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This briefing discusses the emergence of 'vid-checks'—live video-call assessments for home energy, air quality, and resilience—as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It outlines the process, benefits for residents and providers, and the limitations of remote assessments compared to in-person audits.

This report analyzes barriers to private investment in Indonesia's decentralized renewable energy (DRE) sector, identifying regulatory hurdles, low returns on small-scale projects, and limited financing as key obstacles. Using Sumba Island as a case study, it proposes four innovative business models (including VOE and LOE joint ventures and PPPs with availability payments) and three financial instruments (risk pooling, asset-backed securities, and guarantees) to attract private capital and achieve national electrification and climate targets.

This report analyzes the environmental implications of the 2022 amendments to the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS), managed by the World Customs Organization (WCO). The author explains how the creation of specific commodity codes for environmentally sensitive products and environmental goods improves trade monitoring and facilitates the negotiation of trade agreements aimed at climate and environmental sustainability.

This report compares seven European Green Capital (EGC) winners from 2015-2021 (Bristol, Ljubljana, Essen, Nijmegen, Oslo, Lisbon, and Lahti) with Tallinn across 12 environmental domains. It identifies 'threshold activities'—such as having implemented strategic climate documents and pursuing carbon neutrality by 2050—that are essential for EGC candidacy. While Tallinn performs well in air quality and green space, it lags behind winners in CO2 emissions per capita, waste landfilling rates, and the formal adoption of key strategic plans.

This case study profiles Divine Bamboo, a Ugandan social enterprise that produces clean cooking fuel from fast-growing local bamboo species to combat deforestation and health issues associated with traditional fuels.

The Centre for Environmental Rights (CER) submitted a statement to the Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries on 28 April 2020, providing expert analysis of air quality and health impacts resulting from emissions at Eskom's Kendal power station. The document presents findings from two expert reports by Dr Ron Sahu and Dr Andrew Gray, highlighting significant exceedances of particulate matter (PM) limits and associated premature deaths and health risks in the Highveld Priority Area.

A technical report by Dr. Ranajit Sahu for the Centre for Environmental Rights analyzing particulate matter (PM) emissions at Eskom’s Kendal Power Station from April 2016 to March 2020. The analysis finds thousands of exceedances of the Atmospheric Emission License (AEL) limit, suggesting that the plant's electrostatic precipitators are failing and recommending the installation of fabric filters or the shutdown of the facility.

The report argues for the urgent reform of WTO agricultural domestic support rules to align with Agenda 2030 and Sustainable Development Goal 2. It proposes simplifying rules through a percentage-of-production value for trade-distorting support, increasing notification transparency, and implementing gradually reducing limits on support that harms foreign producers. Specific recommendations include special treatment for developing countries and exemptions for certain public stockholding programs.

This research paper highlights a systemic bias in self-reported data regarding clean cooking fuel consumption. Comparing self-reports to LPG cylinder purchase records, the study found that only 15% of consumers were accurate, with 78% over-reporting their usage. This suggests that face-to-face survey data, common in developing countries, may be unreliable for analyzing the energy transition for the 3 billion people lacking clean cooking access.

This research paper synthesizes emission mitigation potentials across food, housing, transport, and other consumption domains, identifying 61 options with positive mitigation potential based on a meta-review of 53 studies.

A statement by Dr. Courtney Howard, Board President of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE), arguing that the medical principle of "Do No Harm" must be applied to planetary health. The document criticizes attempts by the fossil fuel industry to use the COVID-19 pandemic as a justification to roll back climate policies and calls for public stimulus funds to be used for a healthy, ecological recovery rather than bailing out fossil fuel corporations.

The Center for International Environmental Law argues that the oil, gas, and plastic industries are in a state of systemic decline that predates the COVID-19 pandemic, and that government bailouts or regulatory rollbacks will not reverse this trend.

Friends of the Earth International issued a statement arguing that the COVID-19 pandemic is a consequence of and a catalyst for systemic change, highlighting how neoliberalism and capitalism have weakened public health and exacerbated social, gender, and environmental injustices.

A statement by Friends of the Earth International arguing that the COVID-19 pandemic is a symptom of systemic failures caused by neoliberalism, capitalism, and patriarchy. The document calls for a fundamental system change, prioritizing public services, environmental justice, and a transition away from fossil fuels over the rescue of large corporations.

The Centre for Environmental Rights (CER), writing on behalf of the Life After Coal Campaign, submitted comments to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) regarding a draft ministerial determination to procure 2,000 MW of new generation capacity. The CER argues that this procurement must prioritize clean, affordable, and renewable energy sources over fossil fuels to align with constitutional obligations and public interest, while criticizing the lack of transparency regarding Request for Information (RFI) responses and the inadequacy of the public consultation process.

An analysis of preliminary 2019 emissions data from the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), highlighting a significant decline in power sector emissions driven by the collapse of coal power and the emergence of steel plants as primary emitters in several countries.

This briefing by RMI compares the systems challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis, arguing that both require transparent, standardized, and reliable data systems to inform critical decisions and investments. The author suggests that the climate fight must adopt the urgency and collaborative data-sharing seen in pandemic responses to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

The Centre for Environmental Rights, acting for groundWork and Earthlife Africa NPC, has formally requested written reasons from the South African Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries regarding an amendment to the Minimum Emission Standards (MES). The amendment, published on 27 March 2020, doubles the permissible sulphur dioxide (SO2) limit for existing solid-fuel combustion installations, which the authors argue is unconstitutional and unlawful.

A report by RMI's REALIZE initiative, funded by the US Department of Energy, assessing prefabricated, high-performance retrofit technologies in the United States and the Netherlands to enable standardized zero-energy retrofits for multifamily housing.

A statement by Climate Policy Initiative leaders and Joaquim Vieira Ferreira Levy arguing that government bailouts following the COVID-19 pandemic should be linked to climate-impact measures to avoid accumulating environmental debt and to foster long-term economic competitiveness.