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The Center for Climate Integrity asserts that the American Petroleum Institute (API) spent decades coordinating a campaign of deception regarding the dangers of fossil fuels despite early internal research predicting catastrophic climate events. The document claims API has evolved from outright denial to 'greenwashing' and continues to lobby against climate legislation and federal leasing moratoriums while providing political cover for its member companies.

The document examines the 'digital divide' in the U.S., where rural and tribal areas lack high-speed internet access due to high deployment costs, limited competition, and affordability issues. It highlights how broadband is a prerequisite for smart home devices, precision agriculture, and smart grids, which can reduce energy use by 12–22%. The brief details various deployment initiatives by municipalities, tribal governments, and electric cooperatives, while reviewing federal funding programs and recent legislation aimed at achieving universal broadband access.

The analysis finds that the 'Infrastructure Bills' could reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by 1,067 to 1,510 million metric tonnes by 2030, potentially putting the U.S. on track to meet its NDC of 50-52% below 2005 levels. The most critical drivers are the Clean Electricity Performance Program (CEPP) and clean energy tax credits, which together could drive the power sector to 70-85% clean generation. Additional benefits include the creation of 449,000 to 638,000 job-years and the avoidance of 4,600 to 7,000 premature deaths annually by 2030, with health benefits concentrated in communities of color.

The document analyzes the impact of Covid-19 on green SMME exporters in the Western Cape and evaluates how Wesgro adapted its trade promotion services. Key findings highlight that while travel restrictions severely hindered traditional matchmaking, the shift to virtual training, hybrid trade missions, and digital marketing increased accessibility for smaller firms. The report argues that these digital tools can reduce the environmental impact of business travel and help exporters adapt to emerging green economy demands and climate-related trade barriers, particularly in the EU market.

The document examines the limited role of African countries and LDCs in G20 decision-making and proposes mechanisms to enhance their agency. It highlights how the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated vulnerabilities in these regions, leading to the worst economic outcome in thirty years for LDCs. The author suggests creating a formal outreach mechanism with longer-term representation to ensure continuity and mainstreaming LDC inputs across G20 workstreams, including climate and finance. Key priority themes identified include rethinking vulnerability metrics beyond per capita GDP, ensuring a 'just transition' that balances green recovery with immediate social needs, and reforming the financial architecture to provide more fiscal space and fairer capital market access.

Togo's revised NDCs aim for a total greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction of 50.57% by 2030 compared to a reference scenario, consisting of a 20.51% unconditional target and a 30.06% conditional target. The plan prioritizes the energy, agriculture, forestry, and waste sectors for mitigation, while focusing on food security, water management, and coastal protection for adaptation. Implementing these goals requires an estimated total investment of 5.48 billion USD, with 78% of the funding needed as international conditional support. The document also outlines a national Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) system and a communication strategy to increase public awareness and local ownership of climate actions.

The document analyzes how socio-economic vulnerabilities—including gender, age, disability, and minority status—increase the risk and impact of climate-related hazards in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It highlights that disadvantaged groups are more likely to live in hazard-prone areas and lack the resources to adapt. The brief argues for inclusive policymaking and warns that both adaptation and mitigation strategies can lead to 'maladaptation' or detrimental socio-economic effects if not carefully designed to protect the most vulnerable populations.

The report analyzes how multidimensional inequality and poverty in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) intersect with environmental risks and policy. It finds that marginalized groups—including Roma communities, women, the elderly, and persons with disabilities—face disproportionate exposure to pollution and hazards, while social norms limit their access to natural resources. The document argues that environmental policies can either exacerbate these inequalities (e.g., through energy taxes) or mitigate them (e.g., through energy efficiency in social housing). It recommends collecting disaggregated data, increasing the representation of disadvantaged groups in decision-making, and implementing gender-responsive budgeting to ensure a more inclusive and effective environmental strategy.

The report analyzes how Highland Park, Michigan, can transition to 100 percent locally generated clean energy to achieve energy sovereignty. It identifies a total average annual electricity demand of approximately 86,200 MWh and proposes a mix of rooftop solar, community solar, energy efficiency, distributed solar, and a community water and energy resource center (CWERC) to meet this need. The analysis highlights that current utility restrictions and state policies create long payback periods for solar investments, but a proposed policy scenario—including full retail-rate net metering and state tax credits—could increase rooftop solar's contribution from 13 percent to nearly 30 percent of the city's energy needs. The document concludes with recommendations for Michigan policymakers to eliminate distributed generation caps and for Highland Park leaders to enact solar ordinances and establish local financing mechanisms.

The People-Centered Accelerator (PCA), a partnership of over 45 organizations, calls for an 'energy revolution' to address energy poverty and inefficiency. The statement emphasizes that achieving Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7) requires removing systemic barriers, such as limited financing for women, and implementing needs-based energy planning that accounts for gendered energy poverty. The PCA advocates for a just energy transition that is 'gender-responsive, youth-inclusive, locally-led and globally connected,' specifically through the adoption of a multi-stakeholder Gender and Energy Compact.

The UN High-level Dialogue on Energy (HLDE) resulted in the first-ever global roadmap for accelerating Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7) and the announcement of over 160 Energy Compacts. These voluntary commitments from governments, businesses, and civil society include more than USD 400 billion in new finance and investment to address energy poverty and decarbonize energy systems. The dialogue established specific milestones for 2025 and 2030, including the phase-out of coal and the tripling of global renewable power capacity.

The document reports that there were over 4.1 million climate jobs in the United States in 2020, despite an 8% overall decline due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It breaks down employment by sector, noting that energy efficiency supported the most jobs (2.1 million), followed by energy transmission, distribution, and storage (763,000), and renewable energy (504,600). The report highlights growth in specific areas like electric vehicles and wind energy, and emphasizes the emerging field of climate adaptation and resilience. It concludes that significant further job creation is possible through federal investment and policies targeting renewable energy targets and the plugging of orphaned oil and gas wells.

Brambles has reduced its scope 1 and 2 emissions by 47% since 2010 and is pursuing a 1.5ºC aligned science-based target for its global supply chain. The company's sustainability goals include achieving 100% renewable electricity by 2025, implementing a 'two-for-one' tree planting commitment to increase carbon sequestration, and transitioning to 100% recycled or upcycled plastic waste by 2030. Additionally, Brambles advocates for policy incentives to decarbonize the commercial vehicle sector through electrification and hydrogen technology.

The document describes Cooling as a Service (CaaS) as a pay-per-service model that removes upfront costs for customers by having service providers own and maintain energy-efficient cooling equipment. It highlights the role of sale-leaseback arrangements with banks to scale financing and identifies Nigeria's ColdHubs as a practical application for solar-powered cold storage. The text also notes the importance of legal frameworks, national energy efficiency policies, and the potential for CaaS implementation in 21 countries that prioritized urban planning in their NDCs.

Earthjustice successfully challenged a proposal to invest nearly a billion dollars in the Big Sandy Coal Plant in eastern Kentucky, leading the owner to retire the plant in 2015. The legal action argued that aging coal plants were no longer economical, and the resulting agreement doubled the owner's investment in energy efficiency and included evaluations for clean energy replacements.

The Cooling Facility aims to integrate gender equality into sustainable cooling investments across Bangladesh, El Salvador, Kenya, Malawi, North Macedonia, Panama, Sao Tome and Principe, Somalia, and Sri Lanka. The report identifies systemic gender gaps in labor force participation, financial access, and STEM education, while noting that women are disproportionately affected by limited access to cooling. It proposes a strategic approach involving sex-disaggregated data collection, targeted financial products for female entrepreneurs, and capacity building to increase women's roles as employees and consumers in the cooling sector.

The document advises US cities and communities to leverage existing federal funding opportunities to accelerate the clean energy transition. It highlights that the Biden Administration is integrating climate mitigation and racial equity into federal programs through initiatives like Justice40. The briefing recommends three strategies: understanding current funding landscapes via tools like the FFOLD tool, embedding environmental justice into project designs to increase competitiveness, and seeking funds from non-climate agencies such as those focused on health and economic development.

As of 31 July 2021, the GCF pipeline includes 89 funding proposals requesting USD 6.4 billion and 350 concept notes requesting USD 15.9 billion. The report details the distribution of these requests by sector, region, and theme, while also tracking the progress of the Simplified Approval Process (SAP) pilot, specific requests for proposals (RFPs) such as REDD-plus and MSME, and the status of 65 active Project Preparation Facility applications.

The document defines grid-interactive efficient buildings (GEBs) as energy-efficient structures that adjust their energy load based on electricity cost or carbon intensity to reduce utility costs and greenhouse gas emissions. It identifies five specific low- or no-cost measures for GSA building managers to improve grid interactivity: optimizing building operation to occupancy patterns, optimizing thermal mass, maximizing existing storage capacity, optimizing control system algorithms, and automating controlled lighting.

The Russian coal sector provides a low economic contribution to the national GDP but maintains high social and political significance, particularly in regions like Kuzbass. Despite this, the sector is heavily reliant on indirect state subsidies and faces a deteriorating infrastructure, with the average age of coal power plants reaching 53 years. The report highlights a disconnect between the Russian government's expectations of export growth and the reality of decarbonization trends in key markets such as the EU, China, and India. It argues that Russia lacks an official decarbonization scenario and that conservative views currently dominate policy, ignoring the risks of stranded assets and the impact of the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). The authors propose a 'just transition' framework consisting of social programs for workers, regional economic diversification, and the introduction of an internal carbon price.