsistencies across different regulatory bodies and bond types.

This report by the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI/PUC-Rio) argues that Brazilian presidential decrees from February 2022 exacerbate a regulatory gap in the mining sector, allowing gold mining cooperatives to operate as industrial entities while benefiting from lenient regulations intended for vulnerable individual miners. The authors call for the revocation of these decrees to better protect the environment and improve oversight in the Amazon.

This research paper examines the state of nuclear governance across the 16 SADC member states, highlighting the disparities in their regulatory frameworks and the need for regional synchronisation. It focuses on the safety and security of uranium mining and the transport of radioactive materials, proposing that SADC provide a platform for cooperation to harmonise policies and improve regional emergency responses.

This policy brief by the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI/PUC-Rio) analyzes the socio-environmental components of Technical, Economic, and Environmental Viability Studies (EVTEA) and Environmental Impact Studies (EIA) for federal land infrastructure concessions in the Brazilian Legal Amazon. The analysis reveals significant gaps in the inclusion of biotic components, a lack of correlation between EVTEA and EIA, and inconsistent adherence to sectoral manuals and Terms of Reference (TRs).

This policy brief by Climate Policy Initiative/Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (CPI/PUC-Rio) analyzes the viability phase of 14 large-scale federal land transport infrastructure projects in the Legal Amazon. The analysis identifies significant procedural gaps, a lack of logical sequencing between environmental studies, and a systemic lack of transparency regarding project documentation, which increases environmental risks and investor uncertainty.