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The document argues that tax incentives in the mining sector are often inefficient and ineffective because mineral resources are immobile, making them less responsive to fiscal lures than other investments. It details how specific incentives—such as temporary tax holidays, withholding tax relief, and cost-based incentives—can trigger 'behavioral responses' like high-grading (écrémage) and abusive transfer pricing, which further erode the tax base. The guide provides a step-by-step methodology for modeling the budgetary cost of these incentives and offers specific policy recommendations to protect national revenues, including the use of accelerated depreciation over tax holidays and the implementation of 'bracket' rather than 'class' progressive royalties.

The briefing examines the rise of agricultural growth poles, or agropoles, across Africa as a strategy to attract private investment and transition from subsistence to commercial agriculture. It identifies 36 growth poles and 9 corridors across 23 countries, covering at least 3.5 million hectares. While these tools aim to boost competitiveness and industrialization, the document highlights operational failures, such as delays in Morocco and Senegal, and risks like 'land grabbing' and the creation of economic dualism. It argues that for agropoles to be sustainable, they must be supported by robust national legal frameworks, avoid restrictive stabilization clauses, and follow a three-step development process: vision, design, and implementation, with a strong emphasis on community engagement and environmental impact assessments.

The policy brief examines the rise of agricultural growth poles in Africa, which are coordinated investments designed to shift the continent from subsistence to commercial agriculture. While these 'agropoles' aim to attract private investment and promote industrialization, the document highlights significant operational challenges, including poor coordination, financial mismanagement, and risks to small-scale farmers. It argues that for these initiatives to be sustainable, governments must implement robust legal frameworks, avoid stabilization provisions in contracts, and follow a three-stage development process consisting of vision, design, and implementation, with a strong emphasis on transparency and community engagement.

The document highlights 2016 as a pivotal year for green bonds, noting the emergence of sovereign green bonds in Poland and France and the increasing use of these instruments to fund Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). It argues that a green debt market of at least $1 trillion per year is necessary by 2020 to meet low-carbon infrastructure needs. Key policy tools identified include credit enhancement, tax incentives, and the establishment of official national guidelines, with specific examples of initiatives in China, India, Brazil, and Mexico.

The document outlines a roadmap for China to expand its green bond market by utilizing green securitisation, tax incentives, and credit enhancements. It argues that rapid growth in issuance and investment is necessary for green bonds to meaningfully contribute to China's climate finance and environmental investment requirements.

The document argues that China requires 2 trillion to 4 trillion RMB annually for its green transition, with the private sector expected to contribute 85% to 90% of this funding. It identifies two primary barriers to scaling green bonds: the small size of individual green projects, which fails to meet the minimum issuance requirements of institutional investors (typically 100 million to 200 million USD), and the low credit ratings of non-state enterprises and green assets. To address these, the report proposes using green asset-backed securitisation (ABS) to aggregate small projects and decouple asset risk from the issuer's balance sheet. It further recommends standardising green loan contracts, establishing financial warehousing systems, implementing tax incentives to lower financing costs, and utilizing public credit enhancements such as guarantees and insurance to attract institutional capital.

China requires an annual investment of RMB 2-4 trillion (USD 320-640 billion) to address environmental and climate issues, with the private sector expected to provide 85% to 90% of this capital. While green bonds are a key vehicle for this, the market faces hurdles including the small scale of individual green projects and low credit ratings for non-state-owned corporate issuers. The report proposes green securitisation as a primary aggregation tool to bundle small assets into larger, investable securities and to detach project risk from the issuer's balance sheet. It further recommends the development of standardised green loan contracts and the establishment of financial warehouses to support this process. Additionally, the paper advocates for tax incentives to reduce funding costs and public credit enhancements, such as guarantees and subordinated debt, to improve the risk-return profile of green bonds for institutional investors.

The document examines India's Accelerated Depreciation (AD) scheme, which served as a primary driver for wind capacity growth from 1994 until its withdrawal in 2012 and subsequent reinstatement in 2014. While the AD benefit successfully attracted private investment from corporations and high-net-worth individuals, it was criticized for incentivizing capacity additions over actual power generation and excluding large independent power producers and foreign investors. The report contrasts this with the Generation-Based Incentive (GBI) and the US experience with Production Tax Credits, concluding that future policies must link incentives to performance and improve grid infrastructure to ensure sustainable industry growth.

The report argues that China's transition to a low-carbon economy requires significant funding, estimated at RMB2 trillion annually, which can be partially met by growing a green bonds market. It recommends establishing a 'Green Bond Market Development Committee' to create China-specific green definitions based on the CBRC's Green Credit Reporting Instruction and a government-approved supervisory entity for third-party verification. Policy recommendations include providing corporate tax credits for interest on green bonds, establishing partial credit guarantees for green municipal and PPP project bonds, and expanding R-QFII and QFII quotas specifically for green investments. The report emphasizes that green bonds should be earmarked for specific projects rather than entity-level credentials to maximize market scale and transparency.

The South African energy efficiency market is driven by constrained electricity supply, rising tariffs, and government targets, such as the National Energy Efficiency Strategy (NEES) 2005 goal of reducing primary energy consumption by 12% by 2015. The market is served by consultants, technology suppliers, and Energy Service Companies (ESCos), with the latter's market estimated by the IDC to potentially reach R8 billion per annum by 2022. In the Western Cape, the market is projected to reach R1.3 billion by 2019, supporting approximately 1,000 jobs. Key challenges include accessing funding, though various tax incentives (e.g., S12I, S12L) and grants are available. The regulatory landscape is complex, involving multiple departments and standards (SANS) to mandate efficiency in buildings and appliances.

The paper argues that while FDI is beneficial for growth, the tendency of transnational companies to prioritize short-term shareholder dividends over long-term reinvestment (Brownfield investments) exacerbates current account deficits in middle-income countries. In South Africa, this is particularly acute because large investment income outflows are not offset by a trade surplus, unlike in some other BRIC nations. The author recommends shifting policy toward attracting 'quality' FDI that is labour-absorbing and export-oriented, utilizing corporate-level incentives to encourage the reinvestment of profits into the domestic economy.

The document argues that the transition to a low-carbon economy requires massive annual investments—estimated at $1 trillion to $1.3 trillion—that must come primarily from the private sector's $75 trillion in institutional assets. It identifies a gap between the high capital expenditure needs of climate-resilient infrastructure and the risk appetite of bond investors, who demand large-scale, investment-grade deals. To bridge this, the author proposes aggregating small projects into larger offerings, using public sector risk-sharing (such as guarantees and regulatory support), and establishing standardized screening tools like the Climate Bonds Standards. The plan also calls for 'greening' development banks, providing tax incentives, and creating a 'green growth' economic narrative to overcome political inertia and the influence of the fossil fuel lobby.

The report evaluates the design of proposed tax incentives for residential thermal retrofits in Germany, focusing on whether to support single or comprehensive measures, the appropriateness of the KfW 85 standard, the optimal timeframe for project completion, and the risks associated with stepwise implementation. Based on a survey of 78 practitioners, the document argues that comprehensive retrofits are superior for energy savings and comfort, and that a 10-year flexibility period for completion is unnecessary. It also highlights the critical importance of a specific sequence of measures to avoid structural damage and cost increases.

The report examines the gap between Germany's thermal retrofit targets and current progress, identifying that the retrofit rate for residential outer walls is approximately 0.8% per year against a 2% target. It argues that deep retrofits are most economically viable when integrated into general building renovations. The analysis breaks down the homeowner decision process into three stages—encouraging interest, planning/deciding, and implementation—and maps corresponding policy instruments including information tools, KfW financial incentives, and contractor certification.

The report analyzes the gap between Germany's current building renovation rates and its goal to reduce primary energy demand by 80% by 2050. Based on a survey of 2,000 households, it identifies barriers across three phases of the renovation process: initial awareness, planning and decision-making, and technical implementation. It argues that while financial incentives from the KfW and tax benefits are crucial, they must be coupled with better information tools, such as detailed heating bills, and improved professional certification for craftsmen to ensure high-quality, comprehensive renovations rather than isolated single measures.

The document examines South Africa's industrial development zones (IDZs), established in 2000, and argues that current incentives are insufficient to attract necessary foreign investment. By comparing South African IDZs with special trade zones in the EU, US, Mercosur, India, and China, the author identifies gaps in regulatory, financial, and fiscal incentives. The paper recommends that the South African government introduce specific IDZ incentives, such as easing labour-market requirements and providing infrastructure and wage subsidies, while expanding the scope of these zones to include trade-related service industries.

This working paper by the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) establishes a framework for diagnosing policy effectiveness by analyzing the link between policy, finance, and outcomes. It argues that policies impact the investment environment by altering the allocation of costs, revenues, and risks, which subsequently affects the types of investors attracted to projects. The paper details the specific requirements and risk tolerances of different investor classes—including debt, equity, mezzanine, and venture capital—and explains how these dynamics shift across the development, construction, and operation stages of a project. CPI intends to use this framework for future case studies to test hypotheses on financial structures and contractual risk allocation.

The briefing assesses tax incentives for energy-efficient building renovations in Germany, noting that while such incentives are popular, they often fail to trigger comprehensive renovations compared to KfW programs. It highlights that higher support levels and the requirement of certified experts—features of the KfW model—are more effective at promoting deep renovations and reducing deadweight effects.

The document introduces a project by the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) to analyze the impact of government policy on the development and cost reduction of solar photovoltaic (PV) technology. It identifies cost as the primary obstacle to PV's technical potential and proposes a four-step evaluation framework—linking objectives, activities, drivers, and policies—to assess policy effectiveness across the PV value chain. The briefing highlights key policy questions regarding the use of targeted versus broad-based tools, the interaction between local and national policies, and the role of capital markets in financing deployment.

The report identifies three primary upstream producer subsidies in Indonesia with a combined estimated value of US$ 1.799 billion in 2008. The largest is the Oil Domestic Market Obligation (DMO), which provides a US$ 1.554 billion subsidy to Pertamina's refineries by requiring producers to sell crude oil at discounted prices. Other quantified subsidies include tax incentives for imported goods and services (US$ 130 million) and an investment credit allowance (US$ 115 million). While these incentives are noted to support the government's goal of increasing exploration in new geological plays, the report highlights a steady decline in national oil production and discovery of new reserves since 1996. The study also identifies several potential subsidies requiring further research, such as preferential access to forested areas and expired Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs).