Search Climate Insights Directory

Caribbean civil society representatives call for a just energy transition characterized by increased renewable energy affordability, infrastructure development, and workforce upskilling. They advocate for the reform of the international financial architecture to provide grants and loans suitable for small islands, the establishment of a Just Transition Fund, and the adoption of a Fossil Fuel Treaty to ensure a binding phase-out timeline and inclusive decision-making. The group urges the creation of a month-to-month Monitoring and Evaluation Mechanism to track the implementation of outcomes from the upcoming Santa Marta Conference.

The 12th Meeting of the San Giorgio Group (SGG12) focused on moving climate finance from ideas to large-scale delivery, emphasizing system coherence and country-level impact. The group highlighted that annual climate finance now exceeds USD 2 trillion, driven by renewable energy and transport electrification. Key priorities include reforming Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), scaling guarantees and catalytic equity, and addressing the high cost of capital in developing countries. The agenda also calls for 'radical localism' to center people in the climate narrative and suggests leveraging artificial intelligence and underutilized public financing institutions, such as export credit agencies, to accelerate the energy transition.

A survey of 930 registered U.S. voters reveals broad support for clean energy research and policies, such as soil restoration (88%) and carbon dioxide regulation (77%). While 58% prefer candidates who support climate action, significant political polarization remains regarding the priority of global warming for the president and Congress. Notably, 67% of voters believe global warming affects the U.S. cost of living, primarily impacting utility bills and groceries. The report also highlights a majority opposition (58%) to local data center construction due to concerns over electricity costs, and a general trust in climate scientists (71%) and primary care doctors (65%) as information sources.

The report examines how Africa is trapped in a cycle of debt and fossil fuel dependency, which disproportionately harms women and girls. It argues that the global financial architecture forces African nations into austerity and resource extraction, leading to 'petro-masculinity' and systemic gender-based violence. The authors advocate for a 'feminist decolonial green economy' and a Fossil Fuel Treaty to enable a just transition through debt cancellation and redistributive finance.

The report identifies a significant gap in climate finance reaching South African local governments, noting that less than 10% of international public climate finance flows directly to them. Municipalities face technical capacity limitations, low creditworthiness, and rigid donor requirements, which prevent them from leveraging private debt or concessional loans. While frameworks like the Climate Change Act (2024) and the National Green Finance Taxonomy (2022) provide a basis for engagement, the report argues that a lack of bankable projects and misalignment between national policies and local capabilities stall progress. It recommends structured capacity-building, improved tracking of climate finance flows, and the development of cost-reflective tariff structures to improve municipal creditworthiness and attract private investment.

The report details the findings of a two-part survey conducted between June and September 2025 with over 60 respondents from academia, government, and civil society. The results indicate a shift in priorities away from traditional investment protection and toward managing the negative impacts of investment and maximizing positive spillovers. While treaties are seen as useful for dispute settlement and international cooperation, national laws are overwhelmingly viewed as the most appropriate tool for addressing sustainable investment and investor accountability. The report also explores technical aspects of treaty reform, including the potential for treaties to scale up renewable energy and the preference for non-adjudicatory compliance mechanisms.

The report examines a diverse array of transition mechanisms, including Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs), national sectoral processes in countries like Germany and Chile, and first-mover alliances such as the Powering Past Coal Alliance. It highlights the necessity of national ownership, structured social dialogue, and blended finance to overcome political gridlock and ensure a just transition. The analysis reveals significant gaps in international support, particularly a shortfall in grants and concessional finance for Global South countries and a lack of coordinated global guidance for designing transition roadmaps.

The document highlights the risks posed by outdated and opaque investment contracts, such as stabilization clauses and tax incentives, which can limit a state's regulatory space and lead to costly international arbitration. It proposes a three-step national reform strategy: improving inter-ministerial coordination, centralizing and evaluating existing contracts, and developing standardized model contracts. It also calls for greater alignment between contract reform and broader regional and global efforts to modernize investment governance.

The report examines Colombia's electrical transmission sector in 2025, highlighting a structural lag in infrastructure that threatens the integration of renewable energy. It details the operational limits of the National Interconnected System (SIN), significant project execution delays, and the technical exhaustion of transport and short-circuit interruption capacities. The document also outlines the regulatory framework and the proposed 'Master Plan for Modernization and Expansion of Electrical Transmission Infrastructure' as a means to resolve these bottlenecks.

The Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) 2025 results report details the organization's progress in driving sustainable development through scientific research, capacity building, and policy engagement. Key achievements include the development of the 2025 Production Gap Report, the creation of the Integrated Guide for Business Greenhouse Gas and Air Pollutant Emission Assessment, and the support of Kazakhstan's NDC 3.0. SEI also highlights its 'One-SEI' programs, which foster cross-centre collaboration on themes such as sustainable transport, food systems, and finance. Organizationally, SEI reports a 52% reduction in air travel emissions per employee since 2017 and an increase in peer-reviewed journal outputs by 30% over 2024.

The Strait of Hormuz is a critical global energy chokepoint through which approximately 20% of the world's oil and LNG flows. Japan, South Korea, India, and China are the most exposed, collectively accounting for 75% of oil and 59% of LNG flows through the route. Japan is identified as the most at-risk country due to its extreme reliance on imported fossil fuels. A blockade could trigger global price surges, potentially pushing oil to USD 130 or even USD 300 per barrel. The document suggests that transitioning to renewables and electrification, as seen in Europe's response to the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, is essential to mitigate these geopolitical risks.

The document proposes tripartite contracts to address high electricity prices and market volatility in Europe, which currently hinder industrial decarbonisation. By placing a public contracting entity between clean energy generators and industrial consumers, these agreements aim to provide long-term revenue certainty for developers and fixed price certainty for industries. The brief highlights that while technologies for low- to medium-heat processes are ready, market gaps and electricity taxation remain barriers. It notes that the European Commission is developing such agreements for offshore wind, grids, and storage, drawing on practices from Spain, France, and Italy.

The Kenya Renewable Energy Policy Scan evaluates the gap between the country's ambitious climate targets—including 100% renewable electricity by 2030—and the actual industrial and social outcomes of its energy transition. While Kenya sources over 90% of its electricity from renewables, the scan identifies systemic failures in localisation, where components like solar PV and wind turbines remain import-dependent and local firms are limited to assembly. It further highlights gaps in the development of Medium Enterprises (MEs), persistent gender underrepresentation in technical roles, and the prevalence of precarious, casualised labour in energy projects despite strong legal frameworks. The report argues that without enforceable and integrated industrial and labour strategies, the transition risks reinforcing import dependency and social inequality.

The document argues that the UK government's decision on the Rosebank oil field is a critical test of climate leadership. It highlights public support for clean energy and a desire for strong leadership against polluting businesses, while noting a lingering sense of identity and pride tied to the fossil fuel industry. In Scotland, there is a specific demand for the Scottish Government's perspective to be incorporated into the decision-making process.

The document highlights the role of China's industrial parks as critical drivers of the energy transition, noting that they host 80 percent of industrial enterprises and consume about one-third of national energy. It discusses the emergence of zero-carbon industrial parks as a means to accelerate clean-energy deployment and industrial upgrading. Additionally, it notes China's expansion of sustainable industrial parks internationally, particularly in Asia and Africa, as a vehicle for international cooperation and the deployment of low-carbon technologies.

The document evaluates South Africa's energy transition, arguing that while legal frameworks for renewable investment are expanding, they fail to guarantee structural socio-economic transformation. It identifies critical gaps in industrial policy, where localisation remains fragile due to inconsistent enforcement and import reliance, and in labour policy, where renewable energy jobs are often short-term and lack stability. The report concludes that a just transition requires integrating energy reform with industrial strategy, municipal governance, and labour market policies to avoid 'low-carbon poverty'.

The Ghana Renewable Energy Policy Scan finds that while Ghana has comprehensive energy policies and ambitions for renewable energy deployment, there is a lack of coordination across sectors. Key gaps include the fragmentation of SMME policies, limited access to finance, and a failure to operationalise decent work and gender inclusion principles within renewable energy production networks.

The document examines the trend of ASEAN countries increasing LNG import infrastructure, with planned investments of USD 20.4 billion. It argues that LNG fails to provide true energy security due to its sensitivity to geopolitical shocks, such as the Russia-Ukraine war and tensions in the Middle East, and competition for supply with Europe. The author suggests that Southeast Asian nations should instead prioritize domestic renewable energy, leverage their own solar manufacturing capacity, and accelerate the ASEAN Power Grid to enhance resilience and reduce import dependency.

The framework examines the potential for renewable energy industrialisation to advance a just energy transition by focusing on localisation strategies and the link between economic and social upgrading. It employs a Global Production Networks (GPN) perspective, integrated with Marxist, feminist, and ecological political economy, to analyse value creation and power relations. To operationalise these theories, the project uses an assessment matrix to evaluate employment quality, ownership patterns, and capability development in local firms.

The case study argues that productive use of renewable electricity (PURE) requires more than infrastructure, necessitating trust, capacity development, and appropriate financing. In Guatemala, technical assistance and financing for agricultural and commercial equipment helped young women increase revenue by over 30%. In Zambia, a solar-powered agro-processing hub utilizing zero-cost lease agreements for milling entrepreneurs showed a 38% margin based on energy cost savings compared to diesel. These findings suggest that risk-sharing and technical support are essential for scaling productive loads, insights which are being applied to future initiatives in Haiti.