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The Green Climate Fund (GCF) establishes an initial investment framework consisting of investment policies, portfolio targets, and guidelines. The policy prioritizes projects with high potential for a paradigm shift toward low-carbon and climate-resilient sustainable development, utilizing a 'grant equivalent' method for accounting. Key portfolio targets include a 50/50 balance between mitigation and adaptation over time, with at least 50% of adaptation funding allocated to vulnerable countries, including Least Developed Countries, Small Island Developing States, and African countries. Project proposals are evaluated based on six criteria: potential impact, paradigm shift potential, sustainable development potential, needs of the recipient, country ownership, and efficiency and effectiveness.

The document evaluates how fiscal, budgetary, monetary, and trade policies in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic integrated or ignored natural capital in the Legal Amazon. It finds that the vast majority of economic stimulus measures had a negative impact on natural capital, with 87.2% categorized as 'high negative'. While some positive measures exist in bioeconomy and low-carbon agriculture, the report argues that nature was not central to economic decision-making and recommends a shift toward a 'green recovery' that values standing forests.

The Global Research and Action Network for a New Eco-Social Contract is a collaborative alliance of researchers, practitioners, and policymakers aimed at developing a new eco-social contract to address social and ecological challenges. Hosted by the Green Economy Coalition (GEC) and the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), the network seeks to define terms for a just transition to green economies and integrate various forms of justice, including climate, racial, and intergenerational justice. Membership is free and open to individuals and organizations from the public, private, and civil sectors who commit to collaborative action and the diffusion of knowledge for eco-social transformation.

This report by the Green Economy Coalition reviews the first ten years of the SEED Awards (2005-2015), an initiative founded by UNEP, UNDP, and IUCN to support social and environmental enterprises. It analyzes the survival and impact of 202 SEED Winners across 37 countries, highlighting the role of multi-stakeholder partnerships and tailored support in fostering green and inclusive growth at the grassroots level.

The document advocates for the adoption of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a 'shared language' to harmonise fragmented sustainability data across governments, businesses, and investors. It identifies three primary barriers to this alignment: the proliferation of disconnected datasets, tenuous links between data suppliers and users, and data inequalities affecting the poorest populations. To overcome these, the report proposes five principles: setting direction through benchmarking, connecting stakeholders, sharing open data, integrating goals into institutional DNA, and communicating progress through integrated reporting. The text highlights the systemic risk of ignoring these goals, using the 2011 Thailand floods as an example of how environmental shocks create global economic disruptions.

The report evaluates South Africa's sustainability transition, arguing that the green economy is often treated as a sector rather than an economy-wide transformation. It critiques the 2011 Green Economy Accord as a 'public relations exercise' due to a lack of enforcement and monitoring, while praising the Socio-Economic Impact Assessment System (SEIAS) for improving the inter-disciplinary nature of policymaking despite internal capacity constraints.

The document introduces 'metacoupling' as a research lens to understand the interdependence of social-ecological systems (SES) across local (intracoupling), adjacent (pericoupling), and distant (telecoupling) scales. By integrating an equity lens—focusing on distributional, procedural, and recognitional dimensions—the framework reveals how global flows of resources and capital influence local inequities. Case studies in South Africa and Namibia illustrate that international market demands and certification standards often marginalize small-scale producers and riverine communities, while power imbalances between local actors and multinational entities constrain equitable resource access.

The document highlights that 322 land and environmental defenders have been killed in Colombia over the last ten years, alongside numerous non-lethal attacks such as threats and criminalization. It argues that the ratification of the Escazú Agreement—the first regional treaty for Latin America and the Caribbean on human rights and the environment—is essential to mandate the prevention and investigation of attacks against defenders. While noting that countries like Mexico, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, and Argentina have already ratified the agreement, it points to the government of Gustavo Petro and initiatives like the 'Somos Defensores' program and its emergency plan as reasons for optimism in establishing a safe environment for environmental participation.

The document proposes a 'data and domain' approach to resilient urbanism, where measurable shared data and asset-based community participation intersect to drive inclusive public engagement. It details a methodology for community-led enumeration—collecting socio-economic and demographic data—and using that data to ground participatory co-design workshops. A case study of GreenCape's Alternative Service Delivery Unit (ASDU) in the Freedom Farm and Malawi Camp informal settlements in Cape Town demonstrates this process, resulting in the selection of a solar PV micro-utility solution tailored to the community's specific needs, affordability (maximum R150 monthly payment), and desire for portability.

The Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI) and the Brazilian Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (BPBES) have entered into a two-year Letter of Agreement to collaborate on global environmental change policies. The primary initiative is the integration of the BPBES Voluntary Young Researcher Program (VYRP) with the IAI Science, Technology and Policy (STeP) Fellowship program. Under this arrangement, BPBES will support up to four fellows every 12 months for two years, while IAI provides professional development training in leadership, communication, and science diplomacy for early-career researchers in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The report identifies critical gaps in the management of climate and biodiversity information in the Andean region, noting that data is often too technical, fragmented, or inaccessible for policymakers. It emphasizes the need to integrate traditional local knowledge with scientific data and proposes the implementation of National Environmental Information Systems to bridge the gap between long-term scientific research and immediate political needs. Using Colombia's SIAC as an example, the authors suggest that framing biodiversity conservation through the lens of ecosystem services and social stability is more effective for securing political support and sustainable development.

This conceptual note outlines a three-day workshop scheduled for August 6-8, 2025, in Brasilia, Brazil, focused on introducing scientific diplomacy to promote sustainable development and regional priorities in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) ahead of COP30.

The document argues for the expansion of IAI's capacity for science synthesis and integration to better inform policy, while maintaining a non-hierarchical, flexible management structure. It references founding agreements, external reviews by the AAAS and OECD, and a Strategic Plan to justify the need for enhanced communication with stakeholders and the development of metrics to evaluate scientific effectiveness. The paper specifically warns against adopting a highly hierarchical directorate model, citing it as contrary to the IAI's consultative nature and previous operational successes.

The briefing argues that the IAI must expand its capacity for scientific synthesis and integration to bridge the gap between research and policy. It emphasizes that a flexible, non-hierarchical organizational structure is essential for the IAI to effectively translate complex global change data into actionable information for regional decision-makers, while cautioning against the introduction of rigid hierarchical roles.

The document outlines the establishment and operational framework of the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI), a regional network designed to coordinate global change research across the Americas. It details a seven-theme science agenda, a distributed research architecture based on 'Research Consortia' and 'Research Centers', and a governance structure comprising a Conference of the Parties, an Executive Council, and a Scientific Advisory Committee. The report proposes a funding model split into Program, Project, and Core funds and provides a detailed agenda for the inaugural meeting of the Conference of the Parties to finalize the Institute's leadership and headquarters.

The document describes the framework for a special journal issue consisting of 8 to 12 solution-focused position papers. These papers are intended to translate scientific evidence into recommendations for action, following a specific template that links research problems to policy dimensions and propositions for action. The process involves a competitive call for extended abstracts, review by the SAC and SPAC, and a timeline of 1 to 1.5 years coinciding with the termination of CRN3.

The IAI's STeP Pilot Fellowship program aims to equip scientists and policymakers in Latin America and the Caribbean with skills in science diplomacy, communication, and leadership. The program focuses on creating a common language between scientific and policy communities through a two-year professional development curriculum and the establishment of an Inter-American network for knowledge exchange and multinational collaboration.

The IAI STeP Fellowship Pilot Program (2020-2024) provides a professional development framework for scientists and policymakers in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The program is structured around three training pillars: Science Diplomacy, Communication, and Leadership. It aims to equip fellows with the soft skills and transdisciplinary approaches necessary to inform policy on global change and sustainable development. The plan includes specific learning objectives, such as writing policy briefs and mastering science diplomacy, and establishes a networking strategy to foster multinational collaboration and create an alumni impact database.

The STeP fellowship is a two-year professional development program for early-career scientists and policymakers in the Americas. It focuses on three training pillars—Scientific Diplomacy, Communication, and Leadership—to bridge the gap between scientific knowledge and policy-making. The program fosters an Inter-American Network of fellows, mentors, and institutions to address global environmental change and sustainable development.

The report examines the role of South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) in fostering sustainable urban development and climate resilience in the Global South. It highlights the importance of the New Urban Agenda and the 2030 Agenda, arguing that traditional North-South cooperation is insufficient. Through various case studies from Africa, Asia, and Latin America, the document demonstrates how cities share knowledge on green transportation, water management, and urban planning. Key examples include Shenzhen's carbon trading, India's water resilience efforts, and Mexico City's green bonds. The report concludes that while cities are critical to the 'climate battle,' they often face institutional and financial barriers that SSTC can help overcome through peer-to-peer learning and innovative financing.