Search Climate Insights Directory

The document marks the second anniversary of the Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh, linking the disaster to a broader pattern of economic violence and exploitation of women by multinational corporations. It highlights the risks faced by women environmental defenders—including peasant and indigenous leaders—who oppose polluting projects such as hydroelectric dams and extractive industries. The statement calls for the dismantling of corporate power and for transnational companies to be held accountable for human rights abuses and environmental crimes.

Friends of the Earth International issues a statement of solidarity with the victims of the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh and supports the World March of Women's 2015 global action. The statement denounces 'economic violence against women' and the 'inhumane working conditions' imposed by multinational corporations, linking these issues to the risks faced by women environmental defenders fighting land grabbing and polluting projects.

The document serves as an appendix to a study on the relationship between majority religion and armed conflict. It provides detailed datasets on the majority religions of countries as of 2010, the incidence of intrastate armed conflict by religion between 1991 and 2012, and a comprehensive list of opposition groups in intrastate conflicts from 1946 to 2013. It specifically examines the prevalence of Islamist insurgents and the conflict history of the ten countries with the largest Muslim populations.

The paper argues that financial inclusion is essential for alleviating poverty and stimulating local economic development in Africa. It identifies significant barriers to formal banking for the rural poor, including strict 'Know Your Customer' (KYC) regulations, lack of documentation, and geographic distance from banks. Consequently, many rely on informal savings and credit schemes—such as esusu in Nigeria and susu in Ghana—and informal remittance networks, which provide flexibility but carry high risks due to lack of regulation. The author highlights M-Pesa in Kenya as a successful model of mobile-led financial inclusion, contrasting it with less successful attempts in other countries. The document emphasizes that physical infrastructure must be paired with financial literacy to be sustainable and recommends that governments create enabling regulatory environments, diversify financial products (including Islamic banking), and improve credit-reporting infrastructure for SMEs.

The briefing examines the concept of 'climate compatible development' as a means to achieve 'zero-zero'—the simultaneous eradication of poverty and the elimination of net CO2 emissions. It frames this as a 'wicked problem' requiring the integration of mitigation, adaptation, and economic transformation. The author emphasizes that success depends on policy leadership, careful design to manage winners and losers, and cross-government implementation beyond environmental ministries.

The document serves as a 'who's who' and event guide for ODI and CDKN staff attending the UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in March 2015. It lists researchers and officers focusing on disaster risk reduction (DRR), climate resilience, and humanitarian action, detailing their specific goals for the conference, such as influencing the post-2015 DRR framework and discussing finance and governance. The briefing also provides a schedule of presentations and panels on topics including gender equality in DRR, fragile contexts, and measuring disaster resilience.

The document analyzes India's transition from a borrower to an owner in multilateral financial institutions, its internal development finance structure, and its strategic use of development assistance to project soft power and counterbalance China's influence in South Asia. It highlights the tension between India's global aspirations and its domestic infrastructure deficit, which is estimated at $1 trillion under its 12th Five-Year Plan.

Bhutan has a constitutional mandate to maintain 60% forest cover and manages a connected network of 10 protected areas covering 5 million acres. However, this system faces threats from poaching, illegal logging, human-wildlife conflict, and a declining workforce as youth migrate to cities. Additionally, the region is highly vulnerable to climate change, experiencing melting glaciers and intense rainstorms. To address these challenges and a decrease in foreign aid, WWF and the Bhutanese government have launched 'Bhutan for Life', a project finance model seeking $35 million to $45 million to fund enforcement, wildlife monitoring, and community support over 15 years until the system becomes self-sustaining.

Friends of the Earth International and its signatories critique the Lima Conference for producing weak pre-2020 mitigation pledges and failing to secure binding commitments on finance, adaptation, and loss and damage. The statement asserts that the outcome shifts responsibility to the Global South, protects polluting corporations, and risks expanding carbon markets at the expense of land rights. It calls for a systemic transformation away from fossil fuels toward community-controlled renewable energy and agro-ecological solutions.

The document examines how extraterritorial obligations (ETOs), as clarified by the Maastricht Principles, are essential for holding states accountable for environmental destruction and climate change that impact human rights beyond their own borders. It highlights gaps in protection caused by globalization, specifically regarding transnational corporations and intergovernmental organizations. Using examples like tropical deforestation and shipbreaking in South Asia, the guide illustrates how state omissions and the failure to regulate non-state actors lead to severe human rights impairments. It concludes that a human rights-based approach to climate change is necessary to ensure equitable mitigation and protection for the world's most vulnerable populations.

The document examines how states' extraterritorial obligations (ETOs), as defined by the Maastricht Principles, are essential for regulating transnational corporations and state actions that cause cross-border environmental damage. It highlights the vulnerability of indigenous peoples and environmental defenders, and uses examples such as illegal logging in tropical forests and shipbreaking in South Asia to illustrate the need for international legal accountability. The report further links climate change to threats against human health, global security, and fundamental human rights, advocating for a human-rights-based approach to climate policy.

The Dhaka Roundtable brought together experts to discuss the future of the WTO in the face of evolving global trade patterns, such as the rise of mega-trade blocs and global value chains. Key deliberations focused on the viability of plurilateral negotiations as an alternative to the stalled Doha Round, the search for a permanent solution to public food stockholding, and the necessity of strengthening special and differential treatment (S&DT) for LDCs. Participants emphasized that LDCs face significant barriers to participating in global value chains, with LDCs accounting for only 8% of total value added. The summary also outlines the need to implement the Bali LDC Package, specifically regarding duty-free and quota-free market access and the operationalization of the services waiver, to ensure trade serves as a vehicle for socio-economic development post-2015.

The paper examines the relationship between climate change and disaster risk, arguing that while adaptation and DRR serve distinct purposes, they share a core goal of reducing vulnerability. It highlights how climate change drives disaster risk through extreme weather and how poor development practices can exacerbate this risk. The authors advocate for a risk-based approach and transformative change that addresses the underlying social and economic drivers of vulnerability, rather than focusing solely on event-based response.

The paper argues that for the SDGs to deliver climate compatible development, climate change must be both a stand-alone goal and mainstreamed across all other goals. It highlights a lack of quantitative targets in the Open Working Group's draft and emphasizes the need for nationally relevant indicators and local-level resilience. The document suggests that the SDGs should complement the UNFCCC process rather than duplicate it, and calls for coordinated financing to avoid gaps in climate compatible development funding.

The report examines the integration of climate mitigation, adaptation, and food security within the agricultural sector. It focuses on identifying synergies and trade-offs to help policymakers in developing countries overcome barriers and optimally access international climate finance for food-security related elements of national climate change strategies.

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 report analyzes the mitigation efforts of 14 priority countries and regions, highlighting a wide variation in ambition and activity. While large emitters like India and Indonesia have established legislation and quantitative targets, many other partner countries, particularly in Africa and Small Island Developing States (SIDS), prioritize adaptation due to extreme vulnerability. The analysis identifies key trends, such as the integration of low-emissions paths into economic development strategies and a heavy reliance on donor-funded projects for capacity building and MRV systems.

The report identifies four core areas for improving sustainable development (SD) planning: multistakeholder participation, integrated vertical planning across government levels, cross-sectoral policy integration, and monitoring, evaluation, and reporting (MER). Across Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean, the report finds a prevalence of 'silo' sectoral planning and a lack of institutional frameworks for stakeholder engagement. It argues for the creation of national SD councils chaired by heads of state and the adoption of 'glocal' planning to align global goals with local implementation. Key capacity gaps include a lack of data for evidence-based policy, poor coordination between governmental and non-governmental agencies, and limited technical skills for information management at subnational levels.

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 scaling out community-based adaptation (CBA) requires moving beyond isolated pilots to a systemic approach that integrates adaptive capacity, strategic partnerships, and documented evidence. It identifies four key enabling factors: building comprehensive adaptive capacity (assets, institutions, knowledge, innovation, and decision-making), leveraging diverse networks including the private sector, producing rigorous cost-benefit evidence, and utilizing flexible institutional and finance mechanisms. Case studies from Niger, Colombia, Zambia, and Bangladesh illustrate different pathways to scale, ranging from informal farmer networks and municipal government planning to commercial contract farming and international research platforms.