Search Climate Insights Directory

The Climate Solutions Reporting Guide, produced by Covering Climate Now and Solutions Journalism Network, argues that while problem-focused reporting is necessary, newsrooms must broaden their coverage to include solutions to empower audiences and policymakers. It advocates for a rigorous approach that interrogates the effectiveness and limitations of proposed solutions rather than 'cheerleading'. The guide emphasizes equity and justice, noting that marginalized communities often possess effective climate action records despite contributing the least to the crisis. It organizes potential story ideas into five categories: politics and government, economics and business, technologies and practices, civil society, and culture. Key technical distinctions are provided between 'mitigation' (reducing emissions and drawing down existing gases) and 'adaptation' (increasing resilience to unavoidable impacts).

This fact sheet defines global warming as the excessive accumulation of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere, explains its causes rooted in human activity, details its environmental consequences, and outlines global political commitments and individual actions to mitigate the phenomenon.

The Forest Territories Facility (FTF) is a proposed USD 160 million programme targeting 15 countries in Central Africa and the Gulf of Guinea. Managed by the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the facility aims to maintain the extent and functionality of tropical forests through four paradigm-shift pathways: protecting biodiversity, promoting inclusive sustainable forest management, intensifying agriculture to achieve 'zero deforestation', and stabilizing land use. The programme employs a programmatic approach, combining national-level regulatory support with local landscape-based pilot projects. Funding is requested primarily from the Green Climate Fund (USD 120 million), utilizing a mix of grants and senior loans over a 20-year lifespan.

The report argues that while Nigeria has comprehensive national adaptation frameworks, there is a significant gap between high-level policy and local implementation. It highlights that locally led adaptation (LLA) is already occurring through community-driven initiatives in biogas production, aquaculture, and erosion control, but these efforts are hindered by a lack of finance, technical capacity, and political will. The authors advocate for a shift from 'top-down' approaches to those that empower frontline communities to lead the design and monitoring of adaptation actions.

The CESCR addressed climate change in most of its 2023 work, including twelve Concluding Observations and seven Lists of Issues. The Committee focused on mitigation policies, urging states like Brazil, Panama, and Portugal to meet their Paris Agreement NDCs, and recommended that China expand its emissions trading system and stop financing overseas coal power. Adaptation efforts were highlighted in nineteen statements, with specific calls for national adaptation plans in Cambodia, Palestine, and Yemen, and an emphasis on the participation of Indigenous Peoples in Panama. Additionally, the Committee challenged the fossil fuel reliance of states such as Qatar and China, while inquiring about oil refinery pollution in Curaçao.

The report outlines a strategic framework for the Legal Amazon, arguing that the region's current crises—excessive deforestation, social instability, and environmental degradation—can be transformed into economic opportunities. It proposes a model based on 'zero deforestation' and territorial ordering, dividing the region into five distinct zones (Forest, Forest under Pressure, Deforested, Non-Forest/Cerrado, and Urban) to apply tailored public policies. Key economic pathways include carbon markets, forest restoration, bioeconomy, and increasing livestock productivity on already deforested lands.

The report argues that nature-based solutions (NbS) and carbon offsetting schemes often serve as a facade for corporate polluters to continue emitting while facilitating land grabbing and violating human rights. It provides numerous case studies across Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the Americas, highlighting systemic issues such as inflated carbon baselines, lack of free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC), and the failure of projects to deliver promised climate or social benefits. The document specifically critiques REDD+ projects, industrial tree plantations, and soil carbon programs for their lack of 'additionality' and their role in undermining food sovereignty and indigenous land rights.

The document argues that nature-based solutions (NBS) and carbon offsets often serve as a distraction for 'Big Polluters' to continue emitting while facilitating land grabs and violating Indigenous rights. It provides detailed evidence of inflated carbon baselines, lack of additionality, and social harms across Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and North America. Key examples include REDD+ projects in Zimbabwe and Gabon that overestimated carbon savings, and soil carbon initiatives in the US and Kenya that threaten food sovereignty and traditional livelihoods. The report also critiques improved cookstove offsets for using flawed accounting to generate 'fake emission cuts'.

The report argues that the agrocommodities model is a patriarchal system of production that drives deforestation, water pollution, and land grabbing, disproportionately harming women by increasing their care workloads and exposing them to violence. It documents specific abuses in sectors like oil palm and pineapple plantations across Africa, Latin America, and Asia, and advocates for a transition toward food sovereignty, agroecology, and a feminist care economy.

The document analyzes how the industrial agrocommodity system, driven by transnational corporations and patriarchal logic, causes territorial dispossession, environmental degradation, and systemic violence against women. It details impacts on land access, water quality, health, and food sovereignty, while advocating for a feminist economy of care and agroecology as transformative alternatives.

In 2022, global deforestation increased by 4% over 2021 to 6.6 million hectares, with emissions rising 6% to 4 billion metric tons of CO2 equivalent. While Tropical Asia showed some progress against baseline levels, Tropical Latin America and the Caribbean were significantly off track for 2030 goals. Despite exponential growth in tropical forest regrowth, the report highlights a critical lack of transparent data on global restoration efforts.

The Forest Finance 2023 report assesses the alignment of global public and private finance with forest goals, highlighting a significant gap between current funding and the investment required to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030.

The 2023 Forest Declaration Assessment executive summary reports that global gross deforestation in 2022 exceeded the trajectory required to eliminate deforestation by 2030, despite progress in over 50 countries and specific reductions in Indonesia and Malaysia.

The document examines the state of forest governance globally, noting that while protected area coverage has increased, human rights violations and the 'downgrading, downsizing, and degazettement' of these areas persist. It highlights a disparity between international focus on tropical forests and the limited scrutiny of industrial logging in boreal and temperate forests in developed nations. While some progress in the legal recognition of Indigenous Peoples' and local communities' land rights has occurred, approximately 1.375 billion hectares of customary claims remain unrecognized globally, and environmental defenders continue to face violence.

The document finds that the world is off track to meet 2030 forest goals and 2025 private sector deforestation targets, driven by global demand for commodities. It highlights a lack of government priority and insufficient REDD+ incentives, limited impact from a small group of leading companies, and a gap between the recognized importance of Indigenous Peoples and local communities and the actual funding and legal protections they receive.

The document details the definitions, data sources, and analytical frameworks used to assess global forest loss, degradation, and restoration. It establishes a 'gross zero' deforestation benchmark for 2030, utilizing a linear reduction pathway from a 2018-2020 baseline. The annexes include a detailed regional aggregation based on UN geoscheme designations and a data table comparing 2022 deforestation levels across 30 high-impact countries against their interim targets.

This document consists of two annexes. Annex 2 lists sustainability schemes for the mining and processing sectors, such as the ICMM Mining Principles and the ResponsibleSteel Standard, focusing on their requirements for biodiversity and ecosystem services. Annex 3 analyzes forest finance, estimating global needs between USD 45 billion and 460 billion annually to meet Paris Agreement goals, while contrasting 'green finance' (e.g., REDD+ funding) with 'gray finance,' including agricultural subsidies estimated between USD 378 billion and 635 billion per year and private finance to forest-risk commodity supply chains totaling USD 343 billion from 2010-2022.

The 2023 Forest Declaration Assessment reports that the world is off track to meet 2030 forest goals, with global gross deforestation reaching 6.6 million hectares in 2022. While over 50 countries are on track to eliminate deforestation, including sustainable reductions in Indonesia and Malaysia, these gains are offset by massive losses in other critical ecosystems. The report emphasizes a severe funding gap, noting that only 2.2 billion USD in annual government funding is allocated to forests, and criticizes the lack of corporate accountability and transparency. It calls for a radical shift away from 'business-as-usual' economic models toward those that value standing forests and support the land rights of indigenous and local communities.

The 2023 Forest Declaration Assessment reports that global deforestation remains significantly above the trajectory required to meet 2030 targets, with 6.6 million hectares of gross deforestation in 2022. While some countries like Indonesia and Malaysia have reduced deforestation, overall progress is undermined by insufficient public funding—only $2.2 billion annually—and a lack of corporate and financial accountability. The report emphasizes that private financial institutions provided $6.1 trillion in 2022 to companies likely to drive tropical deforestation. It calls for a radical shift in development models, increased transparency, and the direct funding of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities to protect high-integrity forests.

The 2023 Forest Declaration Assessment reports that the world is off track to meet 2030 forest goals, with 2022 global gross deforestation reaching 6.6 million hectares. While over 50 countries are on track to eliminate deforestation, including progress in Indonesia and Malaysia, these successes are offset by massive losses in other regions. The report emphasizes a critical funding gap, noting that only US$ 2.2 billion in annual public funds are directed toward forests, and criticizes the lack of transparency and failure to protect the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.