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The report highlights a significant gap between current EU agricultural emissions trends and the 2030 and 2050 climate targets. It identifies the absence of agriculture from the EU Taxonomy as a major barrier to defining sustainable activities. The author proposes repurposing the CAP, which accounts for approximately 30% of the EU budget, to fund a transition that requires an estimated annual public investment of EUR 155bn to reduce emissions by 53% by 2050. Key recommendations include adopting science-based sectoral criteria, reforming payment structures to reward green practices, and potentially extending the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) to agrifood products to prevent carbon leakage.

The document outlines how sovereign green bonds can signal a country's commitment to low-carbon growth, diversify investor bases, and mobilise private capital. It provides a seven-step guide for issuance—from stakeholder engagement to monitoring—and details specific examples from France, Poland, Belgium, Nigeria, Fiji, and Indonesia, highlighting the inclusion of indirect expenditures like subsidies and tax exemptions.

The document analyzes the legal mechanisms for accessing justice in environmental matters within the European Union, structured around the three pillars of the Aarhus Convention: access to environmental information, public participation in decision-making, and access to justice for breaches of environmental law. It details the scope of review, standing requirements for individuals and NGOs, and the standards of judicial scrutiny required to ensure effective legal protection. The guide specifically highlights the disparities in implementation across Member States and the restrictive nature of judicial review for decisions made by EU institutions.

ClientEarth's feedback on the EU's Offshore Renewable Energy Strategy emphasizes the need for high environmental standards, public transparency, and regional cooperation. It argues that the strategy must adhere to the 'do no harm' principle and the precautionary principle, ensuring that the deployment of offshore wind and other ocean energies does not compromise biodiversity or ignore the rights of public participation under the Aarhus Convention. The document suggests a regional approach to grid development and targeted financial support for technologies that have not yet reached grid parity, such as wave energy.

The document argues that the EU is failing to meet its 2020 goal of ending overfishing due to Total Allowable Catches (TACs) being set above scientific advice, particularly by certain Member States. It recommends following scientific advice to achieve Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY), properly enforcing the landing obligation, increasing transparency in the TAC-setting process, and ensuring honest reporting on progress.

The document assesses plastic pollution in China, highlighting significant production and leakage into oceans, and contrasts this with the EU's comprehensive regulatory framework. It details EU strategies such as the Waste Framework Directive, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), and the 'Plastics 2030' strategy, which aims for 100% reusable or recyclable plastic packaging by 2030. The report suggests China adopt similar integrated land-sea management, eco-design standards, and international cooperation to combat plastic waste.

The LIFE-A2J-EARL project focused on reducing the 'implementation deficit' of EU environmental law, which is estimated to cost approximately €50 billion annually. To address this, the project provided training, legal toolkits, and a comprehensive guide on access to justice to judiciary members, public authorities, and NGOs across nine EU countries. Key outputs included the development of national toolkits for eight countries and a 'Guide on Access to Justice in European Union Law'. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the project exceeded its training targets, reaching 2,090 participants through workshops, training sessions, and webinars, and attracting 285 attendees to a virtual international conference. The project's digital outreach included 163 website articles and a newsletter with over 700 subscribers. Socio-economic impacts identified include increased knowledge of the Aarhus Convention, enhanced cooperation between stakeholders, and the empowerment of NGOs to challenge decisions breaching environmental legislation.

The document offers detailed guidance on defining, regulating, and supporting Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) and Citizen Energy Communities (CECs) under the EU's Clean Energy Package. It emphasizes the need for non-commercial purposes, democratic governance, and the removal of administrative barriers to empower citizens in the energy transition. The guide provides specific recommendations on legal forms, effective control, market access, and the design of support schemes, while drawing on examples from various EU Member States and the US to illustrate best practices for implementation.

The paper examines the history and current state of EU environmental governance, detailing the roles of the Commission, Parliament, Council, and Court of Justice. It highlights a systemic failure in the enforcement of environmental law by Member States and the Commission, noting that economic interests frequently override environmental concerns. The author argues that the EU's 'good governance' principles of openness and participation are poorly implemented, leaving environmental NGOs with limited influence and citizens with minimal access to justice. While the EU has a comprehensive body of legislation, the author concludes that the lack of political will makes much of it a 'paper tiger'.

A coalition of European civil society organisations (CSOs) is protesting a campaign of disinformation led by some Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from the European People’s Party (EPP) and far-right groups. The attack specifically targets the legitimacy of public funding for environmental NGOs under the LIFE programme. The statement argues that independent CSOs are essential for a functioning democracy and a fully informed decision-making process, contrasting the modest public grants received by NGOs with the high spending of corporate lobbyists in Brussels.

The document critiques the European Commission's proposal to update the Aarhus Regulation, asserting it fails to meet international law standards set by the Aarhus Convention. It highlights gaps regarding 'national implementing measures', 'external effects' of acts, and the exclusion of state aid decisions. The authors propose specific legislative amendments to broaden the scope of internal review, remove cost barriers for NGOs, and explicitly link the Regulation to the Aarhus Convention to ensure effective judicial review of EU environmental decisions.

The document argues that the European Commission's proposal to amend the Aarhus Regulation contains loopholes that would leave the EU in breach of the Aarhus Convention. It specifically criticizes the exclusion of acts requiring national implementing measures and state aid decisions from internal review. The paper proposes amendments to broaden the scope of reviewable acts, ensure that costs of litigation are not prohibitive for NGOs, and explicitly link the Regulation to the EU's international obligations under the Aarhus Convention.

The paper argues that Canada faces an 'implementation deficit' in climate adaptation, where high-level commitments have not translated into concrete action due to poor interdepartmental coordination and a lack of systematic mainstreaming. It proposes several policy options to embed adaptation into government decision-making, including the use of statute law, central policy directives, the creation of a dedicated adaptation policy unit, and the enhancement of ex ante appraisal tools.

The document argues that Canada has historically struggled to translate high-level climate adaptation aspirations into concrete action due to a lack of interministerial coordination and systematic integration. It proposes moving beyond voluntary, informal approaches toward a 'whole-of-government' approach. Key recommendations include enacting a national climate change adaptation law, issuing centralized policy directives, establishing a dedicated central adaptation policy unit, and utilizing ex ante evaluation tools. The paper highlights the UK's Climate Change Act as a successful model of legislative accountability and notes that most OECD countries possess specialized units for adaptation coordination, a feature currently lacking in Canada.

Carbon Market Watch argues that the Central Consumer Protection Authority should explicitly ban "carbon neutral" and offsetting claims rather than merely requiring their substantiation. The organization contends that offsetting is fundamentally flawed due to quantification uncertainties, lack of permanence in biological sinks, and consumer misunderstanding. Instead, it proposes a "contribution" or "beyond value chain mitigation" (BVCM) model. The submission also recommends stricter requirements for future climate targets, including science-based commitments, full scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions disclosure, and alignment of corporate lobbying with the Paris Agreement.

Carbon Market Watch argues that the FTC's 'Green Guides' are outdated and fail to align with the Paris Agreement's 1.5C goal. The submission recommends a total ban on claims such as 'carbon neutral' and 'net zero' because they falsely imply that emissions can be 'neutralised' through carbon credits, which the author describes as scientifically unsound. Instead, the document proposes a 'contribution' model where companies fund mitigation projects without claiming to offset their own emissions. It also suggests that the Guides be made enforceable under the FTC Act to provide oversight of the voluntary carbon market and protect consumers from greenwashing.

The Social Climate Fund (SCF) is an EU initiative designed to mitigate the social impacts of the new Emissions Trading System (ETS2), which applies carbon pricing to fuels used in buildings and road transport. Operating from 2026 to 2032, the fund will provide approximately €86.7 billion in targeted support for lower-income groups and micro-enterprises. Member states must submit Social Climate Plans (SCPs) by June 2025 to access funding, which is allocated based on need. While the SCF supports investments in energy-saving renovations and zero-emission transport, it is limited to alleviating new poverty risks and is deemed insufficient to address the root causes of existing energy and transport poverty in Europe. The document recommends increasing available funds, avoiding fossil fuel lock-in by prohibiting 'low-emission' fossil-based investments, and ensuring earlier fund availability through loans.

The document is an open letter addressed to ministers and UNFCCC representatives during COP-19. Signed by 33 civil society networks and individuals from 87 countries, it argues that carbon markets must not compromise the ambition of climate mitigation efforts. The authors call for a comprehensive climate agreement by 2015, specifically demanding the rejection of pilot phase trading under the Diversified Framework Approach (FVA), the removal of non-additional projects and coal power from the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), and the establishment of international verification to prevent double counting.

The submission argues that environmental attribute certificates, specifically REDD+ carbon credits and energy certificates like RECs and GOs, are unsuitable for corporate decarbonisation targets. It highlights systemic issues in the voluntary carbon market, including over-crediting and flawed methodologies in REDD+ projects, and asserts that energy certificates are financial instruments that do not represent physical electricity delivery. The document advocates for a strict separation of these certificates from gross emission reduction targets, citing the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) as a regulatory precedent.

The report identifies the residential sector as the largest global source of black carbon (BC), accounting for 48% of emissions in 2017, followed by transportation (24%) and industry. While emissions have declined in North America, Europe, and China due to stricter standards and fuel switching, these gains are being offset by increases in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where reliance on unclean cooking fuels remains high. The document highlights critical hotspots, including eastern China and the Indo-Gangetic Plain, and notes that global BC reductions are not currently on track to meet the Paris Climate Agreement's 1.5°C warming limit.