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The 2019 NYDF Progress Assessment finds that the world is not on track to meet its 2020 targets to halve tropical deforestation and restore 150 million hectares of degraded land. Global gross tree cover loss increased by 43% since the declaration, with a particularly alarming 44% acceleration in the loss of irreplaceable humid tropical primary forests. While some progress is noted in Indonesia, where primary forest loss dropped by over 30% in 2017-18, overall trends are negative. Restoration efforts are largely occurring outside of natural forests, and only 18% of the 2020 restoration goal has been realized. The report highlights a critical funding gap, noting that 'grey' finance for agriculture is 15 times higher than 'green' finance for forests, and that forest-related climate finance represents only 1.5% of total multilateral commitments. Governance remains a significant barrier, with nearly half of tropical deforestation being illegal and indigenous land rights remaining largely unrecognized.

The 2019 NYDF Progress Assessment finds that the world is not on track to meet its 2020 targets to halve tropical deforestation and restore 150 million hectares of degraded land. While some regional successes exist, such as a reduction in primary forest loss in Indonesia, global gross tree cover loss has increased by 43% since 2014. The report highlights a critical gap in finance, noting that 'green' finance for forests is dwarfed by 'grey' finance for agriculture, and argues that current corporate and government actions are too isolated and lack the ambition needed for systemic change.

Reaching climate neutrality in Estonia by 2050 is technically possible and potentially profitable in the long term, requiring an estimated total investment of 17.3 billion EUR between 2021 and 2050. The strategy emphasizes accelerating energy efficiency in buildings, transport, and industry, alongside a transition to renewable energy and carbon sequestration in the LULUCF sector. While the first decade (2021-2030) will be investment-heavy, resulting in higher costs than revenues, subsequent decades are expected to see revenues outweigh costs. The transition will likely cause a modest negative impact on GDP (approximately 10%) and long-term employment in fossil-fuel sectors, particularly oil shale in Ida-Virumaa, but will create short-term construction and technology jobs.

Rwanda's National Adaptation Plan (NAP) process, led by the Ministry of Environment and Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA), employs an integrated approach to promote climate-resilient development with a focus on community- and ecosystem-based adaptation. The process has leveraged funding from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), including a USD 32.8 million GCF allocation for climate resilience in Gicumbi District. Priority adaptation sectors address impacts such as droughts, landslides, and food insecurity through measures like irrigation, afforestation, and disaster risk reduction.

Carbon Market Watch criticizes Shell's $300 million investment in tree planting and forestry offsets, arguing that such measures do not reduce emissions and are undermined by the company's continued lobbying against climate action and massive investment in oil and gas infrastructure over low-carbon alternatives.

The project proposes a USD 10 million grant from the Green Climate Fund to restore 2,000 hectares of the South Marmanet Forest Reserve. The initiative focuses on three main components: improving forest governance through the Participatory Forest Management approach, implementing reforestation and afforestation activities, and diversifying community livelihoods through climate-adaptive technologies. The project aims to benefit 75,000 direct beneficiaries and 1.4 million indirect beneficiaries by stabilizing the flow of the Ewaso Ng’iro River and sequestering an estimated 18 million tonnes of carbon by 2050.

The review finds that only 15% of Adaptation Fund commitments are ecosystem-related, with the vast majority focusing on human-centric ecosystem services rather than ecological resilience. Most interventions employ traditional restoration strategies at a small scale, failing to align with conservation literature that emphasizes landscape-scale adaptation and the protection of high-value biodiversity hotspots.

The document examines the reciprocal relationship between climate change and land in South Asia, highlighting the region's high vulnerability to desertification and land degradation. It details how these processes act as 'threat multipliers' for poverty and food insecurity, specifically citing crop yield declines in India and Pakistan. The guide proposes integrated governance, sustainable land management (SLM), and gender-responsive policies as essential strategies for resilience. It emphasizes that while land-based mitigation (like afforestation) is valuable, it must be balanced with emissions reductions in other sectors to avoid increasing competition for land and jeopardizing food security.

The document examines the reciprocal relationship between climate change and land in Latin America, highlighting how land degradation and desertification threaten food security and livelihoods. It advocates for sustainable land management, gender-inclusive policies, and integrated governance to mitigate climate risks and enhance regional resilience.

The document details the operational framework for the 2019 Global Landscape of Climate Finance, defining climate finance as resources aimed at reducing emissions, enhancing greenhouse gas sinks, and increasing resilience to climate impacts. It establishes a standardized accounting methodology to avoid double counting and ensure data consistency across public and private sectors. The methodology prioritizes primary capital flows and financial commitments over disbursements, excluding secondary market transactions and investments that risk carbon lock-in. It provides a comprehensive sectoral breakdown for mitigation (e.g., renewable energy, energy efficiency, low-carbon transport) and adaptation (e.g., water management, coastal protection), and defines the geographic classification of countries into OECD and non-OECD regions.

The Chongqing Three Gorges Bank issued a CNY 3 billion (USD 436.9 million) green bond on 27 December 2018 with a three-year tenor. The proceeds are designated for energy saving, pollution prevention, resource conservation and recycling, clean energy, and ecological protection and adaptation. The Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI) included the bond in its database because hydropower accounts for only 3% of total proceeds and other allocations align with the PBoC catalogue and CBI taxonomy, though the bond may be excluded if future reporting shows the actual use of proceeds fails to meet CBI definitions.

South Africa's Low-Emission Development Strategy (SA LEDS) 2050 establishes a framework to place the country on a low-carbon trajectory while ensuring socio-economic development. The strategy focuses on a 'peak, plateau and decline' (PPD) emissions trajectory, with a peak projected between 2020 and 2025. Key interventions span the energy sector (diversifying the electricity mix via the Integrated Resource Plan and REIPPP), industry (energy efficiency and carbon taxes), AFOLU (conservation agriculture and afforestation), and waste (waste-to-energy and recycling). The document emphasizes a 'Just Transition' to protect vulnerable workers and communities, supported by research into hydrogen, fuel cells, and carbon capture and storage. Implementation relies on a combination of domestic funding and international climate finance.

The report concludes that the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) largely failed its objectives of producing high-quality, additional emission reductions and promoting sustainable development. It highlights systemic issues such as a lack of environmental integrity, perverse incentives for pollutant production, and the absence of social safeguards. Through four case studies in Uganda, India, Chile, and Guatemala, the document demonstrates how CDM projects led to land grabs, pollution, and the violation of indigenous and community rights. It recommends that post-2020 climate targets should not use CDM credits and that future mechanisms, such as the Sustainable Development Mechanism under the Paris Agreement, must incorporate binding stakeholder consultations and independent grievance mechanisms.

The report examines how Carbon Removal and Solar Geoengineering might interact with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. It finds that at least 13 of the 17 SDGs would be affected by these technologies, with at least 9 facing significant risks. While these interventions could mitigate some climate-driven threats to development, they introduce novel physical, socio-economic, and political risks, including land-use conflicts, water scarcity, and international political tensions. The authors emphasize substantial knowledge gaps and call for transdisciplinary, geographically diverse research and robust global governance to ensure such technologies do not hinder sustainable development.

The authors use a simulation-based multi-criteria land use optimization procedure to identify scenarios that balance terrestrial carbon storage, biodiversity conservation, land and water use, and food security. The analysis indicates that substantial increases in agricultural productivity are key to achieving better outcomes across these goals, with potential terrestrial carbon sequestration reaching 98 GtC and biodiversity risk reduction of 53%. The research also examines synergies and trade-offs between these global scenarios and local or national goals, such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The program seeks USD 70 million from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) as part of a total USD 106.9 million investment to address deforestation, climate vulnerability, and economic stagnation in Central Kongo Province. It builds upon an existing Forest Investment Program (FIP) by expanding its scope to include green growth and resilience. Key interventions include scaling up agroforestry, distributing improved cookstoves, protecting coastal areas from erosion and sea-level rise, and supporting SMEs in transitioning to green investments. The program targets a mitigation impact of 6.5 million tCO2eq and aims to benefit 12,000 poor households directly, with 1.6 million indirect beneficiaries.

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.

The report evaluates global forest landscape restoration (FLR) ambitions by tracking pledges under the Bonn Challenge and commitments within Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) submitted to the UNFCCC. While the 150 million hectare milestone for 2020 was surpassed in May 2017, actual implementation data remains scarce, with reported achievements representing less than 10 percent of the 2020 goal. The document also highlights the role of regional initiatives and new data tools like the Bonn Challenge Barometer and ROAM in improving monitoring and planning.

The report evaluates the SDG indicators finalized in 2017, concluding that they fail to directly measure gross forest loss or specific restoration efforts. While SDG 15.2 includes an ambitious aim to "halt deforestation," the report argues that the reliance on net rather than gross deforestation indicators weakens the target in practice. Furthermore, it notes that targets for forest restoration, afforestation, and reforestation are not quantifiable in the final SDGs, and the current indicators do not allow for specific measurement of these activities.

The report concludes that Goal 6 has been achieved through the adoption of SDG 15, although it notes that the indicators used to measure progress on halting deforestation track net rather than gross loss, which weakens the target's practical application. While the conservation target is considered quantifiable and ambitious, the restoration, afforestation, and reforestation components of SDG 15.2 are not quantifiable.