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The report examines pathways to reduce the carbon footprint of concrete in the Northeastern US, emphasizing the role of government procurement in driving market demand for low-carbon alternatives. It details technical solutions like supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), the process and cost of carbon reporting via EPDs, and the associated economic and health impacts.

This report by the Stockholm Environment Institute outlines a framework for achieving climate-neutral cities, focusing on the identification of emission sources across three scopes and the deployment of efficiency and carbon capture technologies. It emphasizes a systems-thinking approach to urban mitigation, specifically targeting the transportation and built environment sectors while excluding large-scale electricity generation and general industry solutions.

The report contends that fossil gas cannot be considered a transition fuel due to significant methane leakage and the need for rapid decarbonisation by 2030. It argues that the EU's Complementary Delegated Act threatens the credibility of the EU Taxonomy by allowing fossil gas as a transitional activity. The document advocates for a rapid shift to low-carbon hydrogen, prioritised for hard-to-abate sectors, and warns against 'gas blending' as an inefficient decarbonisation strategy. It recommends the use of additionality requirements for electrolysers to prevent them from cannibalising renewable energy growth and suggests various financial mechanisms, including Carbon Contracts for Difference (CCfDs) and green public procurement, to mobilise investment. The report also emphasizes the need for a Just Transition to protect workers and low-income households from the regressive effects of carbon pricing.

The report examines current and future battery chemistries, including those using indigenous materials like sodium and aluminium, to support India's decarbonization of electricity and transportation. It highlights that domestic manufacturing of common NMC and LFP cells could allow India to capture 40% to 90% of total cell value, benefiting the e-mobility and grid-scale energy storage sectors.

The document examines voluntary and mandatory digital traceability systems used to track timber and fish from harvest to consumer. It argues that while these systems can flag anomalies to deter crime, they are vulnerable to 'garbage in, garbage out' scenarios where initial data is falsified through corruption. Mandatory systems are viewed as having higher potential due to government enforcement, but their success depends on the political will to act on red flags. The authors recommend linking voluntary and mandatory systems and increasing transparency to reduce corruption risks.

The document describes integrated agriculture-aquaculture (IAA) systems as a circular approach to food production that recycles nutrients between crops, livestock, and fish ponds to increase productivity and reduce external inputs. It highlights IAA's potential to adapt to climate change by diversifying livelihoods and managing saltwater intrusion in coastal areas, while potentially mitigating emissions by reducing the need for synthetic fertilisers and animal feed. The text advocates for the ASEAN Technical Working Group on Agriculture and Rural Development to lead knowledge-sharing and policy integration to promote IAA adoption, emphasizing the need for capacity-building and a focus on equity for the most vulnerable farmers.

The report argues that most non-light-water reactors (NLWRs) do not provide significant enough improvements over light-water reactors (LWRs) to justify their associated safety, security, and proliferation risks. It specifically evaluates sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs), high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs), and molten salt reactors (MSRs), finding that claims regarding 'burning' nuclear waste are oversimplified and that the timelines for commercialization are often unrealistic. The author recommends that the US Department of Energy (DOE) prioritize improving existing LWR technology over pursuing immature NLWR designs.

The report examines Spain's SIGCPI system, a digital tool introduced in 2010 to manage fish import requests and digitise catch certificate (CC) data. While SIGCPI allows for 100% documentary checks of CCs and processing statements (PS), it lacks automated risk analysis and connectivity with other EU Member States, leaving a gap where the same CC could be used for multiple imports across different countries. The document recommends that Spain voluntarily adopt the EU's CATCH system, built on TRACES.NT, to enable EU-wide data cross-referencing and standardised risk analysis, thereby reducing fraud and IUU fishing.

The document argues that the food, agriculture, and land use (FALU) sector is a primary driver of climate change, contributing approximately 24% of global emissions. It details strategies for reducing emissions—such as improving ruminant livestock management, rice cultivation, and fertilizer use—and explores the potential of 'regenerative agriculture' to sequester carbon in biomass and soils. While acknowledging the potential for biosequestration, the report cautions that these sinks are temporary, subject to 'slowdown' as they reach equilibrium, and vulnerable to reversal through land-use changes or climate disasters.

The document examines the evolution of the digital divide from basic infrastructure access (A2A) to access to knowledge and data (A2K). It assesses how the WTO's JSI on e-commerce addresses these gaps, arguing that current proposals—largely driven by developed nations—often overlook the developmental needs of LDCs and developing countries. Key areas of analysis include the necessity of 'enabling' e-commerce ecosystems, the risks of restrictive data flow and localization rules, and the impact of prohibiting government access to source code on technology transfer.

The report identifies key climate vulnerabilities on Amatuku Islet, highlighting critical issues in water security, coastal stabilization, and income security. It employs a multi-criteria analysis to align local 'lived' experiences with technical 'learned' perspectives, concluding that inadequate household water tank capacity and limited coastal stabilization infrastructure are the highest priorities for national and local adaptation efforts.

The Ghana Shea Landscape Emission Reductions Project (GSLERP) is a medium-sized initiative requesting USD 30.1 million from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) to restore degraded landscapes in Ghana's Northern Savannah Zone (NSZ). The project focuses on four main outputs: restoring 200,000 hectares of off-reserve savannah forests under community management (CREMAs), restoring 100,000 hectares of shea parklands through public-private partnerships, establishing 25,500 hectares of Modified Taungya System (MTS) plantations in forest reserves, and strengthening national REDD+ monitoring and safeguard systems. It targets a total emission reduction of 25.24 million tCO2e over 20 years and aims to benefit 100,200 direct beneficiaries, with a strong emphasis on empowering 20,000 women shea collectors through value chain improvements and cooperative formation.

The paper evaluates the current Emission Unit Eligibility Criteria (EUCs) for CORSIA, focusing on additionality, baselines, permanence, avoidance of double counting, and causing no net harm. While finding the current criteria mostly sufficient in conceptual coverage, the authors recommend detailed elaborations on program requirements and procedures to align with best practices. Key recommendations include excluding non-additional project types, requiring vetted methodologies for baselines, establishing 100-year permanence thresholds with buffer reserves, expanding the scope of double claiming, and implementing strict social and environmental safeguards.

The document argues that current NDCs insufficiently address the transport sector, which accounts for approximately one-quarter of energy-related CO2 emissions. It advocates for a comprehensive approach based on the "Avoid-Shift-Improve" framework: avoiding unnecessary travel through land-use planning, shifting to low-carbon modes like public transit and cycling, and improving vehicle technology via electrification and fuel efficiency. The authors identify three primary opportunities for NDC enhancement: accelerating electrification and fuel economy, amplifying avoid-and-shift measures, and addressing freight emissions through clean fuels and information technology.

The report argues that the PAEL for the Thabametsi power plant is based on flawed Atmospheric Impact Reports and permits outdated sub-critical CFB technology that is less efficient and more polluting than super-critical alternatives. It highlights that the license fails to require continuous emissions monitoring and underestimates NOx, SO2, and particulate matter emissions. Furthermore, the author asserts that adding a new coal plant to the Waterberg Bojanala Priority Area is unjustified given existing violations of National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) in the region.

The document argues that climate services—the production and use of climate knowledge for decision-making—are essential for adaptation but are currently underdeveloped and misaligned with user needs in the developing world. It identifies critical gaps in the use of long-term climate projections, which are often unsuitable for planning horizons of 10-30 years, and calls for a shift toward resilience-based approaches and improved national meteorological service (NMS) capacity. The authors propose ten recommendations focused on co-production between providers and users, filling observational data gaps, and reforming data policies to treat meteorological data as a public good.

The Centre for Environmental Rights (CER), representing the Life After Coal campaign and several environmental justice alliances, formally objects to a proposed amendment by the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries to double the Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) Minimum Emission Standard (MES) for new plants in sub-category 1.1 from 500 mg/Nm3 to 1000 mg/Nm3. The CER argues that this weakening of standards is unlawful, violates the South African Constitution's right to a healthy environment, and would lead to significant premature deaths and exacerbated air pollution in priority areas.

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.

Dr. Ranajit (Ron) Sahu provides a critique of the revised Atmospheric Impact Report (AIR) for the proposed Thabametsi Power Plant, asserting that the revised document fails to address most technical deficiencies identified in a previous review of the April 2018 AIR.

The agriculture and land sectors (AFOLU) contribute approximately 24% of total GHG emissions, but also sequester about one third of annual anthropogenic emissions. While technical potentials for mitigation are high—with some estimates suggesting up to 23.8 GtCO2e yr-1 through conservation and restoration—significant uncertainties remain regarding the persistence of carbon sinks and the practical implementation of large-scale removals. Achieving Paris Agreement goals requires a combination of reducing deforestation, sustainable land intensification, and carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies, though these are often hindered by institutional, economic, and socio-cultural barriers rather than just technical limitations.