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The document discusses the economic challenges of deploying clean energy mini-grids in Africa, noting high upfront costs and low revenues from poor customers. It aims to provide policymakers and donors with a toolkit of retail tariff and subsidy options to make mini-grids more profitable and sustainable for private investors.

The document outlines how countries can increase coherence, efficiency, and effectiveness by aligning their national policy processes with three global agendas: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement, and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. It focuses on the enabling factors for this alignment and how to define alignment objectives to support climate-resilient development.

The Centre for Environmental Rights (CER), writing on behalf of the Life After Coal Campaign, challenges statements made by Minister Jeff Radebe regarding the viability of "clean coal" technologies. The CER asserts that "clean coal" is a misnomer and a myth, arguing that no technology can neutralize the environmental, health, and climate impacts of the entire coal cycle. The document advocates for a coal phase-out and a just transition to sustainable energy systems, citing declining coal employment and consumption in South Africa as evidence of an inevitable shift. It emphasizes that achieving the IPCC's 1.5 degree Celsius target requires drastic CO2 reductions, which necessitates moving away from coal toward socially-owned renewable energy projects.

The report finds that South Africa faces a cumulative transition risk of over $120 billion in present value terms between 2013 and 2035, primarily driven by falling demand and prices for coal exports. While the public balance sheet explicitly faces only 16% of this downside risk, implicit transfers—such as bailouts and social support—could increase the national government's share to over half. The analysis highlights that approximately 75% of these risks are external, and nearly 50% were already realized by 2017. Furthermore, current investment incentives may add another $25.8 billion in risk through projects like new oil refineries and coal infrastructure. The report recommends that the government adopt transition risk assessments, reconsider high-risk investments, and potentially tax oil price windfalls to offset losses.

The document outlines how countries can coordinate policy processes across different global agendas to improve coherence and efficiency in climate-resilient development. It identifies the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) process as a key connecting point and details the enabling factors, objective-setting steps, and practical entry points necessary for successful alignment.

The document outlines a framework for aligning national policies to achieve climate-resilient development, emphasizing the role of National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) as a connecting mechanism. It identifies key enabling factors—institutional arrangements, information exchange, and capacity development—and provides a four-step process for defining alignment objectives. The briefing also offers a set of diagnostic questions to help countries identify viable entry points for policy integration, such as aligning NAPs with Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) or disaster risk reduction strategies.

The document provides practical guidance for countries to align their national policy processes to achieve climate-resilient development. It emphasizes the role of National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) as a key link between international commitments and operational implementation. The briefing outlines the relationships between global programs and national policies, identifies enabling factors such as institutional arrangements and capacity building, and proposes a four-step approach to defining alignment goals. It also provides a framework of key questions to help countries identify entry points for alignment across synergies, process mapping, and financing.

The document argues that while President Jair Bolsonaro's administration represents a shift toward neoliberal economics and a closer alignment with the United States, these changes are unlikely to cause a schism within the BRICS. It suggests that Brazil's national interests will continue to drive cooperation, particularly in trade, development finance, and global governance. The author recommends that the bloc leverage Brazil's presidency to address trade imbalances with China through partial scope agreements and align the New Development Bank's loans with national development agendas to ensure financial sustainability.

The International Coalition for Sustainable Aviation (ICSA) advocates for the strict adoption of the Emissions Unit Criteria (EUCs) to maintain the environmental integrity of CORSIA. The coalition warns that allowing double-counted emissions credits—where reductions are claimed by both airlines and host countries—would increase global emissions. ICSA recommends a vintage date restriction for eligible units to projects starting in 2020 or later to avoid the use of low-quality accumulated credits. Additionally, the letter demands greater transparency for the Technical Advisory Body (TAB), including public membership lists, conflict-of-interest declarations, and open meetings to prevent secret deals and ensure fair program eligibility assessments.

The document argues that while scientific evidence of climate change is mounting, concerted societal action remains elusive. It calls for a shift from describing the climate challenge to operationalizing knowledge and devising effective societal solutions to prevent and address catastrophic impacts. The paper identifies knowledge gaps and research priorities by synthesizing previous scoping efforts from JPI Climate regarding societal transformation, climate services, and decision-making.

The document examines why the WTO has seen few legal proceedings against fossil fuel subsidies despite their distorting impact on trade and investment. It specifically analyses the compatibility of four fossil fuel support measures in G20 countries with the 1994 Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, concluding that litigating consumption subsidies is particularly difficult.

The paper assesses the International Civil Aviation Organization's scheme to offset international flight emissions above 2020 levels, concluding that without strict eligibility criteria, the scheme may fail to produce additional emissions reductions. It warns that allowing unlimited credits from existing Clean Development Mechanism projects could result in no new abatement. The author recommends limiting eligibility to new projects or those at risk of discontinuation.

The document outlines Colombia's progress in establishing a National Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) system for climate change adaptation as part of a broader effort to align national actions with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement, and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

The Union of Concerned Scientists' comparison of ExxonMobil's 2018 and 2019 climate reports finds that the company relies on unchanged energy demand assumptions and maintains a belief that the world will fail to meet Paris Agreement temperature goals. The analysis highlights inconsistencies in how the company describes methane reduction efforts, a lack of detailed low-carbon investment breakdowns, and the use of problematic graphs to suggest alignment with IPCC scenarios. While ExxonMobil acknowledges for the first time that its fossil fuel products are part of the climate problem, it continues to emphasize uncertainty regarding the pace of the global energy transition.

The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment and other health professionals argue that climate change is the greatest health threat of the 21st century, citing immediate impacts in Canada such as wildfires, heat-related deaths, and food insecurity in the Arctic. They urge federal parties to adopt targets to keep warming below 1.5°C, phase out coal by 2030, and reduce emissions from the oil, gas, and transport sectors, noting that such policies would yield significant health co-benefits and reduce healthcare costs.

The report examines the increasing engagement of UN human rights treaty bodies (HRTBs) with climate change, specifically analyzing their 2018 Concluding Observations (COBs), general comments, and thematic initiatives. It highlights a shift toward addressing a broader diversity of countries, including developed nations, and identifies a continuing emphasis on adaptation and procedural rights over mitigation. The document provides detailed syntheses of recommendations from the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), and the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), emphasizing the disproportionate impacts of climate change on women, children, and persons with disabilities.

The document argues that climate change poses an existential threat to economic, social, and cultural (ESC) rights, necessitating urgent State action through mitigation, adaptation, and finance. It establishes a 'human rights red-line' at 1.5°C, asserting that warming beyond this limit severely threatens rights to food, water, health, and work. The briefing outlines five key State obligations, including adopting science-based emission targets and addressing extraterritorial emissions. It further critiques current climate finance, noting a gap in adaptation funding and a reliance on loans over grants, while providing a directory of independent tools like the Climate Action Tracker and Oxfam's shadow reports to monitor State performance.

The document argues that strengthening 'comando e controle' (command and control) is essential for protecting Brazil's native vegetation, which is critical for environmental conservation, international reputation, and the competitiveness of the agribusiness sector. It highlights the success of the DETER system in the Amazon, which helped reduce annual forest loss by over 80% and avoided the loss of more than 2 million hectares per year during its first five years. However, it identifies gaps such as the inability to detect small-scale deforestation (under 25 hectares) and the lack of monitoring for secondary vegetation. The authors recommend developing technology for small-scale detection and forest degradation, monitoring forest regeneration, expanding remote sensing to all national biomes, and implementing land tenure regularization in public lands and agrarian reform settlements.

The document argues that strengthening 'command and control'—specifically through technological monitoring and law enforcement—is essential for protecting Brazil's native vegetation. It highlights the success of the DETER system in the Amazon and recommends expanding such remote sensing to all biomes, improving the detection of small-scale clearing and forest degradation, monitoring secondary vegetation, and addressing land tenure issues in public lands and agrarian reform settlements.

The authors argue that the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) currently hinders the low-carbon transition by treating fossil-fuel and renewable energy investments identically. They propose a modernization process that abandons 'energy-source neutrality' in favor of state-specific lists that encourage low-carbon investments and phase out carbon-intensive ones. The paper also suggests reforming Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) by requiring the exhaustion of local remedies, introducing state-to-state dispute settlement, and clarifying 'denial of benefits' clauses to protect climate policy space. Substantive recommendations include narrowing the 'Fair and Equitable Treatment' (FET) standard, defining indirect expropriation to protect public welfare measures, and adopting a 'sunk-costs' approach for valuing damages in the phase-out of fossil fuels.