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In 2025, global coal capacity increased by 3.5% while coal-generated electricity decreased by 0.6%, reflecting a shift where coal serves as backup capacity rather than a primary source. This trend is most prominent in China and India, where record capacity additions coexist with falling production due to the rise of renewables. While the number of countries planning new coal projects fell to 32 in 2025, some nations like the US and EU delayed plant closures for energy security. In Turkey, planned coal capacity has plummeted from 57.5 GW in 2015 to 0.7 GW by 2025, though tensions remain between social demand for transition and government policies such as guaranteed purchase mechanisms for coal plants through 2030.

In 2025, global coal capacity increased by 3.5% while generation fell by 0.6%, driven largely by record additions in China and India. These countries are building coal plants for system reliability and energy security, even as renewables displace coal's role in meeting demand. The report notes a geographic narrowing of coal expansion, with only 32 countries proposing or building new plants, and highlights the specific challenges facing Ukraine's energy recovery following Russian attacks on its infrastructure.

The report examines the mismatch between India's diplomatic rhetoric and its actual economic and institutional footprint in Africa. While India possesses comparative advantages rooted in historical ties, shared post-colonial values, and expertise in digital public infrastructure and pharmaceuticals, it lags behind rivals like China in trade, investment, and credit provision. The author identifies fiscal constraints, bureaucratic inefficiency, and reputational risks as primary barriers and recommends a coordinated 'multi-actor Africa policy' focused on high-impact sectors and strategic partnerships with anchor states including South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, and Egypt.

The report examines the African Union's (AU) efforts to create a coherent foreign policy framework to navigate a fragmented international order, while highlighting the need for deeper economic integration similar to the EU. It details the evolving threat of Boko Haram and ISWAP in the Lake Chad Basin and the emerging extremist hub in the Borgu-Kainji axis. Additionally, it argues for a youth-focused approach to combat transnational organized crime, citing the rise of cybercrime and drug trafficking in West Africa. Finally, it outlines Burundi's priorities as AU chair, emphasizing water security, youth empowerment, and the urgent need for internal financial autonomy to ensure political sovereignty.

The report outlines a comprehensive approach to building climate-resilient education systems by integrating them into the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) process. It emphasizes three core components: resilient infrastructure, school safety and educational continuity, and climate-responsive teaching and learning. The document provides a step-by-step guide for NAP teams, covering enabling factors, impact, vulnerability, and risk assessments (IVRA), adaptation planning, implementation, and monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) systems, while advocating for a child-centered and inclusive lens to protect the rights of the most vulnerable students.

The document argues that major private credit rating agencies (CRAs) employ subjective, biased, and procyclical methodologies that unfairly inflate the risk premiums for African nations. This 'credit rating impasse' increases the cost of capital, hinders debt restructuring, and obstructs the deployment of climate finance. To counter this, the author supports the African Union's endorsement of the Africa Credit Rating Agency (AfCRA) to be based in Mauritius. The brief recommends that African nations improve data transparency, build debt management capacity through partnerships with the IMF and AfDB, and implement legislative oversight via debt sustainability laws to improve their macroeconomic fundamentals and challenge inaccurate ratings.

In 2025, global coal capacity increased by 3.5% while production fell by 0.6%, as coal is increasingly used as 'system insurance' rather than a primary energy source. While the number of countries pursuing new coal projects dropped to 32, China and India continue massive expansions. In Indonesia, the growth of captive coal plants for nickel and aluminium processing contradicts national climate commitments, with the RUPTL 2025-2034 continuing to plan for on-grid coal investment despite a formal moratorium.

A coalition of ecumenical, interfaith, and eco-spiritual organizations from the Global South calls for a Fossil Fuel Treaty to address the climate crisis. The coalition argues that the burning of coal, oil, and gas is the primary driver of climate change and demands an immediate end to new fossil fuel projects, the cancellation of debts for the Global South, and a transition centered on social justice and the rights of indigenous peoples and affected communities.

The report argues that Zambia can leverage its position as a top copper producer to drive economic transformation through value addition in processing and manufacturing. It identifies reliable electricity, expanded smelting and refining, and improved trade corridors as critical priorities to mitigate the risks of mining dependency and capitalize on projected global supply shortfalls through the mid-2030s.

While India has established technical standards and initial commercial production for Limestone Calcined Clay Cement (LC3), which can reduce emissions by up to 40%, widespread adoption is hindered by a lack of standardized concrete mix designs, inconsistent supply chains, and the absence of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). The document argues that scaling requires a regional strategy to compete with other supplementary cementitious materials, the identification of low-risk 'first-use segments' like non-structural elements, and demand aggregation to stabilize supply.

In 2025, global electricity generation reached a historic milestone as renewables overtook coal power for the first time in 100 years, accounting for 33.8% of the global mix. This shift was driven by a record increase in solar power generation (636 TWh), which alone met 75% of the global electricity demand growth. Consequently, global fossil generation saw a slight decline of 38 TWh, marking the first such decrease since 2020 outside of a global recession or exceptionally mild year. This trend was most prominent in China and India, where fossil generation fell for the first time simultaneously in the 21st century. While Asia remains the only region where coal still exceeds renewables, the global emissions intensity of electricity fell to 458 gCO2e per kilowatt hour in 2025.

The document analyzes the stagnation of African agricultural productivity, attributing it to historical factors like slavery, colonialism, and a lack of tenure reform. It contrasts a 'Current Path' forecast—characterized by increasing food import dependence and low yields—with an 'Agriculture scenario' where targeted interventions in AgTech, irrigation, and soil health lead to significant poverty reduction and GDP growth. The report emphasizes the need for food self-sufficiency and value addition within Africa over a reliance on raw commodity exports.

The report concludes that Africa's path to economic development lies in transitioning from a reliance on global export markets to a focus on domestic food self-sufficiency. It emphasizes the need for coordinated government support for smallholder farmers, investment in AgTech, and the adoption of sustainable, indigenous farming practices to mitigate the severe impacts of climate change, particularly in the Sahel region.

The report details systemic gender discrimination in African households, highlighting the prevalence of child marriage, the disproportionate burden of unpaid care work on women, and legal and cultural barriers to equal divorce and inheritance rights.

The document outlines the persistent gender gap in Africa despite a comprehensive framework of international and regional policies. It highlights the economic costs of gender inequality and establishes the basis for forecasting the impact of reducing these gaps on the continent's development by 2043.

The document analyzes the potential benefits of increased education spending in Africa by 2043. It finds that an 'Education scenario' would significantly boost GDP, reduce extreme poverty, and improve health outcomes, particularly in lower-income regions, while creating a 'human capital dividend' that accelerates economic growth.

The report highlights a significant gap between the skills of African graduates and the requirements of the modern job market, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). It notes that sub-Saharan Africa has low enrollment in vocational programmes compared to global averages, though some countries like Angola perform better. The text argues for a balance between academic and vocational training to support agribusiness and manufacturing, while warning that poor foundational education in sub-Saharan Africa creates a lack of 'readily trainable workers' for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The report highlights the economic disparity for African producers of raw commodities like cocoa and cashew nuts, who export most products without value addition. It details regional agricultural growth forecasts and warns of a widening gap between crop production and demand, which is expected to increase food imports and vulnerability to international price fluctuations by 2043.

The document highlights a significant gap in educational quality in Africa, noting that sub-Saharan Africa consistently underperforms globally in primary and secondary standardized tests. It emphasizes that educational quality has a stronger correlation with economic growth than quantity. The text identifies a 'learning crisis' driven by student unpreparedness due to malnutrition and poverty, ineffective or absent teachers, lack of materials, and poor governance. It also stresses the critical role of early childhood development (ECD) and nutrition in establishing the cognitive foundations necessary for quality learning outcomes.

The report describes a 'narrowing funnel' in sub-Saharan African education, where high initial primary enrolment is offset by significant 'leaks' at each subsequent level, leading to very low tertiary graduation rates. It contrasts these outcomes with North Africa and global benchmarks, noting that sub-Saharan Africa is forecast to miss several 2030 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets. The analysis highlights a growing intergenerational education gap and predicts that the attainment gap between sub-Saharan Africa and other developing regions will widen by 2030.