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The report finds that Australia's current climate policy framework, including the Clean Energy Future package and the Large-Scale Renewable Energy Target, enables the country to meet its international commitment to reduce emissions by 5-25 percent from 2000 levels by 2020. However, it identifies significant risks, including policy uncertainty stemming from political disagreement over the carbon-pricing mechanism and an over-reliance on purchasing international permits rather than achieving domestic reductions.

The analysis evaluates the economic rate of return (ERR) for solar photovoltaic, small hydropower, and wind energy across three Indian states, incorporating health, water, land, and climate impacts against a coal baseline. It finds that most assessed technologies justify public investment based on an 8 percent social discount rate, with the highest returns occurring in Maharashtra.

The document examines the U.S. commercial solar PV market, noting that while commercial real estate accounts for 36 percent of national electricity consumption, installations are heavily concentrated in only five states. It identifies economic and regulatory hurdles preventing wider adoption, noting that PV has not yet reached cost parity with traditional power generation without a carbon price. The paper proposes solutions such as regulatory reform and new financing mechanisms, offering 18 strategic recommendations to expand the market.

The document outlines a comparative analysis of the solar PV and wind industries in five major economies from 2001 to 2011. It investigates how different policy incentives across the value chain—including R&D, manufacturing, installation, and power generation—impacted installed capacity, job creation, and equipment prices. The research aims to identify successful strategies for balancing the dual goals of nurturing domestic manufacturing and providing low-cost energy to the public.

The report contends that bioenergy is an inefficient use of land that exacerbates a projected 70 percent 'food gap' between 2006 calorie availability and 2050 needs. It asserts that large-scale bioenergy targets are unrealistic, as meeting a 20 percent global energy demand target by 2050 would require doubling the world's annual plant harvest. The author argues that bioenergy's climate benefits are often overestimated due to 'double counting' carbon absorption that would occur regardless of energy use. In contrast, solar photovoltaics are presented as significantly more land-efficient, capable of generating over 100 times the usable energy per hectare. The document recommends phasing out subsidies and regulatory requirements for crop-based biofuels and instead prioritizing 'additional' biomass—such as timber processing wastes and landfill methane—for hard-to-abate sectors like aviation.

The document addresses the challenge of unreliable or absent electricity for approximately one billion people in low- and middle-income countries accessing healthcare. It advocates for decentralized renewable energy (DRE), specifically solar photovoltaic (PV) systems with batteries, as a clean and climate-resilient alternative to costly and polluting diesel generators. The text highlights the need for streamlined tools and processes to achieve sustainable, large-scale implementation of these systems and introduces a project lifecycle approach developed by WRI based on work in India and Africa.

The paper examines the global integration of the solar photovoltaic (PV) industry, focusing on the tension between the need for open global markets to lower costs and the desire for national policies to protect domestic green jobs. It argues that long-term government support, a price on carbon, and the removal of trade barriers are essential for accelerating deployment and innovation.

The document analyzes the relationship between national policy frameworks and the growth of solar PV and wind industries across five major economies. It contrasts the success of comprehensive, stable policies in Germany and China with the less effective, short-term 'patchwork' approach used in the United States. Data from 2005 and 2011 show that while China has achieved massive manufacturing capacity, Germany's stable legal framework has been a key driver for its industry, and the US lacks long-term national predictability due to incentives requiring frequent re-authorization.

The Green Power Market Development Group (GPMDG) India, a partnership between the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), works to increase renewable energy adoption in India's commercial and industrial sectors. By addressing policy and market barriers, the group facilitates procurement, shares best practices, and aggregates demand for technologies like solar PV. As of July 31, 2015, GPMDG supported 250 MW of renewable energy, including 110 MW facilitated by its Bangalore chapter in Karnataka during its first year of operations.

The report outlines strategies for U.S. companies to adopt on-site renewable energy, focusing on solar, wind, geothermal, and solar thermal technologies. It details various ownership and financing models—ranging from direct ownership to third-party power purchase agreements—and analyzes the associated financial incentives, operational risks, and corporate benefits such as cost hedging and brand enhancement.

The report outlines seven key transformations—infrastructure design, service provision, data collection, urban employment, financing, land management, and governance—to close the urban services divide. It assigns specific roles to city governments, national governments, civil society, the private sector, and the international community to ensure that urban growth is inclusive, climate-resilient, and sustainable.

The document outlines four types of solar metering arrangements designed to overcome the limitations of the traditional "one customer, one meter" model. Net metering provides benefits to a single customer via one meter. Virtual net metering (VNM) allows multiple customers with separate meters to share credits from a system, often in multi-tenant or municipal buildings, and is permitted in states including California, Colorado, and Massachusetts. Community solar enables joint ownership or sponsorship of systems for those unable to host arrays on-site, utilizing models such as utility-sponsored, special purpose entity, or non-profit "buy a brick" projects. Meter aggregation allows a single customer with multiple utility accounts to aggregate annual consumption across separate buildings, enabling the installation of larger systems and higher power sales back to the grid.

The document proposes a two-step emissions target mechanism—periodic evaluation and triggered policy changes—to ensure a U.S. carbon tax meets national GHG goals. It suggests four types of trigger responses: automatic tax rate adjustments, increased government spending for emissions reduction, activating 'back-stop' regulations, or streamlined legislative modification. Additionally, it identifies three categories of complementary policies to enhance cost-effectiveness: support for low-carbon innovation (RDD&D), consumer energy savings incentives, and policies targeting 'uncovered' emissions or non-climate co-benefits.

The document highlights that wind power purchase agreements (PPAs) are cheaper than new coal and natural gas plants across most U.S. regions, even without federal tax incentives. It provides specific examples of solar PV projects outcompeting fossil fuels in states like Utah, Colorado, and Georgia. To sustain these trends, the text recommends increasing federal R&D funding, reforming tax incentives to be refundable, and establishing long-term regulatory certainty through carbon pricing or greenhouse gas standards.

The Illustrative People’s Energy Plan (IPEP), coordinated by WWF South Africa and modelled by the University of Cape Town, proposes an 'Ideal Energy Scenario' for South Africa to reach net zero CO2 emissions by 2050. This scenario prioritises a rapid shift from fossil fuels to wind and solar PV, significant electrification of transport and industry, and expanded energy access for low-income households. The report argues that such a transition can nearly double employment by 2050 and maintain manageable costs through energy efficiency and localised clean energy manufacturing. It recommends that the government's official Integrated Energy Plan (IEP) be a transparent, living document that aligns fragmented policies and integrates social and environmental objectives as core planning outcomes.