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In 2025, global coal capacity increased by 3.5% while generation fell by 0.6%, reflecting a trend where coal plants are increasingly used as backup reserves rather than primary energy sources. This divergence is most acute in China and India, where record capacity additions coexist with falling generation due to the rise of wind and solar power. While the number of countries proposing new coal projects declined from 38 to 32, political interventions in the US and EU delayed planned retirements. Regionally, Latin America reported no new projects, while Russia and Kazakhstan continue to integrate coal into their long-term energy security strategies despite international financing constraints and sanctions.

In 2025, global coal capacity grew by 3.5% while generation fell by 0.6%, reflecting a trend where coal is increasingly used as system 'insurance' rather than a primary energy source. While Latin America achieved a 'No New Coal' status in 2025, several countries in the region, including Brazil and Chile, experienced delays or reversals in planned plant retirements. China and India continue to lead global capacity expansions, accounting for 95% of all coal capacity under construction worldwide.

The document analyzes a structural contraction in Official Development Assistance (ODA) and a persistent under-allocation of climate finance toward adaptation. It argues that while the sector possesses the foresight to predict these trends, institutional barriers prevent this knowledge from translating into action. The paper highlights the failure of blended finance to scale in high-exposure contexts, the inability of alternative donors like China and Gulf states to replace Western ODA, and emerging risks such as the centralization of risk analytics and sovereign debt traps.

The document provides a technical annex detailing how the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) calculated the energy, economic, and emissions profiles of nine major Indian state-owned enterprises for FY 2024–25. It specifies the PSUs covered—including Coal India Limited, NTPC, and ONGC—and explains the methodology for estimating Scope 3 emissions, energy flows, and progress toward net-zero and renewable energy targets.

The assessment finds that electrifying Ulaanbaatar's bus fleet is economically viable, with a discounted net benefit of MNT 93,355 million (USD 26.3 million) and a benefit-to-cost ratio (BCR) of 1.09 over 25 years. The primary economic drivers are avoided fuel costs and lower maintenance requirements. These benefits increase substantially if electrification is paired with a modal shift from private vehicles to public transport; a 10% shift would raise the BCR to 3.63 and net benefits to USD 774.8 million. The analysis emphasizes that traditional valuations often underestimate such projects by ignoring environmental and social externalities like air and noise pollution.

The document details the global cobalt market, highlighting the extreme concentration of mine production in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and refining in China. It examines the shift toward battery-enabled end-uses, the role of Chinese investment in global supply, and the social risks associated with artisanal mining in the DRC.

The report examines the African Union's (AU) efforts to create a coherent foreign policy framework to navigate a fragmented international order, while highlighting the need for deeper economic integration similar to the EU. It details the evolving threat of Boko Haram and ISWAP in the Lake Chad Basin and the emerging extremist hub in the Borgu-Kainji axis. Additionally, it argues for a youth-focused approach to combat transnational organized crime, citing the rise of cybercrime and drug trafficking in West Africa. Finally, it outlines Burundi's priorities as AU chair, emphasizing water security, youth empowerment, and the urgent need for internal financial autonomy to ensure political sovereignty.

The document outlines how education ministries can engage across the four phases of the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) process: impact, vulnerability, and risk assessment (IVRA); planning; implementation; and monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL). It emphasizes the heightened vulnerability of children to climate-related learning disruptions and argues that the NAP process is a critical mechanism to elevate education priorities, secure climate finance, and align sectoral plans with national commitments. The guide provides specific strategies for data collection via Education Management Information Systems (EMIS), the use of innovative financial instruments, and the mainstreaming of gender equality and social inclusion (GESI). A case study of Saint Lucia illustrates the successful development of a Sector Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan (SASAP) through participatory, multi-stakeholder engagement.

The report outlines a comprehensive approach to building climate-resilient education systems by integrating them into the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) process. It emphasizes three core components: resilient infrastructure, school safety and educational continuity, and climate-responsive teaching and learning. The document provides a step-by-step guide for NAP teams, covering enabling factors, impact, vulnerability, and risk assessments (IVRA), adaptation planning, implementation, and monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) systems, while advocating for a child-centered and inclusive lens to protect the rights of the most vulnerable students.

The document examines the revision of Mozambique's Petroleum Law, highlighting the risks that the new framework may prioritize investor confidence over community rights. It identifies key changes, such as the introduction of binding agreements with affected communities, human rights compliance reports, and the inclusion of Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) technology. The author argues that without specific, enforceable rules on land rights, compensation, and benefit-sharing, these legal changes may remain symbolic and fail to protect local populations from the costs of extractive development.

The document argues that major private credit rating agencies (CRAs) employ subjective, biased, and procyclical methodologies that unfairly inflate the risk premiums for African nations. This 'credit rating impasse' increases the cost of capital, hinders debt restructuring, and obstructs the deployment of climate finance. To counter this, the author supports the African Union's endorsement of the Africa Credit Rating Agency (AfCRA) to be based in Mauritius. The brief recommends that African nations improve data transparency, build debt management capacity through partnerships with the IMF and AfDB, and implement legislative oversight via debt sustainability laws to improve their macroeconomic fundamentals and challenge inaccurate ratings.

The document argues that the energy transition within the expanded BRICS bloc is a contest of power between incumbent fossil-industrial interests and emerging green regimes. It identifies a 'grey space' of hybrid compromise where ambitious climate rhetoric masks continued fossil fuel expansion. To navigate this, the authors introduce the BRICS Climate and Energy Compass and a strategic action plan focusing on financial architecture reform, investment in hard-to-abate sectors, and the localisation of climate finance.

The Stockholm Environment Institute's systemic climate adaptation framework provides a normative guide to make adaptation policy more coherent, equitable, and robust. It is built on three core pillars: systemic risk framing, policy interlinkages, and deep uncertainty management. These pillars translate into six guiding principles—interconnected by design, shared risk ownership, co-benefits and everyday value, no-regrets and anti-maladaptation, equity and just resilience, and adaptive governance under deep uncertainty. The framework is intended as 'adaptable scaffolding' for stress-testing decisions, such as national strategies or investment pipelines, rather than a rigid checklist.

The report argues that commercial insect farming in high-income, temperate regions often fails to meet its theoretical sustainability promises. While insects have lower greenhouse gas emissions than beef, they often perform worse than the soymeal and fishmeal they are intended to replace. The authors identify seven key challenges: outdated life cycle assessments, under-utilization of organic waste as feed, limited substitution of meat in human diets, the reinforcement of industrial animal agriculture through use as feed, biodiversity risks from unintentional releases, emerging animal welfare concerns, and the opportunity cost of diverting investment from more promising plant-based or cultivated proteins.

The briefing argues that while climate and sustainable development goals are theoretically synergistic, actual policy coherence is hindered by political inequality, vested interests, and the prioritization of economic growth. Through analysis of nine countries and global NDC data, the research demonstrates that coherence is not a neutral technocratic exercise but a political process with significant distributional consequences, often burdening vulnerable groups when political will for equity is absent.

The document assesses the UN climate regime's transition into an 'implementation era' following the completion of the Paris Agreement Rulebook. It identifies systemic inefficiencies, including a predominance of procedural over substantive decisions, overlapping mandates of constituted bodies, and significant funding gaps for developing countries. The authors argue that the regime is hindered by a de facto veto system based on consensus and the influence of fossil fuel lobbyists. Key recommendations include streamlining negotiation agendas, adopting formal voting rules, formally closing the Kyoto Protocol, and integrating the UNFCCC with other Rio Conventions to address the root causes of the climate crisis.

Reducing coal mine methane (CMM) emissions is presented as a critical, low-cost opportunity to avoid 0.2C of warming by 2050 and prevent over 180,000 premature deaths annually by 2030. While the IEA and UNEP estimate that between 54% and 63% of global CMM emissions can be mitigated by 2030, current action is negligible, with only 130 of 1,800 active mines reporting mitigation projects. The most cost-effective methods include drainage systems, where 62% of the 7,460 kilotonnes of abatement potential is available at negative net cost, and ventilation air methane (VAM) oxidation, which could reduce emissions by 23.7% with a $2.5 billion USD investment.

The briefing argues that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) uses financial intermediaries (FIs) like Clifford Capital to bypass restrictions on fossil gas investments. While the ADB committed to Paris Agreement goals in 2017 and stopped financing coal, it provided approximately $4.48bn for oil and gas infrastructure in Asia Pacific between 2017 and 2025. The document highlights Clifford Capital, which received a $95m equity investment from the ADB in 2020, as a channel for funding fossil gas projects, including the Tangguh LNG project in Indonesia and Bhola-2 in Bangladesh. The authors call for greater transparency in FI lending, a prohibition on new fossil gas infrastructure funding, and a time-bound fossil fuels exit plan.

The Dubrovnik Geothermal Declaration, endorsed on 28 April 2026, positions geothermal energy as a strategic asset for the Three Seas Initiative (TSI) region. The signatories commit to doubling geothermal investments by 2030 relative to 2025 baselines and establishing a 'TSI Next 10 GEO' priority pipeline for commissioning between 2032 and 2035. The declaration calls for the creation of a TSI Geothermal Exploration Risk Facility by 2027 and the development of a flagship geothermal pilot by 2029. To support these goals, the document advocates for regulatory harmonization, including fast-track licensing based on Croatia's model and the removal of preferential treatment for fossil gas and unsustainable biomass. It also proposes the 'Geoterm Carpatia' corridor to integrate geothermal energy into regional energy highways linking TEN-E and TEN-T nodes.

The author contends that raising interest rates to curb inflation caused by the war on Iran would disproportionately hinder renewable energy investments compared to fossil fuels, thereby prolonging Europe's energy vulnerability. To maintain price stability and support the energy transition, the document proposes that the ECB introduce 'Green TLTROs'—Targeted Longer Term Refinancing Operations—to provide lower interest rates for lending dedicated to renewable deployment, electrification, and grid upgrades.