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295 results
MAPPING A PATHWAY TO LOW-CARBON CAMPUSES
The document outlines a framework for universities to transition to low-carbon campuses by focusing on three pillars: people, policy, and plan. It emphasizes assembling multidisciplinary teams, aligning investment policies with life cycle cost analysis, and adopting an iterative planning process. Key strategies include implementing portfolio-wide energy efficiency measures before building-specific deep retrofits, leveraging 'incremental costs' during planned maintenance, and reducing peak loads to downsize central plant equipment. The guide advocates for moving beyond 'business-as-usual' practices to maximize the economic and environmental impact of carbon-reduction initiatives.
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Document type: Guide
ULTRALIGHT-HYBRID VEHICLE DESIGN: OVERCOMING THE BARRIERS TO USING ADVANCED COMPOSITES IN THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY
The paper examines the barriers preventing the automotive industry from adopting advanced composite materials in the body-in-white (BIW) and proposes a "leapfrog" strategy. Instead of incremental component substitution, the authors advocate for a clean-sheet, all-composite monocoque design. This approach is presented as essential for the "hypercar" concept, where extreme mass reduction creates synergies with hybrid-electric drivetrains, reducing the size and cost of propulsion systems. The document analyzes various manufacturing technologies, such as resin transfer molding (RTM) and E-beam curing, and argues that the high cost of carbon fiber can be offset by significant mass reductions and reduced assembly complexity. It concludes that the primary obstacles are cultural inertia and a lack of familiarity among automakers rather than intractable technical limits.
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Document type: Research paper
ENERGY WITHIN REACH
The proposal outlines a strategy to provide electricity to millions in sub-Saharan Africa and India using a modular 'solar energy ladder' that progresses from lanterns to microgrids. It aims to prevent carbon emissions and coal plant expansion while stimulating economic growth through standardized design, large-scale procurement, and innovative financing.
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Document type: Report
Cuyahoga Valley Initiative: A Model of Regeneration
The report proposes a comprehensive regeneration strategy for the Cuyahoga River Valley, centering on a 'Regenerative Development Zone' to pilot sustainable business and ecological practices. Key recommendations include implementing industrial symbiosis to redefine waste as a resource, restoring watercourses through 'daylighting' buried streams, adopting green building standards, and diversifying the energy mix with renewables and cogeneration. The authors argue that a whole-system approach—integrating water, energy, and industrial processes—will create synergistic economic and environmental value, transforming the region into a global model for industrial brownfield restoration.
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Document type: Report
GERES AND ENERGY ACCESS
Geres advocates for a holistic approach to universal energy access that moves beyond binary measurements to ensure high-quality, affordable, and reliable energy services. The organization focuses on the 'base of the pyramid' (BoP), integrating renewable energy deployment with energy sobriety and efficiency to avoid environmental degradation. Key operational models include Green Business Areas (GBAs) to foster rural entrepreneurship and the promotion of energy-efficient cooking and cooling solutions. Geres emphasizes capacity-building, gender equality, and the use of social enterprises to ensure the long-term sustainability and scalability of energy projects in rural and peri-urban areas.
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Document type: Report
FUTURES OF TVET SKILLS: A SOUTH AFRICAN GREEN HYDROGEN STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK
The research paper outlines a strategic framework to align South Africa's TVET system with the needs of a future green hydrogen economy. Using foresight tools like the Three Horizons Framework and scenario planning, it identifies systemic failures in the current TVET model—such as misalignment with industry needs and funding deficits—and proposes a shift toward 'economic wellbeing' rather than just job placement. The framework suggests sustained innovations, such as scaling Centres of Specialisation (CoS), and disruptive innovations, including nano/micro-credentialing and the use of AR/VR toolkits, to ensure a just labour transition by 2050.
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Document type: Research paper
Theory of Change and High-Level Results
The document details SEforALL's five-outcome Theory of Change aimed at achieving SDG7 through gender-sensitive action, global commitments, policy standards, financial mobilization, and direct energy installations. It reports cumulative results including the leveraging of 3.6 billion USD directly and 2.7 billion USD indirectly for energy access and clean energy transitions.
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Document type: Briefing
Three solutions for delivering sustainable mobility in cities
The document proposes integrated planning, demand-side management, and electric mobility as key solutions for sustainable urban transport. It identifies four city profiles—Efficiency Opportunists, Electric Vehicle Leapfroggers, Digital Disruptors, and Renewable Drivers—to guide interventions in fast-growing cities across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, noting that urban transport emissions are expected to double by 2050.
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Document type: Fact sheet
Strategic communications for bridging science to policy
SEI Asia employs a multi-channel strategic communication approach to bridge the gap between science and policy. By utilizing diverse tools—including podcasts, documentary films, online courses, and media grants—the organization aims to make complex scientific findings accessible to policymakers, media, and marginalized communities. Their efforts focus on fostering inclusive dialogue and enhancing the capacity of early-career journalists to report on environmental issues such as climate change and water insecurity.
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Document type: Fact sheet
Forskningens roll för att förverkliga den nya hållbarhetsagendan
The document argues that achieving the 2030 Agenda requires a shift from 'business as usual' to a transformative approach where research serves as a key driver. It identifies three primary roles for research: providing diagnostics (identifying problems and monitoring goals), providing solutions (accelerating technical and social innovation), and acting as a societal institution (serving as a platform for multi-stakeholder dialogue). The author emphasizes the need for transdisciplinary approaches, increased involvement of humanities and behavioral sciences, and a move away from short-term funding to support long-term sustainable environments. For Sweden, the paper suggests aligning national research priorities with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to maintain industrial leadership while transitioning to climate neutrality.
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Document type: Research paper
Transforming Gender Relations in Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa
The report analyzes how rigid gender norms, lack of capital, and limited asset ownership prevent women from benefiting from agricultural commercialization in Sub-Saharan Africa. It highlights that women often perform the bulk of the labor but lack control over the resulting income, which can lead to poor product quality and reduced household nutrition. The document provides a strategic framework for interventions, ranging from professionalizing traditional 'women's crops' to redistributive actions that challenge male-dominated chains. Case studies from Kenya (SHEP) and Zimbabwe (ZOPPA) demonstrate that combining gender awareness training with technical capacity building and organic certification can improve income parity and market access for women farmers.
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Document type: Report
Enabling People to Be Seen and Heard
The World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) advocates for communication rights—including freedom of expression and access to information—as a fundamental requirement for human rights and sustainable development. WACC addresses 'communication and information poverty' through four main strategies: building grassroots capacity, monitoring media representation, analysing communication trends, and leveraging international networks. The organization focuses on five key areas: digital communication rights, the rights of migrants and refugees, indigenous rights, climate change, and gender equality. A central component of its work is the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP), which provides evidence of the systemic under-representation of women in global news media.
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Document type: Report
REALIZING THE AMBITION of the Paris Agreement
The We Mean Business coalition seeks to align the private sector with the Paris Agreement's goal of keeping global warming well below 2°C. The coalition focuses on three pillars: demonstrating business implementation of climate commitments, encouraging new corporate commitments, and advocating for government policies—such as carbon pricing and domestic legislation for Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)—that enable business leadership. It emphasizes the need for a 'virtuous circle' where NDCs drive business action, which in turn informs more ambitious NDCs. The document also calls for scaling up climate finance from billions to trillions and integrating the private sector into national adaptation plans and resilience strategies.
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Document type: Fact sheet
Banking Beyond Climate Commitments: Transforming Client Engagement and Products & Services for a Net-Zero Emissions Future
The paper examines the transition of private sector banks toward net-zero emissions, emphasizing the need to move beyond high-level commitments to operational changes in client engagement and product design. It identifies five critical elements for a Paris-aligned strategy: GHG data management, emissions targets, client benchmarking, clear engagement policies, and the training of relationship managers. The document notes that while momentum is growing through initiatives like the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, many banks are only in the early stages of integrating Paris alignment into their core business strategies.
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Document type: Research paper
Two Degrees of Innovation
The document argues that a global transformation of energy infrastructure is necessary to avoid climate disaster and that both developed and emerging economies can benefit from the growing market for utility-scale, low-carbon power technologies. It proposes an 'innovation ecosystem' approach to address the complexity of innovation processes, emphasizing that improvements in price and performance across a technology's lifecycle—from design to maintenance—are essential to closing the gap between current and required technology performance. The paper offers a step-by-step process for policymakers to build the innovation capacity needed to compete in the global value chain.
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Document type: Research paper
Accelerating Building Efficiency: Eight Actions for Urban Leaders
The document argues that improving building efficiency is a cost-effective way to reduce global energy consumption and CO2 emissions while creating jobs and improving urban livability. It outlines eight specific actions for city leaders—ranging from implementing building codes and setting targets to engaging utilities and the private sector—and provides a strategic framework for developing integrated action plans to overcome market and institutional barriers.
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Document type: Guide
Strategies for Expanding Universal Access to Electricity Services for Development
The document argues that electricity connections alone do not guarantee development benefits and proposes a bottom-up approach to electrification. It suggests three core strategies: utilizing bottom-up demand forecasting to match technology to consumer needs, linking electrification with local development projects to break the cycle of underdevelopment, and improving governance to ensure affordability and reliability. The authors emphasize that electricity planning must account for both conventional and latent demand to be effective.
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Document type: Research paper
ZERO DRAFT NARRATIVE
The ACWA Platform is a pan-African coalition led by WRI and various partners to address projected tripling of water demand and extreme climate risks in African cities by 2050. It operates alongside the ACWA Fund, a blended finance instrument providing grants and investments to transform strategic plans into investment-ready projects. The platform focuses on nine strategic priorities, including prioritizing vulnerable communities and leveraging emerging technology, with a goal to increase water resilience in 100 city-regions by 2032.
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Document type: Briefing
ASSISTED NATURAL REGENERATION
Assisted Natural Regeneration (ANR) is presented as a middle ground between waiting for native vegetation to grow and costly tree planting. The strategy aims to reduce implementation costs by 77% and can potentially bring 240 million hectares under restoration worldwide. Implementation involves protecting regenerating plants from fire, fencing off areas, controlling invasive species and insects, and managing cattle. Success requires motivating stakeholders through social and economic benefits and enabling action via rural extension services, sustainable value chains, and political will. The document highlights the restoration of 9.6 million hectares in the Amazon and 794,000 hectares in the Cerrado.
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Document type: Fact sheet
Global Dialogue on Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic and Economic Crisis: Building Back Better Aligned to the SDGs and the Paris Agreement
The document argues that the COVID-19 crisis is a critical window to shift from 'snapshot to transition thinking,' urging governments to use stimulus packages to accelerate future technologies like renewable energy while phasing out fossil fuels. It highlights a concerning trend where approximately 30% of global fiscal stimulus is directed toward high-environmental-impact sectors, often without sustainability conditions. The report advocates for a 'One Health' approach to prevent future zoonotic pandemics by protecting biodiversity, and calls for the integration of informal workers and urban poor into city-level recovery planning. Key recommendations include the elimination of fossil fuel subsidies, the implementation of 'do no harm' standards for bailouts, and increased financial support and debt restructuring for developing countries to facilitate a just transition.
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Document type: Executive summary