Search Climate Insights Directory

The document combines a technical factsheet on groundwater in Cape Town with a 'Care for Creation' manual for youth. It explains the function of aquifers, the risks of over-extraction and pollution, and integrates these environmental concerns with Anglican theology. It advocates for sustainable water use, the protection of the Table Mountain, Cape Flats, and Atlantis aquifers, and provides practical guides for water and energy audits and waste reduction.

The proposal seeks USD 278,493 to assess how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted Tuvalu's capacity to implement climate policies and to create a 'National strategy for resilient recovery'. This strategy will identify risks and opportunities across sectors such as food security, fisheries, energy, and health, and will lead to the development of three priority project concept notes for submission to the Green Climate Fund. The project will be implemented by the Ministry of Finance and executed by the Climate Change Department, utilizing an expert group from various government ministries and consultants to ensure the recovery is aligned with Tuvalu's national climate goals and the Te Kete Sustainable Development Strategy 2021-2030.

The briefing discusses the sharp increase in agricultural and mining commodity prices since 2020, noting that while a 'supercycle' is debated, the trend threatens the Glasgow climate agreement's deforestation goals and food security in low-income countries. It highlights the critical role of scarce commodities like copper for electrification and warns that high fertilizer costs may impact 2022 harvests.

The COVID-19 pandemic increased food insecurity across Africa, with upper-middle income countries like South Africa experiencing higher vulnerability due to their reliance on formal employment and global supply chains. While agricultural production grew in 2020, protectionist measures such as export bans in Malawi hindered the redistribution of food. The document highlights the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) as a critical mechanism to reduce dependence on global imports, lower trade barriers, and improve food resilience through increased intra-continental trade and the legalisation of informal cross-border trade.

The briefing analyzes the challenges facing WTO agriculture negotiations at MC12, noting that deep divisions among members on domestic support, market access, and public stockholding likely mean that substantive outcomes will be limited to work programs for post-conference talks. The author identifies a potential positive outcome regarding an exemption for World Food Programme (WFP) food purchases from export restrictions and suggests that some progress on transparency may be achievable, though substantive issues like trade-distorting subsidies in cotton remain unresolved.

The study evaluates food security for smallholders and workers in biofuel projects in Mozambique, Malawi, and Eswatini, finding that sugarcane production improved food security while jatropha production had no statistically significant positive effect.

The author highlights the shared history of underestimating the effects of both climate change and nuclear weapons. The text details how nuclear detonations cause immediate blast damage and long-term atmospheric disruptions, such as 'nuclear winter', which mirror the systemic risks of the climate crisis. It warns that current geopolitical instability, exacerbated by climate-driven resource scarcity, increases the risk of nuclear conflict, particularly in South Asia. The author calls for a revival of public discourse on nuclear risks to match the current momentum for climate action.

The report evaluates 33 major European retailers on their aquaculture procurement practices. It finds a systemic failure to address ecological and social challenges, with 76% of retailers falling into a 'red zone' of insufficient action. Key failures include a lack of targets to eliminate wild-catch fishmeal and fish oil (FMFO) from feed, inadequate fish welfare monitoring, and poor transparency regarding the origin of products. While some UK and French retailers show slight progress, retailers in Spain, Austria, and Switzerland performed particularly poorly.

The report finds that the majority of European retailers are failing to implement substantive policies for sustainable aquaculture. Three-quarters of the 33 retailers assessed were placed in the 'red zone', with none achieving 'frontrunner' status. Key failures include a lack of targets to eliminate wild-caught fish from feed, inadequate fish welfare protections, and poor transparency in labelling and sourcing. While UK retailers showed more progressive approaches in feed and welfare, and some French and German retailers joined industry initiatives, Spanish retailers performed the worst, with all 11 assessed companies landing in the red zone.

The report evaluates 33 major European supermarket chains across six countries on three priority areas: the elimination of wild fish in aquaculture feed, the monitoring of fish mortality, and supply chain transparency. The findings indicate a widespread failure to implement responsible practices, with 76% of retailers falling into the 'red zone' due to a lack of relevant policies. While some UK and French retailers show more progress, no company achieved the 'at the forefront' status. The report highlights the negative externalities of the industry, such as the extraction of over half a million tonnes of fish from West African waters annually for feed, which undermines local food security.

The report evaluates 33 European retailers across three priority areas: the elimination of wild fish in aquaculture feed, the monitoring of fish mortality, and supply chain transparency. It finds that 76% of the companies are in the 'red zone,' indicating a near total lack of substantive policies. No retailer achieved 'Leader' status in any category. While some UK and French retailers show more progress, Spanish supermarkets performed exceptionally poorly, with all 11 evaluated companies in the red zone. Key issues identified include the impact of fish meal and fish oil (FMFO) on West African food security and a general failure to provide transparent labeling to consumers.

The report finds that European retailers are failing to perform adequate due diligence on their farmed fish supply chains, with 76% landing in a 'red zone' of poor performance. No surveyed retailer has a clear target to eliminate wild-caught fish in feed, and none have policies to blacklist farms with high mortality rates. While some UK retailers show progress in transparency through the Ocean Disclosure Project, overall industry standards for fish welfare and labelling remain inadequate, often relying on insufficient third-party certifications.

The document details Liberia's transition from outdated 'scoop and ship' agricultural contracts to a more transparent, regulated framework for foreign direct investment. Key reforms included the Public Procurement and Concessions Act of 2005 and the Investment Act of 2010, which established inter-agency coordination and a model template for negotiations. The government also introduced the National Concessions Portal of Liberia for land-use monitoring and mandated community development committees to ensure local benefits. The case emphasizes the importance of translating agreements into simple language and involving local authorities to ensure meaningful community engagement.

The report analyzes mixed migration in East Africa and the Horn, identifying a complex interplay of political instability, state fragility, poverty, and climate change as primary drivers. It highlights the challenges of protracted refugee situations, particularly the restrictive nature of encampment policies, and contrasts the progressive refugee framework in Uganda with more restrictive regimes in neighboring states. The document argues for a shift from dependency to self-reliance, the harmonization of regional and international laws, and the integration of climate adaptation into migration policies to achieve durable solutions.

The document highlights the critical and unrecognized nature of transboundary climate risks to the trade of maize, rice, wheat, soy, sugar cane, and coffee. It asserts that traditional risk management strategies like diversification are insufficient against accelerating climate impacts and warns of potential geopolitical tensions as producers struggle to maintain market shares. The authors call for a global systemic view and increased international coordination to implement fair adaptation, particularly to protect low-income, import-dependent countries.

The text highlights the critical role of over 500 million smallholder farms in global food production and the severe funding gap they face for climate adaptation. It calls for a new consensus among governments and international aid groups to increase financial aid, improve data collection, and deploy climate-resilient technologies to support these farmers, who currently receive only a small fraction of global climate finance.

The amicus curiae brief argues that the Mexican state was obligated to deny the environmental permit for the Don Diego project due to severe risks to the marine ecosystem of the Golfo de Ulloa and the human rights of local fishing communities. The authors contend that the project, which involves dredging 91,000 hectares of the seabed to extract 7 million tons of phosphate rock annually, would cause irreversible biodiversity loss and contaminate the area with radioactive elements like uranium and thorium. They assert that the precautionary principle and international treaties—including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the American Convention on Human Rights—mandate the protection of the environment and the right to work and health for the 128 families of the Puerto Chale Cooperative and other regional residents.

The report consists of several independent briefers analyzing how climate change acts as a threat multiplier across various domains. Key analyses include the evolution of 'environmental terrorism' from a tactical to a strategic threat, the need to integrate peacebuilding with climate adaptation in fragile regions like the Sahel, and the shifting geopolitics of energy security as the world transitions to renewables. It also assesses specific vulnerabilities of U.S. Space Force infrastructure to sea-level rise and wildfires, the role of digital Earth observation technologies in anticipatory intelligence, and the gendered impacts of climate-induced resource scarcity. Regional case studies focus on the Arctic's changing geopolitical landscape and the influence of media reporting on climate-induced farmer-herder conflicts in Nigeria.

IISD conducted a series of internal brainstorms, stakeholder interviews, and literature reviews to identify gaps in Canada's sustainable food systems policy. The findings highlight a need for a holistic 'systems approach' that integrates social equity with economic and environmental goals. IISD identifies five priority areas for future work: emissions reduction strategies, incentives for sustainable practices, data tracking, fiscal analysis for agricultural resiliency, and the promotion of equitable food policy development.

The report assesses the integration of gender equality and human rights into the climate adaptation strategies of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). While RMI has a strong policy framework—including the 2050 Tile Til Eo Climate Strategy and the 2019 Gender Equality Act—the report identifies significant gaps in operationalizing these goals. Key barriers include limited technical capacity, high staff turnover, a reliance on external consultants, and persistent social norms that frame women as passive victims rather than agents of change. The document provides a detailed roadmap of recommendations across four phases of the NAP process, emphasizing the need for sex-disaggregated data, inclusive community consultations, and the establishment of monitoring and evaluation protocols that track women's rights as markers of climate adaptation success.