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The 2025 Global Forum in Bridgetown, Barbados, brought together over 1,300 participants to advance a just energy transition and end energy poverty, resulting in the Barbados Declaration and over $500 million in new financial commitments for clean energy in the Global South.

The document outlines several voluntary commitments and coalitions aimed at achieving sustainable energy goals. Key initiatives include the Energy Compacts for SDG7, the Just and Inclusive Energy Transition (JIET) Compact endorsed by G20 ministers, and the No New Coal Compact. It also highlights the Council for Critical Minerals Development in the Global South, the 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy (CFE) Compact, and the Energy Compact on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment. Additionally, it mentions Mission 300, a World Bank and African Development Bank initiative to electrify Africa, and global networks like the Cool Coalition and Mission Efficiency.

A joint letter from various organisations calling for a 'people first' approach to EU ETS revenues, recommending stricter earmarking rules to prevent fossil fuel lock-in, the phase-out of free allowances for polluters, and the expansion of the Social Climate Fund to protect vulnerable citizens from ETS2 costs.

The report argues that Norway's 'energy culture' is heavily skewed by the petroleum industry, creating a 'petroculture' that marginalizes climate-critical perspectives. It highlights the contrast between the Norwegian Directorate of Culture's focus on internal emission reductions and Arts Council England's systemic approach. The document details how the oil industry uses 'petroganda'—including STEM sponsorships for children and academic agreements—to maintain legitimacy and delay the energy transition. It also notes a trend of Norwegian cultural organizations taking stances against oil exploration and discusses the criminalization of climate activists in Norway.

The paper explores the intersection of gender inequality and climate change, particularly in Africa, highlighting how women are disproportionately affected by climate-related displacement, food insecurity, and energy poverty. It details structural barriers in employment, land ownership, and political representation that limit women's adaptive capacity. The document reviews international frameworks like the Paris Agreement and the Lima Work Programme on Gender, and calls for COP29 to prioritize honoring financial pledges, increasing women's access to clean energy, and investing in gender-disaggregated data to ensure a just social order.

The briefing outlines a three-part agenda for the next US administration to maintain the momentum of its green industrial strategy. It emphasizes the need to bridge the gap between initial investment and long-term economic stability by streamlining permitting, diversifying supply chains to reduce reliance on China, and ensuring that clean energy benefits reach low-income and legacy industrial communities. The author advocates for a 'private-sector-led, government-enabled' framework supported by strategic governance mechanisms to ensure the US remains a global leader in cleantech innovation and manufacturing.

The author contends that the rise of far-right parties, such as Germany's AfD, is partly a reaction to climate policies that lack social equity. To combat this, the text advocates for a 'post-growth' framework and the implementation of community-led energy solutions that prioritize human well-being over profit. It calls for developed nations to accelerate emission cuts and for the EU to shift fossil fuel subsidies toward carbon-free heating to ensure a just transition.

The Clean Utilities for Affordable Housing instrument aims to raise USD 54 million (ZAR 976 million) to provide renewable energy as a service to affordable housing residents in South Africa. By partnering with major landlords to aggregate demand and using a catalytic subordinated funding vehicle to derisk investments, the model attracts commercial senior debt to fund solar installations. The first phase targets 28,000 housing units over five years, aiming to generate 1,352 GWh of renewable energy and avoid 1,369 ktCO2e. The instrument is designed to be financially sustainable, with a projected Fund internal rate of return (IRR) of 20-30% in the base case, and intends to expand into township retail and the Kenyan market.

The policy brief outlines three core principles for the implementation of the EU's Social Climate Fund (SCF): ensuring meaningful public participation, prioritising structural solutions over temporary relief to avoid fossil fuel lock-ins, and mobilising additional financing beyond the mandatory 25% contribution. It argues that the SCF's budget of EUR 65 billion is insufficient to tackle the root causes of energy and transport poverty and calls for the redirection of ETS revenues and the elimination of fossil fuel subsidies to support vulnerable households.

Project Drawdown analyzed the NDCs of eight African countries—Congo, Ethiopia, Malawi, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, and Uganda—to identify synergies between climate mitigation and socioeconomic development. While all eight countries acknowledge poverty and gender mainstreaming, only Congo, Malawi, and Rwanda explicitly link climate solutions to specific human well-being dimensions. The analysis identifies 14 frequently cited solutions, such as Clean Cooking and Distributed Solar Photovoltaics, but notes the omission of other high-impact 'double-duty' solutions like Reduced Food Waste and Family Planning and Education. The report argues for recognizing Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU) actions as both mitigation and adaptation tools and diversifying decentralized renewable energy to combat energy poverty in rural communities.

Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) advocates for a 'Just and Equitable Energy Transition' to achieve universal energy access by 2030 and net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050. The organization focuses on scaling renewable energy, energy efficiency, and storage, specifically targeting decentralized solutions and clean cooking to combat energy poverty. SEforALL emphasizes the need for low-cost finance to overcome high capital costs in the Global South, particularly in Africa. Its operational approach includes results-based financing via the Universal Energy Facility, support for carbon markets, and a manufacturing initiative for green jobs in Africa and Southeast Asia. The organization maintains a strict policy against accepting funding from fossil fuel companies or projects that promote fossil fuels over sustainable alternatives, while acknowledging nuclear energy as a low-emission source.

The document argues that Sweden's transition to fossil-free transport risks disproportionately harming approximately 40% of the population, particularly those in low-density areas with high car dependency and lower incomes. It proposes a four-part policy framework focusing on structural infrastructure investments, group-specific support, addressing non-transport vulnerabilities, and continuous evaluation to ensure social acceptance and equity.

The document analyzes South Africa's transition from a coal-dependent economy, highlighting the tension between transformative visions of social justice and narrower, market-based decarbonization efforts. It identifies significant challenges, including high regional economic dependence in Mpumalanga, a massive funding gap for the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan (JET IP), and institutional failures such as state capture and fragmented governance. The report examines the divergent perspectives of trade unions, national and local governments, state-owned utility Eskom, and civil society, while emphasizing the need for procedural justice and bottom-up engagement to ensure the transition does not entrench existing inequalities.

Friends of the Earth Africa rejects the claim that fossil fuel expansion serves African interests, asserting that such projects lead to environmental degradation and human rights abuses rather than energy access. The organization advocates for a people-led transition to clean energy, the rejection of gas as a transition fuel, and the demand for technology transfers and grants to cover ecological debts owed to the region.

The Social Climate Fund (SCF) is an EU initiative designed to alleviate energy and transport poverty resulting from the introduction of the ETS2 carbon pricing system for buildings and road transport. Operating from 2026 to 2032, the fund will provide approximately €86.7 billion in targeted support to EU member states, primarily for lower-income groups and micro-enterprises. Funding is allocated based on need, with Poland, France, Italy, Spain, and Romania receiving the largest shares. To access funds, member states must submit Social Climate Plans (SCPs) by June 2025, which must include impact assessments and decarbonisation strategies. While the SCF supports green investments and limited temporary income support, it is not intended to solve the root causes of existing energy and transport poverty.

A coalition of environmental organizations, including Greenpeace and Reclaim Finance, responded to the French Senate's inquiry into TotalEnergies. While they welcome the report's critical assessment of TotalEnergies' "climaticide" strategy and its expansion of fossil fuels, they argue that the 33 recommendations lack the binding measures necessary to align the company with the Paris Agreement. The associations specifically criticize the absence of super-profit taxation and the perceived weakness of the French state in regulating the multinational.

The document analyzes the JET-P model as a mechanism to catalyze international and private investment for Colombia's energy transition. It highlights a significant funding gap, noting that public investment currently represents only 0.01% of required resources. By reviewing JET-P experiences in South Africa, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Senegal, the report identifies risks such as increased public debt and the need for transparent, community-led project design. It proposes prioritizing projects like energy communities and the phase-out of coal plants, while warning against financing fossil fuel infrastructure or inefficient consumption subsidies.

Carbon Market Watch calls for the Social Climate Fund to explicitly prohibit any investment in fossil fuel-based technologies, including 'low(er) carbon' alternatives like efficient gas boilers, to avoid locking low-income groups into long-term fossil fuel use and to prevent environmental degradation.

The text examines the role of energy communities in mitigating the 'green backlash' and far-right growth in Europe. It contrasts industrial-scale renewable projects, which often exclude rural populations in countries like Spain and Greece, with community-led initiatives that prioritize socio-environmental benefits over profit. The author highlights that community energy projects can provide up to eight times more economic benefit to local economies than private projects. Examples of innovation include agri-photovoltaic projects in Greece and North Macedonia, and a biomass heating network in Spain. The document calls for EU and member state support to ensure that the energy transition is inclusive and democratic, preventing profits from accruing only to large companies.

The briefing explains how Community Benefits Plans (CBPs) serve as a tool for utilities to secure federal funding via the Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment (EIR) program while reducing project risks. It details how meaningful community engagement can prevent costly project delays and cancellations, how workforce training and unionization improve operational efficiency, and how addressing energy poverty and diversity goals enhances a utility's social license to operate and ESG performance.