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The research paper argues that India's foreign policy under Prime Minister Narendra Modi should shift from the 'strategic confusion' of the previous decade toward a pragmatic, non-doctrinaire approach. It suggests that India must redefine national security to include the 'food-energy-water-climate change nexus' and prioritize regional connectivity and infrastructure in South Asia over military dominance. The author posits that India should leverage BRICS and IBSA to promote a more equitable system of global governance and South-South dialogue to support its domestic developmental priorities.

The EU ETS is currently failing to promote low-carbon solutions due to a carbon price that has plunged to around 5 euros per tonne of CO2, driven by a surplus of 2.1 billion tonnes of CO2-equivalent allowances. This oversupply is attributed to weak emission targets, the inflow of international offsets, and reduced demand following the economic crisis. The document warns that this surplus allows the EU to transform current emission reductions from other policies into 'future rights to pollute', potentially reducing the domestic impact of the 2030 climate target from 40% to 34%. To fix the market, the author recommends increasing the linear reduction factor to 2.6%, permanently cancelling 1.6 billion excess allowances, enacting the Market Stability Reserve by 2017, and transitioning to full auctioning for all industrial sectors post-2020 to eliminate windfall profits and adhere to the polluter-pays principle.

Agricultural emissions accounted for approximately 13 percent of total global emissions in 2011, totaling 6 billion tonnes. The primary sources are methane from cattle and nitrous oxide from fertilizers and soil waste, which together comprise 65 percent of the sector's emissions. Global agricultural emissions grew by 8 percent between 1990 and 2010 and are projected to reach nearly 7 billion tonnes per year by 2030, driven largely by population growth and dietary shifts in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Mitigation opportunities include improving crop and grazing management, reducing food loss and waste, and shifting dietary preferences away from meat, particularly beef.

The document outlines the scale and sources of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, identifying the sector as the second largest global emitter. It highlights the role of methane and nitrous oxide, lists the top emitting countries, and discusses the impact of land-use change and dietary shifts. Finally, it presents the GHG Protocol guidelines as a tool for farms to inventory and reduce their carbon footprint through improved production practices and demand-side changes.

The document provides an educational overview of REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation), detailing its three-phase implementation process and the technical challenges of establishing reference levels for carbon emissions. It contrasts market-based financing (carbon credits) with fund-based approaches, highlighting concerns that carbon offsets may allow developed nations to avoid reducing their own emissions. The guide emphasizes significant risks to indigenous communities, including forced eviction due to land tenure insecurity and the potential for corruption in fund distribution. It evaluates the safeguards of the UN-REDD and World Bank programs, noting that while UN-REDD has stronger theoretical protections, practical implementation remains a concern, as evidenced by a case study in Vietnam where free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) was found to be deficient.

The document discusses the necessity of localised adaptation to climate change and the potential to 'scale out' community-based adaptation (CBA) solutions. It defines scaling out as providing "more quality benefits to more people over a wider geographical area, more equitably, more quickly, and more lastingly". Rather than focusing on high-level policy, the paper examines how local actors can pilot and showcase innovations until they are replicated. Based on CDKN's work in Bangladesh, Colombia, and eastern and southern Africa, the paper identifies four key elements common to successful scaling: networks and partnerships, documenting evidence and learning, adaptive capacity, and institutional channels and finance mechanisms.

The document argues that climate compatible development is won or lost at the subnational level, where local actors face intense pressure from climate extremes but possess unique advantages in local knowledge and cross-sectoral coordination. It identifies key barriers, such as scientific uncertainty at local scales and a gap between public expectations and available resources. To overcome these, the paper recommends strategies including the cultivation of local political 'champions', the creation of 'knowledge partnerships' to translate climate science for communities, and the use of participatory planning to mobilise in-kind resources. It emphasizes that for these local successes to contribute to global transformational change, they must be 'scaled out' to other localities and 'scaled up' into national policy frameworks.

The guide argues that effective mainstreaming of disaster risk management (DRM) requires a supportive policy environment, strong leadership, accurate risk knowledge, consistent financing, and innovation. It highlights that DRM is often compartmentalised from climate change and sectoral development, leading to 'risk-blind' decisions. The document proposes overcoming these barriers through strategic inter-ministerial coordination, the use of cost-benefit analyses to prove the economic value of risk-informed planning, and the engagement of the private sector. It emphasizes that mainstreaming is a political process that requires inclusive, multi-stakeholder platforms and visionary leadership to navigate vested interests and institutional inertia.

The International Conservation Budget 2014 details U.S. government initiatives to protect global biodiversity and natural resources. It highlights the strategic link between conservation and national security, noting how resource scarcity and illegal wildlife trafficking fuel instability and terrorism. The report outlines funding and activities across agencies including USAID, the Department of the Treasury (via the Global Environment Facility and Tropical Forest Conservation Act), the Department of State, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Key efforts include combating wildlife trafficking, managing transboundary landscapes through the SCAPES program, and implementing REDD+ initiatives in Mexico and the Amazon. The document emphasizes the role of public-private partnerships and community-based natural resource management in achieving sustainable development and protecting critical ecosystems across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

This report by the Center for International Environmental Law argues that EU-US trade negotiations threaten to undermine the European Union's stronger chemical regulation policies and hinder improvements to the flawed US federal chemical management system.

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.

The document examines the IPCC's 2014 report on climate change mitigation, noting that global greenhouse gas emissions have accelerated despite existing climate plans. It argues that to limit temperature rise to 2°C, emissions must be reduced by 40-70% by 2050 and reach almost zero by 2100, requiring radical technological and institutional shifts. While the report finds these goals technically and economically feasible, it stresses the urgency of investments between 2010 and 2030 to avoid costly and risky negative emission technologies like large-scale biomass combined with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).

The CRiSTAL Food Security 2.0 tool is a decision-support system implemented via Microsoft Excel to analyze the resilience of community food systems against climate threats. It employs a holistic 'food system wheel' framework consisting of five dimensions: food utilization and consumption, access, availability, supporting resources and services, and supporting organizations and policies. The tool guides users through a six-module process: introduction, context analysis (community and climate), food system analysis, resilience analysis, selection of SMART indicators, and automatic report generation. It emphasizes the use of participatory rural appraisal methods, such as livelihood strategies, threat and resource mapping, and vulnerability matrices, to gather primary data from local communities, which is then triangulated with secondary scientific data. The tool aims to identify specific climate vulnerabilities and develop measurable indicators to monitor food system resilience over time.

The document argues that shifting to sustainable consumption and production (SCP) is essential for global sustainable development and proposes a comprehensive set of science-based targets and indicators. It examines the role of SCP as either a stand-alone goal or a cross-cutting issue, emphasizing the need to decouple economic growth from resource use and environmental degradation. The paper provides specific quantitative targets across various sectors, including agriculture, water, energy, and urban construction, while highlighting the differentiated responsibilities of developed and developing nations.

The document argues that disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation have evolved separately despite significant overlaps. It highlights that while DRR focuses on near-term risks and emergency management, adaptation takes a longer-term view of adjusting to climatic shifts. The brief emphasizes that both are driven by exposure and vulnerability, which are often exacerbated by poor development planning. It calls for a transformative approach that prioritizes vulnerability reduction over simple risk management, integrating human rights and sustainable development to prevent the creation of new risks.

The document outlines SEI's approach to climate adaptation, emphasizing that vulnerability is driven more by socioeconomic conditions than by climate exposure. It argues that adaptation and development are inextricably linked and that adaptation has inherent limits, meaning it cannot replace mitigation. The briefing also details SEI's global initiatives, such as the weADAPT platform and the Asia Adaptation Knowledge Platform, and identifies future research priorities including the role of gender, culture, and the private sector in adaptation.

The PEDRA research group focuses on the human dimensions of environmental and socio-economic risks in Asia, employing systems-oriented approaches to promote inclusive governance and resilient development. Its current work includes nine diverse projects addressing climate change adaptation in peri-urban Southeast Asia, gender inequalities in environmental conditions, disaster risk reduction in WASH systems, and the governance of the Bali Cultural Landscape.

The document argues that conventional formal institution building is insufficient for sustainable development and calls for new collaborations between governments, civil society, and the private sector. It emphasizes the need to link livelihoods in low-income regions with consumption patterns in affluent regions and to integrate disaster risk reduction (DRR) into development planning to build resilience. SEI highlights various projects, including palm oil governance in Southeast Asia, Arctic resilience, and sanitation in East Africa, to illustrate the need for 'hybrid accountability' and 'institutional bricolage' in governance.

The president of Friends of the Earth U.S. advocates for a Robin Hood Tax to address the global climate crisis. The author contends that the trillions of dollars required for climate action cannot be met by current 'anemic' global funding efforts, which often repurpose existing aid for health and education or rely on private investors. The text highlights climate-driven disasters in Asia, Europe, Australia, Africa, the Maldives, and Alaska as evidence of the urgent need for a dedicated, non-privatized funding mechanism to ensure global justice and a livable planet.

The 'Minimum Standards for local climate-smart disaster risk reduction' guide establishes a framework for integrating future climate-related risks into local disaster risk reduction (DRR) activities. It provides two sets of standards: one for community-level implementation and another for civil society organizations (CSOs) or local government authorities supporting those communities. The guide emphasizes moving beyond 'business as usual' by utilizing weather forecasts, seasonal projections, and vulnerability assessments to create adaptive action plans.