Search Climate Insights Directory

The document identifies three priority policy areas for food systems transformation (FST) to enhance food security and climate resilience: reducing post-harvest losses, scaling up biofortification of staple crops, and improving food safety. It argues that while these issues are recognized in national policies across Eastern and Southern Africa, implementation is hindered by limited resources, capacity gaps, and a disproportionate focus on staple crops over high-nutrition crops.

The Community Resilience Partnership Program (CRPP) is a regional initiative managed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to strengthen the climate resilience of approximately 3.2 million poor and vulnerable people in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, and Vanuatu. The program is structured into two components: a Trust Fund (TF) for upstream capacity building and knowledge generation, and an Investment Fund (IF) for downstream implementation of adaptation measures. The IF focuses on three primary outputs: improving climate risk information systems, implementing climate-resilient pro-poor livelihoods, and constructing pro-poor climate adaptation infrastructure. The program emphasizes transformational adaptation, gender equality, and the use of nature-based solutions to address the disproportionate impacts of climate change on marginalized populations.

The project aims to protect the health of approximately 2.3 million people in Lao PDR by addressing the direct and indirect impacts of climate change on the health sector. It focuses on four key outcomes: strengthening climate-resilient governance and leadership, improving health information systems to include climate and weather data, enhancing health service delivery in rural provinces, and increasing community capacity to respond to early warnings. Key activities include upgrading the infrastructure and WASH services of 79 health facilities to be more resilient and energy-efficient, and providing financial support to 173 communities to implement health and climate resilience action plans. The project is designed as a two-phase approach, with Phase 1 serving as a model for potential nationwide scaling in Phase 2.

The LoCAL Benin project is a scaling-up of a pilot initiative designed to empower 25 local governments in four vulnerable departments (Atacora, Alibori, Donga, and Mono) to implement climate-resilient investments. The programme addresses institutional, technical, and financial barriers by providing capacity building, technical assistance, and Performance-Based Climate Resilience Grants (PBCRG). These grants, totaling approximately USD 6.48 million, will fund roughly 110 small-scale investments in sectors such as climate-adapted agriculture, water management, and coastal protection. The project targets 2.68 million total beneficiaries, with a strong focus on women and the most vulnerable populations, to integrate climate resilience into local development planning and budgeting.

The document analyzes the progress of the Glasgow-Sharm-el Sheikh (GlaSS) work program and proposes four critical requirements for the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) framework at COP 28: a qualitative overarching statement for impact, the integration of means of implementation (MoI) for effectiveness, explicit gender and human rights considerations for equity, and clarified roles for further technical and political work for legitimacy. It emphasizes that the GGA must be operationalizable through national monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) systems to avoid maladaptation and increased losses and damages.

The report argues that while MDBs have increased overall climate finance, urban climate investments in L&MICs have plateaued and remain insufficient. It identifies critical gaps in strategy, operating models, and private capital mobilization, recommending a shift from project-by-project approaches to programmatic strategies and increased direct financing for cities to meet global climate goals.

The Strategic Framework and Country Program (SFCP) for Kiribati outlines a structured approach to accessing climate finance to enhance national resilience and mitigation. It establishes a project pipeline and a programming cycle managed by the Climate Finance Division (CFD) of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MFED). The framework prioritizes sectors such as coastal protection, water and food security, and energy transition, while emphasizing the need for community-based adaptation and gender-responsive programming. It identifies key international partners, including the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the Adaptation Fund (AF), and the World Bank, to bridge the significant infrastructure and adaptation funding gap, which is estimated by the IMF to require up to 6% of GDP annually.

The report outlines the strategic positions of African nations and multilateral structures at COP28, emphasizing the Nairobi Declaration and the AU's Climate Change and Resilient Strategy and Action Plan. It details the leadership of specific countries in areas such as green hydrogen (Morocco, Kenya), critical minerals (Namibia), and forest restoration (Ethiopia, Rwanda, Republic of Congo), while analyzing the influence of negotiating blocs like the G77 and China, BASIC, and the LDC group in securing climate finance and adaptation support.

The European Union lacks the preparation to manage cascading climate risks, where hazards in remote locations create knock-on effects that impact European societies and economies. The report emphasizes that with accelerating climate hazards over the next 10 to 15 years and insufficient adaptation, these impacts are inevitable. It proposes 21 strategic recommendations to move from individual understanding to systemic transformation, urging the EU to adopt a proactive rather than reactive approach to risk and resilience thinking.

The report analyzes forest compensation in the MATOPIBA region (Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí, and Bahia), where agricultural expansion has led to significant deforestation. It evaluates three existing modalities—reforestation by the debtor, forest compensation credits, and cash payments—finding that current implementation often lacks technical oversight, transparency, and environmental effectiveness. To address these gaps, the authors propose four innovative mechanisms: the adoption of computerized management platforms, the use of payment for environmental services (PES), outsourcing fund management to specialized third parties, and utilizing blended finance and match funding to scale restoration projects.

The document outlines the primary objectives of COP28, including the conclusion of the first global stocktake and negotiations over climate finance. It highlights controversies surrounding the summit's presidency and provides a reporting framework centered on the 1.5 degrees C target, climate justice, and the climate emergency.

NDCs are bottom-up climate strategies submitted every five years to the UNFCCC, focusing on short-term emission reductions and adaptation. While they allow countries to tailor plans to their specific capacities, they lack legal binding and sufficient ambition; current pledges would result in 2.7°C of warming. The document emphasizes the 2020-2030 period as the 'decisive decade' and highlights the 2023 Global Stocktake at COP28 as a critical moment for increasing accountability and ambition before the 2025 NDC updates.

The proposal seeks USD 599,932 over 24 months to address five key barriers hindering the integration of green infrastructure and nature-based solutions (NbS) in Chile. These barriers include the lack of a long-term national strategy, weak interinstitutional governance, insufficient technical data, limited investment, and low public awareness. The project, implemented by the FAO and led by the Ministry of Housing and Urbanism (MINVU) and the Ministry of the Environment (MMA), will create the National Green Infrastructure Strategy (ENIV), a Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) system, and a financing strategy. Key activities include conducting technical studies on disaster risk reduction and zoning modeling for urban vegetation, as well as holding regional workshops across all 16 Chilean regions to ensure participatory development and gender inclusion.

A letter from a multidisciplinary group of scientists to President Biden calling for a fast and fair phaseout of all fossil fuels, increased climate finance for low- and middle-income countries, the operationalization of the Loss and Damage Fund, and the protection of COP28 negotiations from fossil fuel industry interference.

The National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC) is seeking USD 199,966.00 from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) over 12 months to align its monitoring, evaluation, and reporting systems with the GCF's Integrated Results Management Framework (IRMF). The project aims to bridge gaps in NTNC's ability to transform project ideas into bankable proposals and to effectively measure results across its pipeline of climate resilience projects in Nepal. Key activities include capacity needs assessments, the development of training curricula, and residential training for 20 officers on Theory of Change, logical frameworks, and paradigm shift evaluations. This support is intended to facilitate the implementation of existing projects, such as FP 131 in the Gandaki River Basin, and the development of new initiatives in regions like Karnali Province, Madhesh Province, and the Kathmandu Valley.

Between 2017 and 2021, international public adaptation finance for developing countries stayed at or below US$25 billion annually, with a 15 per cent drop to US$21 billion in 2021. The report highlights a lower disbursement ratio for adaptation (66 per cent) compared to general development finance (98 per cent), citing barriers such as low grant-to-loan ratios and limited technical capacity. While grants are more prevalent for Least Developed Countries (52 per cent) and Small Island Developing States (67 per cent), less than 17 per cent of commitments targeted local communities. The document emphasizes that while domestic and private finance are vital, they cannot bridge the gap alone, particularly in low-income countries.

The document reveals that only 15% of Brazilian family farmers access credit, with resources heavily concentrated in the South region, larger family properties, and grain production. It argues that the current eligibility criteria, particularly the outdated 'fiscal module' system, create distortions that exclude the most vulnerable producers. The brief recommends revising these criteria and integrating sustainability requirements to support a transition to low-carbon agriculture.

The Green Climate Fund's overall pipeline as of October 2023 consists of 427 projects with a total value of $74,261M, including GCF funding and co-financing. The pipeline is divided into public sector (DMA) and private sector (PSF) projects, with the private sector accounting for a higher total value ($46,265M) compared to the public sector ($27,996M). Geographically, Asia-Pacific has the highest total project value at $36,551M, followed by Africa at $24,696M. Thematically, cross-cutting projects represent the largest financial volume at $49,056M. The pipeline includes 73 funding proposals and 354 concept notes, with significant allocations directed toward Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Small Island Developing States (SIDS), and Africa.

The document examines the conflict between current global food systems and biodiversity, noting that while food systems depend on natural capital, they are the primary drivers of biodiversity loss. It highlights that USD 700 billion in annual government agricultural support often incentivizes harmful practices like the overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. To address this, the author analyzes three national case studies: the UK's transition to paying for 'environmental public goods', India's support for organic 'clusters' to improve soil health, and Brazil's ABC+ plan for climate adaptation and low-carbon agriculture. The paper concludes that achieving the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework's Target 18 requires better practical guidance for policymakers and greater coherence between international frameworks, including the WTO, the Paris Agreement, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The document identifies a 'transboundary gap' in the UNFCCC Global Stocktake (GST), noting that the mechanism currently fails to systematically track global progress in building resilience to transboundary climate risks. Drawing on The Global Transboundary Climate Risk Report and expert interviews, the brief examines the scientific, technical, political, and procedural barriers to integration and suggests proposals to address these gaps by the second GST.