Search Climate Insights Directory

A 2019 call to action from Canadian healthcare professionals urging federal political parties to treat climate change as a public health emergency. The document outlines the immediate health risks facing Canadians, the economic costs of extreme weather, and specific policy demands to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit global warming to 1.5°C.

This white paper by the Climate Policy Initiative argues that strengthening environmental command and control—specifically through technological monitoring and law enforcement—is essential for Brazil to combat illegal deforestation, protect its native vegetation, and maintain its international agribusiness competitiveness.

This guide by the Stockholm Environment Institute explains how local governments can estimate consumption-based greenhouse gas emissions inventories (CBEIs) to understand the full carbon footprint of their communities, including emissions generated outside city borders.

This Action Brief from RMI argues that the aviation industry requires a new strategy to meet climate goals, as current emissions are exceeding forecasts and existing offsetting schemes are insufficient.

This policy brief by the Climate Policy Initiative argues that Brazil can achieve large-scale reforestation and meet its Paris Agreement emissions targets by prioritizing natural forest regeneration on public lands in the Amazon, specifically within protected territories and undesignated public lands.

This executive summary by the Climate Policy Initiative argues that public lands in the Amazon, particularly protected territories and non-designated lands, provide a strategic opportunity for Brazil to implement large-scale reforestation through natural regeneration to meet climate goals without harming agricultural production.

This 2019 report by Sustainable Energy for All provides a status update on global cooling access, quantifying the populations at risk and introducing a needs-based assessment tool to guide policymakers and financiers toward sustainable cooling solutions consistent with the Paris Agreement and the Kigali Amendment.

This executive summary describes the PRINCE project, a three-year research initiative led by Statistics Sweden and commissioned by Naturvårdsverket and the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management. The project developed a hybrid modeling approach combining Swedish environmental-economic data with the EXIOBASE multiregional input-output (MRIO) model to estimate the environmental pressures associated with Swedish consumption both domestically and abroad. This framework was specifically designed to monitor Sweden's 'Generational Goal,' which aims to solve domestic environmental problems without increasing impacts outside Sweden's borders.

The Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) 2019 monitors the climate policy and emissions progress of 56 countries and the EU to inform the revision of Nationally Determined Contributions by 2020. It emphasizes the IPCC's finding that global emissions must drop by 45% by 2030 (compared to 2010) to limit warming to 1.5°C.

The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) wrote to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Minister Catherine McKenna on December 3, 2018, urging the Canadian government to enshrine climate accountability and transparency in law. CAPE argues that Canada has a history of missing greenhouse gas reduction targets and that the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change (PCF) requires binding legislative measures to ensure successive governments meet 2030 and 2050 targets.

Natural Justice submitted comments to the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) on November 27, 2018, challenging the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for a proposed salt works project by Al-Sherman Limited in Kilifi County. The submission argues that the EIA fails to adequately address risks to water sources, climate change impacts, local ecosystems, and community livelihoods, while also citing failures in the public participation process.

Natural Justice submitted comments to the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) on November 27, 2018, challenging the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for proposed salt works by Al-Sherman Limited in Marereni, Kilifi County. The organization argues that the EIA fails to adequately address risks to water sources, climate change impacts, local ecosystems, and community livelihoods, while also citing deficiencies in the public participation process.

A statement from the Life After Coal Campaign to the South African Minister of Finance outlining financial, legal, and environmental risks associated with two proposed coal-fired power stations under the Coal Baseload Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (CBIPPP).

The Centre for Environmental Rights (CER), representing Earthlife Africa and groundWork, issued a statement to the IPP Office of the Department of Energy on 16 November 2018. The letter seeks clarity on the status of the Thabametsi and Khanyisa coal-fired power stations, the preferred bidders under the Coal Baseload Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (CBIPPPP), specifically regarding their commercial and financial close deadlines and the signing of power purchase agreements (PPAs).

This fact sheet, based on interviews with EESI staff, examines the transition from diesel to battery-powered electric buses (BEBs), highlighting their environmental and health benefits, economic trade-offs, and the current state of deployment in the United States and globally.

A letter from global health professionals to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urging the re-evaluation of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion (TMX) due to inadequate health and climate risk assessments.

This case study describes a 45-day 'curb access' pilot conducted in spring 2018 by the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) and the Austin Transportation Department (ATD). The project repurposed four metered parking spaces into a contiguous loading zone at the corner of West 6th Street and Nueces Street in Austin to evaluate if such zones could improve safety and facilitate the use of ride-hailing services like Uber, Lyft, and RideAustin, thereby encouraging a shift away from personal vehicle ownership.

This policy brief by Friends of the Earth International argues that agroecology, rather than 'climate smart agriculture' (CSA), is the viable solution to combat hunger and climate change. It critiques the industrial agrifood system for its contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and corporate capture of policy, while promoting small-scale, diversified production as a means to increase climate resilience, reduce emissions, and strengthen food sovereignty.

The Centre for Environmental Rights (CER), on behalf of Earthlife Africa and groundWork, submitted comments on September 20, 2018, objecting to the Atmospheric Emission Licence (AEL) application for the proposed Thabametsi coal-fired power station. The CER argues that the project should be refused because it is located in an air quality priority area already in non-compliance with National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) and is predicted to cause further non-compliance, specifically regarding sulphur dioxide (SO2). The CER claims the Atmospheric Impact Report (AIR) is fatally flawed due to gross miscalculations of emissions, missing modelling data, and a failure to adequately assess cumulative and health impacts.

This research paper introduces a method for calculating and attributing maritime shipping emissions by linking shipping manifests with Automatic Identification System (AIS) data. Using 2014 Brazilian exports as a case study, the paper demonstrates that shipping emissions for these exports added 5% to Brazil's World Bank reported CO2 totals, with iron ores and soybeans being major contributors.