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The Harare City Profiling Report 2025 details the challenges facing Zimbabwe's capital, characterized by rapid informal urban growth, severe infrastructure decay, and a strained relationship between the opposition-led city council and the national government. While Harare serves as the country's economic hub, it suffers from critical gaps in water, sanitation, and waste management, with a significant portion of the population living in informal settlements. The report highlights a severe fiscal crisis where the city relies almost entirely on its own limited revenue sources while facing low payment compliance and high levels of non-revenue water.

The report provides a comprehensive profile of Luanda, highlighting its rapid population growth, extreme economic inequality, and a highly centralised governance structure. While the city has benefited from oil wealth, significant service delivery gaps persist, particularly in housing, water, and sanitation for those in informal settlements. The report notes that Luanda is one of the most congested cities globally and faces increasing climate risks, including flooding and sea-level rise.

The document argues that Africa's potential for a demographic dividend depends on accelerating the demographic transition—reducing child mortality and fertility—and converting a larger working-age population into economic growth through job creation and governance. It contrasts the youthful population of Africa with the ageing populations of Europe and the Netherlands, suggesting strategic opportunities for labour mobility and trade. Using the International Futures (ifs) model, the author presents a 'Demographics and Health' scenario where targeted investments in contraceptives, maternal health, and WASH infrastructure lead to a smaller, wealthier, and better-educated population by 2050, reducing extreme poverty by 48 million people.

The document is a personal statement by Jo Verrent, director of the UK-based organization Unlimited, discussing the tension between disability access needs and environmental sustainability. Verrent describes how necessary accommodations—such as non-recyclable medical supplies, taxi use due to fatigue, and energy-intensive hearing aid equipment—often conflict with standard 'green' guidance, leading to feelings of guilt and shame. The author criticizes environmental toolkits and apps for lacking nuance and stigmatizing the behaviors of disabled people. To address this, Verrent proposes centering disabled and marginalized people in climate debates, reforming green guidance tools to avoid stigmatization, and adopting a holistic approach to climate justice that includes disability justice. Additionally, the organization Unlimited is implementing internal decision-making tools that balance access requirements and fatigue levels with environmental impact.

Ember modelling indicates that the UK can reduce biomass power generation by 55% to just 2% of total electricity generation by 2030 without compromising grid stability. This low-biomass pathway involves reducing biomass capacity by 2 GW—retaining only the equivalent of one unit at Drax—and replacing the lost generation primarily through increased power imports (6.9 TWh) and a slight increase in gas use (2.9 TWh). The report highlights that biomass power is significantly more expensive than gas or wind, costing £138/MWh under a Contract for Difference, and poses energy security risks due to its total reliance on imports, as Drax consumed 5.8 million tonnes of non-UK wood biomass in 2023. Despite the reduction in biomass, the UK would remain a net exporter of electricity, totaling 60 TWh annually.

The research finds that 36% of subsidized rural credit in Brazil from 2020 to 2024 went to properties that deforested after 2009, with public banks and cooperatives providing 91% of this volume. It highlights a recurring pattern of deforestation both before and after credit is granted and argues for a complete dissociation of public financial incentives from any form of deforestation to meet Brazil's 2030 zero-deforestation target.

Earthjustice reports a series of legal victories in 2024, including a landmark settlement to decarbonize Hawaii's transportation system by 2045, the cessation of coal leasing in the Powder River Basin, and a historic Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruling requiring Peru to remediate lead pollution in La Oroya. The organization also secured wins against cryptomining operations in New York, fossil fuel infrastructure expansion in New Jersey, and the loss of wetlands protections following the U.S. Supreme Court's Sackett v. EPA decision, notably helping Colorado pass legislation to reinstate wetland protections in May 2024. Additionally, the report highlights efforts to regulate PFAS in plastic containers, limit lead wheel weights, and protect endangered species such as the Cook Inlet beluga whale and Pacific sardine.

The report finds that 36% of subsidized rural credit in Brazil between 2020 and 2024 was directed to properties that deforested after 2009. Public banks and credit cooperatives are the primary providers of this credit, with some institutions showing high levels of exposure to deforesting properties. The authors argue for a complete dissociation of subsidized credit from any form of deforestation to meet Brazil's 2030 climate goals.

India leverages public spending—nearly 30% of its GDP—to drive environmental sustainability through green public procurement (GPP). While the country lacks a comprehensive national GPP policy, it utilizes administrative guidelines, the Government e-Marketplace (GeM), and sector-specific initiatives like the BEE star rating program. However, adoption is hindered by limited regulatory frameworks, a lack of stakeholder skills, perceived higher costs of green products, and incomplete monitoring systems. The report recommends strengthening legal frameworks, establishing a National SPP Competence Centre, scaling up third-party verified tools, and creating a robust monitoring and evaluation system.

In 2024, solar energy in Türkiye significantly increased its contribution to meeting peak electricity demand, covering two-thirds of the hourly peak demand increase compared to 2023. This growth is driven by rising cooling needs due to hotter summers, with solar power meeting 18% of peak demand in 2024, up from 2.5% in 2017. On July 23, 2024, solar generation exceeded 10 GWh, meeting the total hourly demand for over 10 million people in Western Anatolia provinces. The report highlights that solar installations helped Türkiye avoid investing in approximately 16 GW of fossil fuel capacity in 2024 and notes that over 14 GW of solar capacity with storage is currently in pre-licensing stages, far exceeding the 2030 National Energy Plan target of 2.1 GW.

A letter from medical professionals to Vancouver City Council arguing against the use of natural gas in new builds due to indoor air pollution, climate impacts, and the health risks associated with fracking.

Colorado faces increasing wildfires and rural economic challenges. The document argues that establishing a mass timber industry using small-diameter trees (9 inches or less) can mitigate fire risk, provide high-quality rural jobs, and reduce carbon emissions from the construction sector. Despite challenges like supply uncertainties in federally managed forests and limited infrastructure, the report suggests a two-phase approach: a 2–3 year 'Rightsize Now' phase to increase log supply and launch small-scale operations, followed by a 5–10 year 'Plan for Scale' phase to implement high-volume automated production of advanced wood products.

The report highlights the surge in data center electricity demand due to generative AI, projecting global consumption could reach 2,300 TWh by 2030. It identifies four primary barriers to decarbonization—infrastructure planning, energy efficiency, green electricity scaling, and policy incentives—and suggests solutions including optimized location, rigorous efficiency standards, and grid-friendly power behaviors.

The UK government has committed to reducing carbon emissions by 81% from 1990 levels by 2035, aligning with recommendations from the Climate Change Committee. While this ambitious Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) signals global leadership at COP29, the author emphasizes that achieving these targets requires active public consent and a dedicated engagement plan to support the rollout of renewable energy and clean power by 2030.

The report assesses the renewable energy requirements for decarbonizing the EU steel industry, which currently accounts for approximately 5% of the region's CO2 emissions. It evaluates two primary scenarios based on scrap usage (0% vs 50%) and two value chain routes (EU-based vs imported iron) to determine the necessary scale of renewable electricity and hydrogen production to meet a 55% carbon emission reduction target by 2030.

A global network of women leaders from business, politics, and civil society urges world leaders to accelerate carbon pollution reduction. They demand that by 2025, governments increase NDC ambition to align with the 1.5°C limit, phase out fossil fuels, triple renewables, double energy efficiency, halt deforestation, and mobilize public and private finance, particularly for the Global South.

RMI is implementing diverse decentralized energy solutions in Nigeria to address the fact that over 85 million people lack sustainable electricity. The organization has deployed interconnected minigrids in locations like Zawaciki, Abuja, and Nasarawa, and a community-centric 'Sharing the Power' model in Mokoloki where residents co-own the facility. To ensure economic viability, the Energizing Agriculture Programme (EAP) integrates solar power with agricultural machinery, such as electric mills and cold storage, across 17 communities. RMI also targets industrial emissions through commercial and industrial minigrids, which can reduce carbon pollution by approximately 33 million tons per year. Additionally, the Energy Transition Academy (ETA) provides technical training to utility professionals to scale these initiatives.

The document details how climate-driven flooding, including extreme rainfall and sea level rise, disproportionately affects children's physical and mental health. It highlights risks such as respiratory issues from mold, mental health distress, and displacement, while noting that socioeconomic disparities exacerbate these vulnerabilities. The text provides guidance for caregivers on disaster preparedness and advocates for community resilience and rapid carbon emission cuts to protect future generations.

The report analyzes the environmental impact of the global data-center boom, identifying systemic challenges such as energy infrastructure lags and temporal-spatial mismatches between green power and demand. It proposes a comprehensive transformation pathway involving optimized site selection, enhanced energy efficiency through new metrics beyond PUE, and the adoption of diverse green power procurement options. The document emphasizes the potential for data centers to act as flexible grid resources and calls for mandatory carbon disclosure and standardized accounting to drive the transition.

The document examines how the exponential growth of e-commerce—with sales reaching USD 27 trillion in 2022—has increased carbon emissions and waste through warehousing, transportation, and packaging. It argues that sustainability requires a coordinated effort: governments must implement environmental standards and optimize urban planning; the private sector must optimize supply chains and adopt renewable energy; and consumers must shift away from impulsive, fast-delivery habits. The author emphasizes the need for better data collection and international cooperation to support developing countries in building sustainable digital infrastructures.