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Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) is a global federation of 76 autonomous environmental groups with over 2 million members. Founded in 1971, the organization has evolved from a small group of activists into a decentralized network that prioritizes environmental and social justice. FoEI's current strategy, 'mobilise, resist, transform', focuses on challenging the neoliberal economic model, which it identifies as the driver of climate change, biodiversity loss, and resource depletion. The federation advocates for key concepts such as 'environmental space', 'ecological debt', and 'food sovereignty' to create sustainable societies. Its work spans several core areas, including climate and energy justice, forest protection, food sovereignty, and resisting extractive industries like mining, oil, and gas.

The report examines the global copper supply chain, focusing on China's role as the world's largest consumer. It analyzes two primary flows: recycled copper scrap (Flow C) and primary copper mining products (Flow D). The document identifies sustainability challenges, including the illegal import of e-waste into China and weak regulatory enforcement in mining regions like Zambia. It evaluates the impact of international policies, such as the EU's WEEE and ELV Directives, and provides recommendations for improving data quality, formalizing recycling infrastructure, and strengthening government capacity in developing nations.

The report finds a robust consensus across four different analyses that developing country mitigation pledges are greater in absolute terms than those of developed countries. It argues that Annex 1 pledges are insufficient and could be further diminished by lenient accounting rules regarding LULUCF and surplus allowances. The authors conclude that current global pledges are consistent with a temperature rise between 2°C and 5°C, necessitating higher ambition and stricter accounting from developed nations based on principles of equity and historical responsibility.

The report details 12 sustainability cases involving Royal Dutch Shell, highlighting systemic issues such as oil spills and gas flaring in Nigeria, toxic pesticide contamination in Brazil, and the high carbon intensity of Canadian tar sands. It examines the company's expansion into unconventional gas through fracking and its influence on political processes in the UK, Netherlands, and other host countries. The document argues that Shell's business strategy prioritizes profit over environmental and human rights, often employing a 'double standard' in its operational safety and reporting.

The report evaluates the EU ETS, concluding that emissions trading is an effective tool for reducing CO2 emissions with modest macroeconomic impacts. It highlights the risks of free allowance allocation, such as windfall profits and reduced economic efficiency, and recommends a transition toward auctioning. The document also identifies that international competitiveness risks are concentrated in a few carbon-intensive sectors and suggests tailored solutions like benchmarked free allocation or multilateral border adjustments to prevent carbon leakage.

The document outlines China's shift toward energy efficiency and non-fossil fuel development, driven by energy security, environmental protection, and economic restructuring. It details the targets of the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), including carbon and energy intensity reductions. The author highlights China's rapid expansion in wind, solar, and high-speed rail, while noting the strategic importance of carbon capture and storage. Finally, it argues that China's clear policy framework creates significant investment opportunities for U.S. companies in clean technology.

The report presents wind power as a viable alternative to fossil fuels in the U.S., highlighting its competitiveness with natural gas and its ability to reduce CO2 emissions and water consumption. It details economic advantages such as job creation and local tax revenue, while addressing environmental impacts on wildlife and human concerns regarding noise and aesthetics. The document concludes that reaching a target of 20 percent wind electricity by 2030 is feasible and affordable, provided the U.S. adopts stable long-term policies like a national renewable electricity standard.

The briefing examines South Africa's refusal to join the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) despite the country's resource wealth and the potential for it to serve as a regional leadership model. It notes that while the South African government believes existing regulations are sufficient, the country's absence from the EITI may undermine the initiative's value for other African nations. The document also discusses the impact of the US Dodd-Frank Act's disclosure requirements for listed mining companies and suggests South Africa adopt similar legislation to improve transparency for its companies operating across the continent.

The research investigates the risk of 'double-counting' international offsets, where both the buying developed country and the supplying developing country claim the same emission reduction toward their pledges. Using a spreadsheet model based on McKinsey abatement cost curves, the authors find that if offsets count twice, global abatement could be reduced by up to 1.6 billion tons CO2e in 2020. This dilution could increase the existing emissions gap by as much as 20%, potentially hindering the goal of limiting warming to 2°C. The paper compares this to a 'Buyer Only' scenario and proposes remedies such as shared crediting, partitioning eligible sectors, and implementing a common international transaction tracking mechanism.

The document details WWF's progress in operationalizing its indigenous peoples' policy through the creation of focal point networks, the adoption of new social policies on poverty and human rights, and the establishment of the Social Development for Conservation (SD4C) team. It highlights specific country-level initiatives in regions such as the Amazon, Central Africa, and Southeast Asia, while noting that the implementation of an internal complaints resolution process remains a priority for 2011.

The report examines ten indigenous carbon market projects across Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Mexico. It highlights diverse methodologies—including afforestation, avoided deforestation, and traditional fire management—to demonstrate how carbon revenues can support environmental, cultural, and economic goals. The document identifies systemic challenges such as a lack of federal policy, difficulties with third-party verification of tribal land governance, and the technical complexity of proving 'additionality'. It recommends participatory planning, the use of voluntary markets for 'co-benefits', and the development of indigenous-specific verification resources to ensure local ownership and sustainability.

The report analyzes the trend of states integrating transparency rules directly into investment treaties to overcome the confidentiality typical of private commercial arbitration. It evaluates best practices across various stages of the dispute process, including public notice of proceedings, access to documents, open hearings, amicus curiae briefs, and the publication of final awards, while detailing how confidential business information is protected.

The document examines the current investment incentive mix in Lao PDR, highlighting a 'double subsidy' of tax holidays and low-cost land concessions. It argues that these incentives provide minimal returns in tax revenue, job creation, or technology transfer, and recommends replacing them with a uniform corporate tax rate and targeted incentives for green infrastructure, public services, and human capital development.

The document examines the evolving India-Africa partnership, highlighting energy as a primary driver due to India's rising import dependency. It details India's diversification strategy across coal, oil, natural gas, and uranium, while arguing that the relationship extends beyond energy into trade, defence, and capacity building. The analysis contrasts India's approach with that of China and the West, emphasizing the need for sustainable energy governance to avoid the 'resource curse' and energy poverty in Africa.

Australia possesses approximately 42,000 sq km of coral reefs, the largest amount of any single nation. While these reefs are the least threatened by local human pressures globally, they face severe risks from thermal stress, warming, and acidification, with projections suggesting over 95 percent of Australian reefs will be threatened by 2050.

The Reefs at Risk Revisited analysis finds that approximately 75 percent of global coral reefs are threatened by local and global pressures, with local threats affecting over 60 percent. Without intervention to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and local pressures, threatened reefs could increase to over 90 percent by 2030 and nearly all reefs by 2050. While over 25 percent of reefs are in marine protected areas, only 6 percent are effectively managed. The report identifies 27 nations as most vulnerable to reef degradation, including Haiti, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

The Middle East contains approximately 6 percent of the world's coral reefs, with nearly two-thirds currently at risk from local threats, most notably overfishing. While some areas of the Red Sea remain under low threat, the Persian Gulf is highly stressed, with over 85 percent of its reefs considered threatened. Projections indicate that thermal stress and ocean acidification will push all reefs in the region to threatened status by 2050. Currently, only 12 percent of the region's reefs are within Marine Protected Areas, though Egypt has significant coverage with about 50 percent of its reefs protected.

The Pacific contains over a quarter of the world's coral reefs, with nearly 50% currently affected by local threats such as overfishing and pollution. While the region has over 920 Marine Protected Areas covering 13% of its reefs, future climate change is projected to increase the proportion of threatened reefs to 90% by 2030 and nearly all reefs by 2050.

The Cancun Climate Summit is characterized as a moderate success that restored faith in the multilateral process following the Copenhagen summit. Key outcomes included the first official UN agreement to keep global temperature increases below 2°C, the recognition of voluntary emission reduction plans for 2020, and the establishment of financial mechanisms for developing countries, including a 30 billion dollar transfer for 2010-2012 and the creation of the Green Climate Fund. While the summit made progress on measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) and forest protection (REDD+), it left the decision on a second Kyoto Protocol period to the 2011 Durban summit. The authors attribute the success to the leadership of the Mexican government and the UNFCCC Executive Secretary.

The paper examines the lack of authoritative IFRS guidance for the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), leading to inconsistent accounting practices. It argues that the prevailing 'net liability approach'—recognizing free allowances at nil—understates assets and hides the economic cost of carbon. The authors advocate for a mandatory fair value approach for initial measurement, combined with a government grant model to avoid 'day-one-gains' and a distinction between allowances held for compliance versus trading to ensure a 'true and fair view' of a company's financial position in a carbon-constrained economy.