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Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Managament (EAFM) in Eastern Indonesia (Fisheries Management Area (FMA) – 715, 717 & 718)
The project aims to improve coastal fisheries in FMAs 715, 717, and 718 by implementing EAFM principles through four main components: establishing enabling policy and capacity, deploying management tools like MPAs and Fisheries Improvement Projects (FIPs), operationalizing the Blue Abadi Fund for sustainable financing in West Papua, and creating knowledge management platforms. The initiative targets the recovery of 39,329 tons of over-exploited fisheries and the improved management of 3.6 million hectares of marine protected areas (MPAs), while integrating gender equality and indigenous rights into its governance.
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Document type: Report
So You Want to Work in Sustainable Finance? RMI Provides Insight
The document outlines the growing demand for sustainable finance professionals to facilitate the transition to a sustainable economy. It identifies diverse career paths in the public sector (multilateral development banks, green banks), the private sector (consulting, financial institutions, clean tech), and NGOs (foundations, thought leadership organizations). It notes that while finance backgrounds are advantageous, the field welcomes professionals from law, policy, and management, and highlights recent initiatives like the Breakthrough Energy Coalition and the Catalytic Finance Initiative as evidence of the sector's growth.
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Document type: Guide
Using a sector development agency to mobilize a local green economy
The document details how GreenCape, a nonprofit sector development agency, acts as an independent bridge between the public and private sectors to drive green growth in South Africa's Western Cape. Established in 2010, it initially focused on renewable energy before expanding into energy efficiency, water, waste, and agriculture. The agency's success is attributed to its legal independence, strong government support, and a multidisciplinary approach to removing market barriers. Between 2010 and 2015, GreenCape facilitated ZAR 17 billion in renewable energy project investments and created over 2,000 associated jobs.
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Document type: Case study
THE NEW DEVELOPMENT BANK: MOVING THE BRICS FROM AN ACRONYM TO AN INSTITUTION
The New Development Bank (NDB) was established by the BRICS nations to address infrastructure funding deficits in emerging economies and to challenge the dominance of traditional international financial institutions. With an initial subscribed capital of $50 billion and a maximum authorised capital of $100 billion, the bank aims to provide a more equitable alternative to the World Bank and IMF. Initial lending, starting in the second quarter of 2016, is expected to focus on renewable energy projects, including wind, solar, and hydro power, while excluding nuclear energy. The NDB intends to distinguish itself through faster project approval cycles, lending in local currencies to mitigate exchange risks, and a commitment to avoid political conditions on its loans.
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Document type: Research paper
Living Amazon Report 2016
The Living Amazon Report 2016 provides a comprehensive overview of the Amazon biome, highlighting its immense biodiversity and critical role in global climate and hydrological regulation. It identifies primary threats including large-scale agriculture, cattle ranching, hydropower dams, and extractive industries, while advocating for a coordinated, biome-wide conservation approach. The report emphasizes the importance of protected areas and indigenous territories, which currently cover over 50% of the biome, and recommends strategies for enhancing climate resilience and securing water connectivity.
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Document type: Report
Making Sustainable Development the Key Focus of the BRICS New Development Bank
The paper argues that the New Development Bank (NDB) lacks a clear, shared definition of sustainable development and suggests that South Africa could lead the BRICS group in establishing a holistic framework. Drawing on stakeholder interviews and international best practices, the authors recommend that the NDB prioritize social and environmental safeguards, move away from coal and extractive industries, and establish formal dialogue mechanisms with civil society to ensure transparency and pro-poor outcomes.
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Document type: Research paper
Private Climate Finance Mechanisms for SMEs
The document argues that European SMEs are critical for the green transition but are hindered by a lack of technical capacity and a poor legislative framework for private-to-private finance. Based on GreenEcoNet case studies, it finds that while SMEs prefer private financing, they lack the skills to exploit the full range of available instruments. The authors recommend a participatory policy approach, including an investors-SMEs round table and the promotion of crowdfunding, to bridge these gaps.
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Document type: Policy brief
Roadmap for China: Green Bond Guidelines for the Next Stage of Market Growth
The document assesses the alignment of China's domestic green bond guidelines with international standards. It finds that while management of proceeds and reporting are fully aligned, further efforts are needed to harmonize green definitions, specifically regarding sector-specific criteria.
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Document type: Research paper
Sustainability Impacts of Chinese Outward Direct Investment: A review of the literature
The report analyzes 384 sources in English, Chinese, and Spanish to assess the sustainability impacts of Chinese outward direct investment. It identifies a tension between the positive contributions to infrastructure and economic growth and the negative impacts related to labor conditions, environmental degradation, and governance. The review highlights a 'learning curve' where Chinese firms and policymakers are increasingly adopting corporate social responsibility (CSR) and international standards, though a gap remains between policy and project-level implementation.
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Document type: Report
THE GREEN ECONOMY BAROMETER 2016
The Green Economy Barometer 2016 reports that while the transition to green economies is accelerating—marked by record investments in renewables and a maturing international policy architecture—it remains insufficient in depth and breadth. The report highlights a significant shift in investment toward developing countries and the emergence of ambitious national sectoral targets. However, it argues that structural reform is lacking, as most national plans ignore the informal economy and the needs of the poorest populations. The document concludes that the green economy remains politically fringe and requires a more inclusive narrative to achieve large-scale societal transformation.
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Document type: Report
REVIEWING THE SUSTAINABLE FINANCE LANDSCAPE
The document outlines a framework for sustainable finance based on five transaction elements: financier, principal, expenditure, agreement (source of capital), and agreement (use of capital). It identifies three primary barriers to capital flow—risk/return, information, and scale—and suggests that these can be addressed through both policy and non-policy strategies. Applying this framework to case studies, the report finds that residential solar in the U.S. is primarily hindered by consumer-side barriers and lack of standardization, whereas electric vehicle (EV) adoption is stymied by limited financier demand for infrastructure-appropriate financial instruments.
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Document type: Briefing
Três Ferramentas Para Destravar o Financiamento para Mitigação e Adaptação do Uso da Terra
The report argues that while land use generates about a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions and is highly vulnerable to climate change, current investments are predominantly 'business-as-usual'. It introduces three tools—a land-use finance landscape, a financial viability gap analysis, and a public finance mapping tool—to help governments identify funding gaps, assess the financial viability of green projects, and ensure policy coherence to unlock private and public investment in sustainable land management.
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Document type: Executive summary
CASE STUDY How the Union of Concerned Scientists Overcame the Divestment Challenge
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) successfully divested its approximately $32 million portfolio from fossil fuel companies over an 18-month period starting in late 2013. Despite using 'sustainability funds' and low-cost index funds, UCS discovered that fossil fuel producers were still embedded in its holdings. To resolve this, the organization partnered with Blackrock for a fossil-free fund and worked with Calvert Investments to create a custom low-cost product. UCS reports that it is now almost entirely divested, with less than 2 percent exposure remaining in emerging markets, demonstrating that midsize organizations can align their financial strategies with climate goals without compromising risk or return objectives.
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Document type: Case study
2015 Stockholm Summit on Natural Capital: 9 Use Cases and the Natural Capital Science-Technology Platform
The report details the application of natural capital science and software tools across various sectors to integrate ecosystem services into decision-making. Key examples include the Inter-American Development Bank's infrastructure planning in Latin America, China's massive reforestation and zoning efforts, and corporate sustainability initiatives by Dow, Unilever, and Coca-Cola. It highlights the role of the Natural Capital Project's open-source tools, such as InVEST and OPAL, in quantifying the trade-offs between economic development and the preservation of natural assets like watersheds and coastal habitats.
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Document type: Report
UNEP Financial Inquiry - Pathways to Scale
The UNEP Financial Inquiry argues that while global financial assets are abundant, investment flows are misaligned with sustainable development due to systemic failures and ineffective pricing. It identifies five key financial areas for alignment—banking, bonds, institutional investment, central banks, and systemic risk assessment—and proposes a performance framework based on effectiveness, efficiency, and resilience to measure the scaling of sustainable finance.
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Document type: Executive summary
China’s Low-Carbon Competitiveness and National Technical and Economic Zones
The report examines how China's industrial development zones (IDZs), which account for approximately 35% of total national emissions, are responding to a shift from growth-oriented policies to low-carbon mandates. It identifies a trend toward market-based instruments, such as the national cap-and-trade system, and highlights the role of eco-industrial park certifications in improving resource efficiency. Based on a survey of 230 firms, the document reveals significant gaps in GHG inventory management and policy awareness, particularly among small and medium-sized enterprises. It recommends streamlining administrative procedures, increasing transparency in carbon trading, and establishing a capacity-building platform called 'Low Carbon, 2030' to support the national goal of peaking emissions by 2030.
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Document type: Report
中国低碳竞争力与国家级经济技术开发区
The report identifies a shift in China's low-carbon policy landscape from rigid administrative commands to more flexible, market-based economic instruments. Based on an analysis of over 100 policies, it highlights the increasing importance of emissions trading systems, energy efficiency standards, and greenhouse gas auditing for industrial zones. It emphasizes that while national goals are set centrally, implementation is increasingly distributed, creating a complex regulatory environment for enterprises.
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Document type: Report
应用创新的政策和监管方式来鼓励投资政策 融合可持续发展因素
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.
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Document type: Report
Greening China’s Financial Markets
The report argues that China can leverage green bonds to meet its 12th Five-Year Plan environmental goals and reform its financial system. It proposes a roadmap including the definition of eligible green investments, the use of covered bonds to increase transparency for local government debt, and the creation of a Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) window for green bonds. The authors suggest that government support through tax incentives, first-loss provisions, and the use of state-owned enterprises for demonstration programs is essential to kick-start the market and attract both domestic retail and international institutional investors.
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Document type: Report
Using Innovative Policy and Regulatory Approaches to Incentivize the Alignment of Investment Strategies with Sustainability Considerations
The document argues that a gap exists between the capital required for a sustainable transition and actual private sector investment due to market and policy failures. It identifies 'short-termism' as a systemic bias in the investment industry that leads to the undervaluation of long-term sustainability risks and opportunities. To counter this, the report proposes a policy framework based on three elements: enabling open and competitive markets through fiscal incentives and transparency, addressing internal industry disincentives such as short-term remuneration structures, and providing transitional support through de-risking mechanisms and the alignment of public pension funds. It highlights various international case studies, including the UK's Green Investment Bank and the EU's Financial Transactions Tax, to illustrate how regulatory intervention can shift the risk-reward balance toward low-carbon investments.
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Document type: Report