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The ITIAC recommends that the DOE prioritize budget increases for offices like IEDO and AMMTO, improve industrial energy data collection, and support cross-cutting technologies such as direct electrification and clean hydrogen. It specifically calls for the creation of a chemicals technology center of excellence and a 'Fast Track' program to accelerate commercialization. The report also emphasizes the need for grid reforms to lower electricity costs for industry and the development of standards for clean goods to facilitate long-term offtake agreements.

The African Climate Foundation outlines a strategic framework for Africa's sustainable transformation by 2030, emphasizing regional integration, green industrialization, localization, domestic capital mobilization, and governance strengthening to avoid extractive economic patterns.

South Africa's 2025 G20 presidency focuses on four key priorities: disaster resilience, debt sustainability for low-income countries, financing just energy transitions, and critical minerals for sustainable development. The presidency aims to elevate 'country platforms' like South Africa's Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) and bring African climate finance concerns to the forefront. The Sustainable Finance Working Group (SFWG) for 2025 is tasked with strengthening the global sustainable finance architecture, scaling up adaptation and just transition finance, and unlocking carbon market potential. The report highlights opportunities for South Africa to enhance follow-up mechanisms for G20 commitments, engage African Union (AU) structures, and coordinate with Brazil ahead of COP30. However, the report notes diplomatic challenges regarding the US presidency's approach to climate multilateralism and the Paris Agreement.

The document frames ocean health as a critical component of U.S. national security and economic strength. It highlights how ocean degradation, illegal fishing, and competition over seafood supply chains drive regional conflict and economic instability. To address these risks, it recommends elevating ocean governance within national security directives, strengthening international partnerships to counter illegal fishing, and incentivizing private sector investment in sustainable ocean management.

The document examines China's role as the dominant economy in the expanded BRICS bloc, arguing that China views the group as a tool to counter Western hegemony and advance its own geopolitical goals, such as the Belt and Road Initiative. While the bloc has achieved significant milestones through the New Development Bank and advocacy for climate justice, the paper highlights severe internal tensions—particularly between China and India—and regional rivalries among new members like Iran and Saudi Arabia that may hinder the bloc's cohesion.

South Africa's upcoming G20 presidency is positioned as a critical lever for reforming the global financial architecture to better support African nations facing a severe debt crisis and escalating climate risks. The paper highlights that Africa's debt has surged by 183% since 2010, with 57% of the population living in countries that spend more on interest payments than on healthcare, education, and infrastructure. It critiques existing G20 mechanisms like the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) and the Common Framework for Debt Treatments for their slow implementation and failure to secure private creditor participation. The author advocates for a holistic approach that links debt sustainability with climate resilience, noting that climate financing needs are projected to exceed USD 10 trillion annually from 2031 to 2050. South Africa's presidency, themed 'solidarity, equality and sustainable development', aims to amplify the voice of the Global South and the African Union within the G20 to secure equitable debt relief and increased concessional finance for climate adaptation.

Mighty Earth asserts that its theory of change is designed to withstand U.S. political shifts, noting that its core work on international nature protection and protein sector transformation relies more on the private sector than the U.S. government. While acknowledging risks to civil society and potential federal cuts to clean energy support, the organization emphasizes that economic incentives for decarbonization remain strong and plans to launch a North American rewilding program focused on state governments.

The briefing outlines a three-part agenda for the next US administration to maintain the momentum of its green industrial strategy. It emphasizes the need to bridge the gap between initial investment and long-term economic stability by streamlining permitting, diversifying supply chains to reduce reliance on China, and ensuring that clean energy benefits reach low-income and legacy industrial communities. The author advocates for a 'private-sector-led, government-enabled' framework supported by strategic governance mechanisms to ensure the US remains a global leader in cleantech innovation and manufacturing.

The Council on Strategic Risks outlines a strategic framework for the next US administration's nuclear posture, emphasizing the completion of current modernization plans, the preservation of international norms against nuclear testing and use, and the avoidance of provocative posture changes. It warns against 'entanglement' between conventional and nuclear systems and recommends maintaining the 'fundamental purpose' declaratory policy. The report specifically advises against rebuilding nuclear sea-launched cruise missiles (SLCM-N) and expanding the Sentinel ICBM program beyond its current 400-missile target.

The document examines the complementary strengths of China, as a global leader in green technology manufacturing, and Africa, which possesses vast renewable energy potential and critical mineral reserves. It highlights the shift in China's approach toward treating Africa as a business partner and details the specific clean energy commitments made during FOCAC 2024. However, it argues that Africa must enhance its own internal resource mobilization, reduce dependency on external aid, and improve project implementation timelines to fully realize these opportunities.

The document examines Africa's potential to enter the solar PV manufacturing value chain, highlighting its abundance of critical minerals like copper and tin and high solar irradiance. It identifies significant barriers, including China's dominance of over 80% of the global value chain, high capital requirements for polysilicon production, and a lack of domestic technological capacity. The authors argue that individual African countries lack the resources to compete and instead recommend a regionalized strategy to pool resources and achieve economies of scale.

The document analyzes the potential for African nations to move beyond the "pit to port" model of mineral extraction by building integrated battery mineral value chains. It highlights Africa's significant reserves of cobalt, manganese, graphite, and vanadium, and examines the macroeconomic shift from fossil fuel revenues to transition mineral revenues. The paper identifies Morocco as a leader in integrating automotive assembly with battery material production and discusses the potential for South Africa to act as a regional integrator. It concludes that while a continent-wide strategy is unlikely, sub-regional strategies and national policy instruments—such as strategic non-alignment and targeted industrial policies for e-mobility—can help African countries capture more value from their mineral endowments.

The report tracks the shift in China-Africa energy cooperation from large-scale infrastructure and thermal power projects toward 'small and beautiful' green initiatives. It highlights a growing alignment between China's commitment to stop funding overseas coal-fired projects and Africa's strategic priorities for climate finance, renewable energy access, and resilient infrastructure. While China offers technological and financial aid, the report notes that some African priorities, such as critical minerals, remain insufficiently addressed.

The report quantifies the massive energy and financial waste inherent in the fossil fuel system, noting that nearly two-thirds of primary energy is lost before providing useful services. It identifies fossil thermal power plants and internal combustion engines as the primary drivers of this waste and posits that the transition to renewables, localization, and electrification will undercut fossil fuels through superior efficiency and lower lifetime costs.

The document details a roundtable event focused on the 'climate-food-security nexus,' arguing that the US must integrate defense and security actors into food security efforts to maintain stability and military readiness. Key recommendations include improving actionable intelligence through tools like the Climate Security Alert Tool, combating illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing through security cooperation, and increasing public investment in agricultural research and development.

The report evaluates the African Union Peace and Security Council (PSC) as it marks 20 years of operation, critiquing its tendency toward ceremonialism over deep expert reflection. It analyzes UN Resolution 2719, which allows AU-led peace support operations to access UN-assessed contributions, specifically discussing its potential application in Somalia, the DRC, and Sudan. Additionally, it urges stronger continental coordination for the UN's Pact for the Future and argues that the AU should leverage its diplomatic position to mediate the Israel-Hamas conflict to protect Africa's economic stability and global influence.

The Lobito Corridor is a 1,300 km railway line in Angola, extending into the DRC, designed to transport minerals to the EU and US. While several MoUs have been signed to secure critical raw materials (CRMs) and EV battery value chains, the author argues the project faces significant risks due to China's established supply chains, the TAZARA railway alternative, and the EU and US's lag in EV technology. The paper suggests that the EU and US should move beyond raw material extraction to support comprehensive industrialization across Africa.

The research paper examines the implications of the lapsed 123 Agreement between the US and South Africa, which suspended export licenses for nuclear fuel supplier Westinghouse Electric Corporation. It details the critical life extension process at the Koeberg Nuclear Power Plant, including the replacement of steam generators for Unit 1 and Unit 2, and notes that the plant provides approximately 6% of South Africa's electricity. The document highlights a deadlock in US-South Africa negotiations over South Africa's right to produce its own nuclear fuel, and notes a new Memorandum of Understanding between the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa) and Russia's TVEL. Finally, it mentions South Africa's plan to procure an additional 2500 MW of nuclear power to combat loadshedding, despite past legal challenges to nuclear deals with Russia.

The report argues that Japan can mitigate national security risks from high energy import dependency by rapidly expanding domestic renewables and upgrading its power grid. It proposes that Japan leverage its capital and technical expertise to lead transition solutions in ASEAN countries and transform Tokyo into a global center for transition finance by aligning with international standards like the Climate Bonds Standards.

The briefing argues that Japan can mitigate its high reliance on energy imports—currently 99.7% for oil, 97.7% for LNG, and 99.6% for coal—by rapidly expanding domestic renewables and upgrading its national grid. It recommends implementing a JPY 7 trillion 'Master Plan' for interregional transmission to connect resources in Hokkaido and Kyushu to Tokyo. Internationally, the document urges Japan to lead ASEAN countries in transition and disaster resilience while ensuring its own transition measures remain science-based. It specifically warns against the use of LNG as a transition fuel due to methane leakage, noting one study found the GHG footprint of US LNG is 33% greater than coal using GWP20. Finally, it proposes leveraging Japan's financial sector and the GX Plan to make Tokyo a global hub for transition finance through supportive fund management rules and alignment with international standards.