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ENVIRONMENTAL COURT CASES ACROSS THE WORLD
The document details the first climate change court case in South Africa, where the High Court in Pretoria ruled that the decision to authorise the 1200MW Thabametsi coal-fired power station was irrational and unreasonable because it lacked a prior climate impact assessment. The court affirmed that climate change poses a substantial risk to sustainable development and intergenerational justice. Despite the court's order for the Minister to reconsider the appeal based on a climate change impact assessment, the Minister upheld the authorisation, leading to further legal challenges and the withdrawal of funding by three commercial banks in January 2019.
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Document type: Case study
GLOUCESTER RESOURCES LIMITED V. MINISTER FOR PLANNING
The Land and Environment Court of New South Wales dismissed an appeal by Gloucester Resources Limited, upholding the Minister for Planning's refusal to grant consent for an open cut coal mine. The court determined that the project's estimated 38 million tonnes of carbon emissions were contrary to the public interest and the goals of the Paris Agreement. Notably, the court rejected the argument that the project's emissions were too small to be significant globally, asserting that climate change must be addressed through cumulative local actions.
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Document type: Case study
Tackling the challenges of assessing collective progress for an effective Global Stocktake
The document addresses the challenge of ensuring individual country contributions align with the collective goals of the Paris Agreement through the Global Stocktake (GST). It evaluates the potential and limits of the GST process and suggests specific improvements to maximize its effectiveness, including the use of a performance distributions approach and independent support from academia and civil society.
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Document type: Executive summary
Legal opinion on Uniper’s legally misconceived ISDS threat to Dutch coal phase-out
The document assesses the legal validity of Uniper's claims of 'de facto expropriation' and violations of 'fair and equitable treatment' resulting from the Dutch coal phase-out law. It concludes that the law is a legitimate exercise of state regulatory powers to meet climate goals and that Uniper had no legitimate expectation of regulatory stability for coal investments.
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Document type: Statement
Taxing carbon at the EU border only if free pollution permits go
The document asserts that carbon border taxes must be contingent on the removal of free pollution permits under the EU ETS to avoid double-protecting industry and to provide a real incentive for emissions reductions. It argues that carbon leakage is not evidenced and that free allocations have historically functioned as subsidies. The author suggests that border measures should be temporary, non-protectionist, and complementary to global climate policies, while advocating for the use of enforceable environmental chapters in trade agreements to drive global ambition.
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Document type: Statement
Carbon pricing moves in clusters: when is the right time to catch it?
The research identifies 66 carbon pricing policies globally, categorising adopting polities into five clusters: early adopters, North-American states and provinces, Chinese pilot provinces, second-wave developed polities, and second-wave developing polities. The authors conclude that there is no 'one-size-fits-all' approach to promoting carbon pricing, as different economic, political, and policy variables drive adoption across different clusters. However, they identify general facilitators, including economic crises, UNFCCC commitments, regional learning, and a preference for emissions trading in carbon-intensive economies.
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Document type: Research paper
Adapt for Our Future: Youth and Climate Change Adaptation
The paper argues that while youth are disproportionately vulnerable to climate change, they possess significant potential to drive adaptation efforts if shifted from a narrative of passive victimhood to one of active empowerment. It identifies institutional barriers such as tokenism and lack of platforms, as well as capacity challenges including limited funding and gaps in technical knowledge. The authors advocate for institutionalizing meaningful youth engagement, integrating climate education into national curricula, and creating dedicated financial mechanisms for youth-led adaptation projects.
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Document type: Research paper
Climate change threatens to undo decades worth of global health gains but the health community can help to stop this
The author contends that the fossil fuel industry is the primary obstacle to climate progress, using lobbying and financial influence to block government action and corrupt international negotiations. Drawing a parallel to the tobacco divestment movement, the text argues that divestment removes the 'social license' of fossil fuel companies. It specifically calls on highly trusted UK health professionals and institutions, such as Royal Colleges, to divest from fossil fuels to create a ripple effect that pressures other investors and politicians globally.
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Document type: Statement
Consolidation of climate planning processes in the Energy Community
The document advises Energy Community Contracting Parties on integrating various climate and energy planning efforts, such as National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs), NDCs, and sectoral strategies, to reduce resource burdens and ensure policy alignment.
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Document type: Guide
Climate Change Toolkit for Health Professionals
The document explains the greenhouse effect and the role of human activities in increasing radiative forcing, noting that global warming has reached approximately 1°C since pre-industrial times. It details the global emissions profile by sector and the projected risks associated with 1.5°C versus 2°C warming, emphasizing that the latter significantly increases risks to human health, food security, and biodiversity. The text outlines the evolution of international climate governance from the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol to the Paris Agreement and its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). To limit warming to 1.5°C, the document argues for a transformative shift in the energy mix by 2050, including a drastic reduction in fossil fuel consumption and a move toward renewable energy and carbon dioxide removal technologies.
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Document type: Guide
States’ Human Rights Obligations in the Context of Climate Change
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.
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Document type: Report
Reviewing the Compatibility of States’ Climate Policies with their Obligations under the ICESCR
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.
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Document type: Briefing
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE UN FRAMEWORK CONVENTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE
The report serves as a reference tool listing over 60 UNFCCC decisions and reports that acknowledge the role of Indigenous Peoples and their traditional knowledge in climate mitigation and adaptation. It highlights the establishment of the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform and recalls the minimum standards for survival and dignity set by the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
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Document type: Report
RIGHTS IN A CHANGING CLIMATE
The report examines the evolving relationship between human rights and the international climate regime, specifically the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement. It identifies a trend of increasing explicit and implicit references to human rights in COP decisions, though it notes these are often disproportionately linked to adaptation rather than mitigation. The document details how procedural rights, the rights of indigenous peoples, gender equality, and the right to food are being integrated into climate policy. It also reviews national-level implementation through Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and national communications, finding that while many countries reference human rights, there is a lack of harmonized guidance. The report argues that a rights-based approach is essential to increase climate ambition and protect vulnerable populations from both climate impacts and poorly designed climate responses.
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Document type: Report
Re: Accountability and the Pan Canadian Framework
The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment argues that Canada's history of missing greenhouse gas reduction targets necessitates a legislated accountability framework. While acknowledging the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change (PCF) as a first step, the authors contend that a proposed $20 million 'Institute' for expert advice is insufficient because it lacks legal permanence and a mandate for government response. They propose five specific requirements: enshrining accountability in law, creating a public expert committee, implementing 5-year carbon budgets, focusing the committee's mandate on assessing government progress, and requiring the government to formally respond to committee reports. The document cites the United Kingdom's 2008 Climate Change Act as a successful model of such transparency and accountability.
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Document type: Statement
Chairs’ summary - First formal replenishment of the Green Climate Fund Initial Organizational Meeting 22-23 November 2018 Bonn, Germany
The meeting established the organizational framework for the Green Climate Fund's (GCF) first formal replenishment, including the adoption of rules of conduct and a workplan leading to a pledging conference in October 2019. Key outcomes include the definition of the Global Facilitator's role, the agreement to invite the Global Environment Facility (GEF) as an observer, and the initiation of analysis regarding minimum contribution thresholds for participation in consultations. The process will be guided by a performance review of the GCF and a strategic programming document focusing on mitigation and adaptation scenarios.
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Document type: Report
National climate change mitigation legislation, strategy and targets: a global analysis
The analysis finds that while national climate legislation and strategies grew rapidly before 2009 and now cover 69% of global GHG emissions, their growth has recently stagnated. In contrast, economy-wide GHG targets increased significantly leading up to the 2015 Paris Agreement, covering 93% of global emissions by 2017. Renewable energy targets also showed steady growth, increasing from 45% of global GHG emissions coverage in 2007 to 79% in 2017, with notable increases in developing countries.
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Document type: Research paper
Making Trade Work for Climate: Options for Policymakers
The policy brief examines the tension between national climate measures and international trade rules, such as those of the WTO. Based on a literature review and 26 expert interviews, it categorizes 22 options for alignment by their short-term political feasibility. The authors recommend six immediate actions: leveraging regional trade agreements (RTAs), engaging in plurilateral efforts like the Environmental Goods Agreement, intensifying WTO and UNFCCC coordination, voluntarily including climate issues in the WTO Trade Policy Review Mechanism, advancing border carbon adjustments (BCAs) via like-minded coalitions, and promoting fossil fuel subsidy reform through a group of WTO Members.
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Document type: Policy brief
Swimming Upstream
The document asserts that reducing fossil fuel supply is essential to keeping global warming well below 2°C, despite the Paris Agreement's silence on the matter. It suggests that countries can use existing Paris Agreement architecture and mechanisms to articulate and report actions aimed at curtailing fossil fuel supply, which would enhance the ambition and effectiveness of climate mitigation efforts.
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Document type: Research paper
MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING for the creation of INCCCETT 4 CB (International Network of Climate Change Centres of Excellence and Think Tanks for Capacity Building)
The document outlines the governance, scope, and operational framework for INCCCETT 4CB, a collaboration between 13 international research centres and think tanks. The network aims to bridge science and policy to support the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals through enhanced South-South-North collaboration and capacity building.
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Document type: Statement