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The authors advocate for five-year cycles of climate commitments over ten-year cycles to better align with scientific data and the rapid pace of technological innovation. They argue that current intended national climate commitments are insufficient, potentially leading to warming of 3 to 3.5°C, and that shorter cycles provide the predictability necessary for business investment in a low-carbon economy.

We Mean Business welcomes the call for carbon pricing from CEOs of BG, BP, ENI, Royal Dutch Shell, Statoil, and Total, but argues that real leadership requires specific investment commitments and transparency.

The document analyzes China's GPP framework, highlighting the reliance on product lists (ECP and ELP) and the challenges posed by fragmented legal frameworks and administrative overlaps. It proposes a shift toward performance-based specifications and introduces a quantification model to demonstrate the potential benefits of expanding GPP beyond goods to include services and infrastructure.

The report examines China's green public procurement (GPP) landscape, highlighting a reliance on two product lists: the mandatory Energy Conservation Product (ECP) list and the voluntary Environment Labeling Product (ELP) list. It identifies significant barriers to effectiveness, including a fragmented legal framework split between the Bidding Law and the Government Procurement Law, a lack of life-cycle cost assessments, and corruption. The authors argue for a transition toward performance-based specifications and the expansion of GPP to include services and construction projects. To support this, the report introduces the 'China Green Public Procurement model,' a system dynamics tool designed to monetize and quantify the trade-offs and multiplier benefits of more ambitious GPP policies across various product categories.

The report argues that China's transition to a low-carbon economy requires significant funding, estimated at RMB2 trillion annually, which can be partially met by growing a green bonds market. It recommends establishing a 'Green Bond Market Development Committee' to create China-specific green definitions based on the CBRC's Green Credit Reporting Instruction and a government-approved supervisory entity for third-party verification. Policy recommendations include providing corporate tax credits for interest on green bonds, establishing partial credit guarantees for green municipal and PPP project bonds, and expanding R-QFII and QFII quotas specifically for green investments. The report emphasizes that green bonds should be earmarked for specific projects rather than entity-level credentials to maximize market scale and transparency.

The Geneva Pledge, signed by 19 nations in February 2015, commits governments to foster collaboration between their human rights and climate change experts. The signatories acknowledge that climate change disproportionately affects vulnerable populations and pledge to ensure that the transition to a low-carbon economy respects human rights and ensures no one is left behind.

The World Resources Institute (WRI) responds to the 2015 State of the Union address by endorsing President Obama's science-based approach to climate change. WRI highlights the administration's recent achievements, including a joint emissions commitment with China and a $3 billion pledge to the Green Climate Fund, while urging a continued focus on ambitious power plant standards and renewable energy to drive economic growth and global cooperation.

The report argues that Brazil's current energy-related emission trajectory is unsustainable and likely to exceed estimated fair carbon budgets between 2024 and 2035. It identifies significant opportunities for decarbonization in the transport, industry, and electricity generation sectors, suggesting that a transition to a low-carbon economy can be achieved with low or negative economic costs while improving public health and competitiveness.

The WWF Nedbank Green Trust funds catalytic environmental projects in South Africa, offering up to R 3 million over three years for solutions that can scale to national impact. The Trust focuses on seven key areas: freshwater, marine, species of special concern, environmental leadership, outstanding places (Fynbos, Succulent Karoo, Grasslands, Maputaland Pondoland), community empowerment, and climate change. Applications are screened for innovation, transferability, and alignment with WWF-SA's strategic goals, with a strong preference for projects developed in partnership with WWF SA programme managers.

We Mean Business calls for direct engagement between government ministers and business leaders at COP in Lima to align on a high-ambition climate pathway. The statement argues that bold climate action is an economic opportunity, citing significant growth in clean energy investments and job creation. It proposes three areas for cooperation: committing to a long-term decarbonization pathway to reduce uncertainty, scaling up public and private climate finance, and collaborating on short-term ambition to close the emissions gap by 2020.

The We Mean Business Coalition calls on G20 leaders to move beyond rhetoric and commit to specific policy actions to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions and hold global temperatures below 2 °C. The coalition advocates for the elimination of high-carbon energy subsidies, the enactment of carbon pricing, and the scale-up of low carbon energy and public finance. It further encourages the G20 to integrate findings on climate-compatible infrastructure investment into the establishment of a global infrastructure hub, asserting that climate action is compatible with economic growth.

The World Resources Institute (WRI) welcomes the 2014 climate pledges from the U.S. and China, noting that the U.S. target of cutting emissions 26-28% below 2005 levels by 2025 and China's goal to peak emissions around 2030 provide critical momentum for the Paris agreement. While praising the cooperation, WRI emphasizes that China's emissions should peak before 2030 to mitigate severe climate impacts and urges both nations to exceed their initial targets to leverage low-carbon economic opportunities.

The document argues that the world must move beyond incremental change to a systemic low-carbon transformation. It identifies commercially available technologies in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and land-use practices that can be scaled immediately. It emphasizes the need for carbon pricing, the elimination of fossil fuel subsidies, and a rapid phase-out of unabated coal to avoid catastrophic climate feedbacks and high future mitigation costs.

The workshop focused on leveraging international funds like the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and Climate Investment Funds (CIFs) to drive low-carbon investment in Brazil. Key discussions highlighted that a lack of long-term governmental strategic vision and internal organizational cultures in banks act as barriers to green investment. The event presented innovative financial instruments and case studies from Colombia and Mexico to demonstrate how blending concessional finance with private resources and risk mitigation tools can unlock climate-relevant investments.

The document outlines CPI's approach to defining climate finance, distinguishing between project-level costs and revenues and broader whole-economy expenditures. It defines climate finance as the sum of total investment costs and public framework expenditures, explicitly excluding revenue support to avoid double counting. The brief also identifies three primary entry points for public intervention to close 'viability gaps'—the difference between total project costs and generated revenues—which include increasing revenues, reducing project costs, and improving the overall investment climate through framework expenditures.

The document outlines the financial requirements for Kenya's transition to a low-carbon economy, estimating that Ksh 1,085 billion is needed for the 2013-2017 National Climate Change Action Plan. It identifies key barriers to private investment, such as arduous project development processes, and suggests improvements including the implementation of the draft Climate Change Bill 2014. While Kenya has a strong track record in renewable energy investment and voluntary carbon markets, the briefing warns that compliance carbon markets are currently limited by oversupply and lack of access to the EU-ETS. It lists several domestic and international funding mechanisms available to Kenyan businesses for clean technology and energy efficiency.

The World Resources Institute outlines six key functions for the 2015 international climate agreement: providing a strong signal for decarbonization, connecting climate goals to national economic priorities, ensuring transparency and accountability, accelerating low-carbon investment, ensuring fairness through equity indicators, and supporting resilience and adaptation for vulnerable populations.

The report argues that climate policy is often contested because it creates winners and losers, necessitating a strategic communication and policy plan. The proposed five-point plan includes: simplifying the narrative through relatable examples and imagery; creating a positive message focused on the transformational benefits of a low-carbon transition; designing policy packages that compensate 'losers' (such as through payments for ecosystem services); building broad, long-term political consensus to avoid policy reversals; and maintaining a relentless focus on implementation. The author emphasizes 'climate compatible development,' where mitigation, adaptation, and development goals are integrated to ensure climate action does not hinder poverty eradication.

The document examines Europe's position within a global 'leading group' of countries advancing energy efficiency, renewable energy, and carbon pricing. It argues that staying in this group is essential for Europe to attract investment, drive innovation, and reduce dependence on energy imports. The authors contend that energy prices are not the primary driver of global competitiveness for most industries, as 92% of German manufacturing spends less than 1.6% of revenue on energy. For the small minority of energy-intensive sectors, the report asserts that price differentials are primarily caused by natural resource endowments rather than climate policies, and that existing 'Carbon Leakage' protections in the EU ETS mitigate competitive risks. The report concludes that a coordinated European low-carbon strategy can create net-employment gains and maintain international credibility in climate negotiations.

The report argues that the current investment industry is decoupled from the needs of a sustainable, low-carbon economy due to systemic 'short-termism', a lack of ESG integration in mainstream strategies, and an inability to price sustainability risks. It proposes a multi-pronged policy approach: creating open markets with clear carbon pricing, reforming executive compensation to reward long-term performance, increasing corporate transparency through mandatory ESG reporting, and providing transitional support via green investment banks and innovative financing tools. The document highlights international examples, such as the UK's Green Investment Bank and Norway's Government Pension Fund, to demonstrate how policy can mobilize private capital for sustainable development.