Search Climate Insights Directory

The voluntary carbon market, valued at $2 billion in 2021, faces significant challenges regarding trust and scarcity relative to global climate needs. RMI proposes three solutions to scale high-quality credits: reducing project development time and costs through upfront capital and technology, differentiating the credit supply via ratings and quality standards, and establishing a transparent data platform to ensure integrity.

The document identifies key governance challenges for cities implementing circular economy (CE) models, such as administrative silos, lack of holistic visions, and insufficient data for monitoring. It proposes four strategic pillars for urban policymakers: creating shared visions with inclusive strategies, establishing supportive regulatory and financial instruments (particularly circular public procurement), facilitating multi-level collaboration, and utilizing Urban Living Labs to scale innovations from local pilots to city-wide implementation.

The document argues that the traditional separation of nature and culture limits how landscapes are managed and monitored, hindering the achievement of global biodiversity and well-being targets. It advocates for a multifunctional approach to reconcile social equity with environmental goals and improve adaptation to climate change.

The briefing argues that nature-based solutions (NbS) are often framed as apolitical, leading to the neglect of social equity and justice. It proposes five core principles: ensuring inclusive and transparent processes, tackling root causes of marginalization, limiting the unjust redistribution of risks and costs, prioritizing at-risk communities, and using valuation tools that assess social and political change. These principles are illustrated through a case study in Kaptembwa, Nakuru, Kenya, where participatory planning is used to address flooding and lack of green space in a semi-informal settlement.

The document proposes 'multifunctionality'—the simultaneous provision of multiple functions across natural and human traits—as a systemic approach to climate adaptation. It identifies roadblocks in current nature-based solutions (NbS), such as a lack of awareness regarding power relations, insufficient data on co-benefits and costs, and financing gaps. The authors advocate for 'hybrid solutions' that combine green, blue, and grey infrastructure and outline four leverage realms for action: defining beneficiaries, designing for interoperability, monitoring across scales, and governing for connectivity and justice.

The 'Closing the Loop on Textile Waste in Kenya' partnership, led by Enviu, PurFi, and Upset Sourcing East Africa, utilizes a chemical recycling technology to process textile waste into high-quality materials for new manufacturing. The initiative has sold 100,000 kg of textile cotton waste and employs a sorting team of women processing 36,000 kg per month. By collaborating with Kenya's Export Processing Zone Authority (EPZA), the partnership aims to integrate circular waste-to-value solutions into the country's expanding textile industry to reduce environmental pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

The report outlines systemic barriers to gridless services, emphasizing that failures often stem from a lack of understanding of user needs, regulatory gaps, and financial instability rather than technical performance.

The document analyzes how socio-economic vulnerabilities—including gender, age, disability, and minority status—increase the risk and impact of climate-related hazards in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It highlights that disadvantaged groups are more likely to live in hazard-prone areas and lack the resources to adapt. The brief argues for inclusive policymaking and warns that both adaptation and mitigation strategies can lead to 'maladaptation' or detrimental socio-economic effects if not carefully designed to protect the most vulnerable populations.

The report analyzes how multidimensional inequality and poverty in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) intersect with environmental risks and policy. It finds that marginalized groups—including Roma communities, women, the elderly, and persons with disabilities—face disproportionate exposure to pollution and hazards, while social norms limit their access to natural resources. The document argues that environmental policies can either exacerbate these inequalities (e.g., through energy taxes) or mitigate them (e.g., through energy efficiency in social housing). It recommends collecting disaggregated data, increasing the representation of disadvantaged groups in decision-making, and implementing gender-responsive budgeting to ensure a more inclusive and effective environmental strategy.

The document argues that smart city developments often prioritize technology and business interests, risking the exclusion of marginalized groups, the urban poor, and women. It proposes a participatory approach to urban planning that utilizes stakeholder mapping, gender-sensitive data collection, and social equity impact assessments to ensure that digital and infrastructural transformations do not exacerbate existing social inequalities or displace vulnerable populations.

The document examines how socio-economic factors and gender norms in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) create disproportionate exposure to chemical and noise pollution. It highlights that while men are more exposed in heavy industry, women face higher risks in healthcare, cleaning, and agriculture. It notes a critical lack of official data on environmental health in BiH and recommends gender-sensitive risk assessments, poverty reduction, and targeted awareness campaigns to protect marginalized groups, including Roma communities.

The document examines waste management in Bosnia and Herzegovina through the lens of social equity, highlighting that while collection coverage has expanded, rural areas and Roma communities remain underserved. It identifies a strong reliance of Roma populations on informal waste collection for income and notes that the formal waste sector is heavily male-dominated. The brief argues for the integration of informal collectors into formal systems and the use of gender-based quotas and targeted training to diversify the workforce.

The document argues that young people (aged 10-24) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are disproportionately affected by climate change but face structural barriers and tokenism that hinder their participation in decision-making. It proposes a research framework based on social context, substance, procedure, power, and agency to analyse youth engagement in Ethiopia, Kenya, Senegal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

The document introduces a series of briefs examining nature-based solutions (NbS), arguing that while NbS offer alternatives to fossil fuel-based infrastructure and provide climate and biodiversity benefits, there is a lack of critical reflection on their social and economic sustainability. The series aims to address how NbS can be implemented without reinforcing existing inequalities or creating 'winners and losers'.

The paper examines seven urban sustainability interventions in small and intermediary cities of the global South, focusing on disaster risk reduction, adaptation, emission reduction, and resource management. Using a framework to analyze actors and drivers, the study finds that the entities leading and financing projects significantly influence the inclusivity of the process and the resulting environmental framing. The analysis includes primary case studies from Nakuru, Kenya, and Udon Thani, Thailand.

The report advocates for Indonesia to reform its LPG subsidies, which currently drain the national budget and disproportionately benefit wealthier citizens. It suggests that crises, such as COVID-19, can serve as opportunities for reform rather than reasons for delay. The document recommends shifting subsidies toward the poor, implementing robust data collection for beneficiaries, executing a public endorsement plan, and leveraging low oil prices to mitigate economic shocks.

The document analyzes how socio-economic disadvantages drive air pollution and increase vulnerability to its health impacts in Bosnia and Herzegovina, highlighting the specific risks faced by women, the elderly, and Roma communities.

The Stockholm Environment Institute's Water Beyond Boundaries (WBB) initiative aims to evolve water planning beyond the traditional Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) framework, which the authors argue has not yet yielded sustainable outcomes. WBB focuses on three pillars: analyzing water connections beyond the immediate watershed, integrating ecosystem needs throughout the planning process, and employing multi-scale participatory approaches to address inequalities related to gender, poverty, and marginalized groups. The initiative is being piloted in the Magdalena River Basin in Colombia and the Mekong region in South East Asia, while drawing on previous work in California, USA.

The document argues that the transition to low-carbon energy systems does not inherently improve social fairness or inclusivity. It finds that renewable energy projects often fail to address structural inequalities and power asymmetries regarding resource distribution, meaning that without early intervention, existing socio-cultural and socio-economic inequalities are likely to be replicated in new energy regimes.

The document examines the intersection of gender and social equity within Indonesia's energy transition, specifically through case studies in West Sumatra. It argues that without a gender-sensitive approach to decision-making, renewable energy projects risk entrenching existing inequalities and excluding women from the workforce and leadership roles.