Search Climate Insights Directory

The Living Planet Report 2026 documents a 73% average decline in monitored vertebrate populations between 1970 and 2022. It identifies the energy, food, and financial systems as the primary drivers of this loss. The report introduces a framework of 'positive tipping points'—thresholds where beneficial change becomes self-amplifying—to accelerate the transition to a nature-positive economy. While the energy sector is already in an 'accelerating phase,' the food and finance sectors remain in the 'enabling phase.' The report emphasizes that achieving the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework targets by 2030 requires coordinated global action, subsidy reform, and the inclusion of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in governance.

The GreenLeft-Labour alliance saw a decline in support in the October 2025 Dutch elections, falling to the fourth largest political force after losing 3 per cent of the vote and five seats compared to 2023. The analysis attributes this failure to a poorly managed campaign and the surge of the social-liberal D66, which successfully appealed to university-educated voters. Despite the loss, the alliance consolidated support among left-wing progressives, though it failed to recover the Labour Party's traditional working-class base. The two parties are now preparing for a full merger in 2026.

The document challenges the narrative that wind and solar power drive up electricity costs, asserting that real-world data from multiple global markets often shows an inverse relationship. It highlights that in the US and EU, regions with higher-than-average renewable shares frequently have lower-than-average household power prices. While acknowledging that factors like transmission costs, wildfire mitigation, and market liquidity can influence prices, the briefing concludes that renewables generally lower wholesale costs by displacing expensive fossil fuels.

The report evaluates the climate transition of 594 OECD pension funds using Net Zero Finance Tracker data. While target-setting is improving, significant exposure to expansionist fossil fuel companies remains. The analysis finds that funds with formal climate targets and transition plans hold higher shares of clean energy and that robust regulatory frameworks in countries like the UK, Denmark, and the Netherlands correlate with stronger climate action.

In 2025, electric vehicles (EVs) accounted for over a quarter of global new car sales, driven by a significant shift in emerging markets. While legacy auto markets in the US and Canada have seen a rollback of incentives, countries in Southeast Asia and Latin America are 'leapfrogging' advanced economies. Viet Nam and Singapore have reached EV sales shares exceeding 40%, surpassing the UK and EU. China continues to dominate as the largest market, with its exports increasingly targeting non-OECD markets such as Brazil, Mexico, the UAE, and Indonesia. The report highlights that EVs significantly reduce fossil fuel demand, with battery electric vehicles in Brazil delivering an estimated 90% reduction compared to internal combustion engine vehicles.

The report identifies Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, and China as the fastest adopters of electric vehicles by sales share. It highlights China's dominance in both total volume (11.3 million sales in 2024) and market share (48%), while noting Norway's lead in share (92%). The analysis emphasizes that rapid uptake is driven by government incentives, investment in charging infrastructure, and the availability of affordable models. It also notes a trend of 'leapfrogging' in developing nations like Ethiopia, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, fueled by affordable Chinese imports.

The research paper examines how the 1989 Belgium-Luxembourg (BLEU)–USSR bilateral investment treaty (BIT) is being used as a legal threat to prevent Belgium from supporting an EU plan to back a EUR 140 billion Ukraine loan with immobilized Russian Central Bank assets. It highlights a broader trend of 'regulatory chill' where Russian entities use investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) claims to challenge sanctions. The author argues for the modernization of investment treaties and the implementation of domestic legal blocks to prevent the enforcement of arbitration awards that contradict international sanctions regimes.

The report finds that the EU is not on track to meet its 2030 interconnection targets, with 80% of the power system expected to miss the goal. To reach an optimal grid by 2040, Europe needs to nearly double its interconnection capacity, adding 151 GW. This expansion requires an estimated €150 billion in investment, leaving a €30 billion public funding gap in the proposed 2028-2034 Connecting Europe Facility for Energy (CEF-E) budget.

The report finds that while OECD pension funds have significantly increased their climate target-setting and risk management since 2020, their portfolios remain heavily exposed to fossil fuel expansion. Pension funds often outperform other financial institutions in areas like policy engagement and emissions disclosure once climate goals are embedded in their governance. The analysis highlights that robust regulatory frameworks in countries like the Netherlands, Denmark, and the UK drive higher adoption of targets, and suggests that the relationship between asset owners and asset managers is a critical lever for driving decarbonization.

The report finds that while OECD pension funds are increasing their climate target-setting and internal governance, their portfolios remain heavily exposed to expansionist fossil fuels. Progress is strongly linked to national regulatory environments, with the Netherlands, Denmark, and the UK leading. A critical lever for future impact is the governance of the asset owner–asset manager relationship, where leading funds are moving toward more active mandates, stricter stewardship oversight, and in some cases, the internalization of asset management to ensure alignment with net-zero goals.

In 2025, Europe transitioned toward commercial-scale CCS deployment, marked by the first fully operational value chain at Norway's Brevik cement plant. While ten projects reached final investment decisions (FID) between December 2024 and October 2025—adding approximately 4 Mt CO2/year of capture and 14 Mt CO2/year of storage capacity—deployment remains far below the trajectories needed for 2040 and 2050 climate targets. Progress is heavily reliant on blended finance and corporate carbon dioxide removal (CDR) offtake agreements, particularly with Microsoft. Geographically, CCS is expanding from Northern European hubs into Southern and Central & Eastern Europe, with new projects in Spain, Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, and Hungary. Policy advancements include the Net-Zero Industry Act's 2030 injection target and Germany's 2025 legislation classifying CO2 transport and storage as projects of overriding public interest.

The report argues that temporary CRCF units from carbon farming are currently of low quality due to insufficient management of non-permanence and additionality risks, making them unsuitable for offsetting emissions. It assesses proposed EU agri-food policies—including an Agricultural Emissions Trading System (AgETS) and Mandatory Climate Standards (MCS)—concluding that allowing these units as offsets would undermine environmental integrity. The authors recommend shifting toward activity-based payments, either through a reformed Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) or other public funding mechanisms, to promote carbon farming without the integrity risks associated with result-based crediting.

Reclaim Finance criticizes Agirc-Arrco, ERAFP, and the Fonds de Réserve pour les Retraites (FRR) for employing BlackRock, an asset manager it claims actively supports fossil fuel expansion. The organization highlights BlackRock's $431 billion in holdings in companies developing new fossil projects as of May 2024 and its declining support for environmental shareholder resolutions. Reclaim Finance urges these French institutions to adopt science-based climate criteria for selecting managers and to publicly oppose BlackRock's practices, noting that other European pension funds, such as the Dutch PFZW, have already withdrawn mandates from the firm.

As of Q3 2025, the cumulative volume of aligned GSS+ debt reached USD 6.5 trillion. Green bonds remain the dominant theme, accounting for 64% of aligned volume in Q3 2025, while sustainability-labelled debt is gaining momentum. Non-financial and financial corporates were the most prolific issuers in the quarter, and supranationals remain the largest historical source of cumulative aligned volume.

The report identifies a conservative USD 4.4 trillion pipeline of creditworthy sustainable bonds from 12 climate-leader countries through 2035. It argues that global megatrends—such as electrification, urbanisation, and the rise of AI—will further accelerate this pipeline beyond current projections. The document also outlines policy levers, including taxonomies and monetary policy, that governments can use to channel capital into mitigation and resilience projects.

ClientEarth warns that further delays to the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), currently set to apply to the private sector on 30 December 2025, would cause significant environmental damage and create legal vulnerabilities. The document asserts that such delays lack proper impact assessments and conflict with EU environmental protection principles, the principle of legitimate expectations for businesses that have already invested in compliance, and international law regarding State climate obligations as clarified by a 2025 ICJ Advisory Opinion.

The document examines the role of green public procurement (GPP) in the EU, highlighting that while public procurement accounts for 14% of EU GDP and 11% of its greenhouse gas emissions, the uptake of GPP tools is hindered by legal uncertainty, administrative burdens, and capacity gaps. It advocates for reforming EU directives to broaden the 'link to subject matter' requirement, standardize sustainability tools, and professionalize procurement staff to drive the green transition.

The document argues that Colombia's previous renewable energy auctions, which focused exclusively on price, led to social conflicts and project cancellations, particularly in La Guajira. It proposes a new framework incorporating non-price criteria—such as local employment, community benefit-sharing, and gender perspectives—into qualification and award processes. Additionally, it suggests creating a dedicated support agency and a 'joining process' (proceso de adhesión) to enable small-scale community energy projects (up to 5 MW) to access the market without competing directly with large developers.

The authors propose a 'strategic resilience' framework to elevate climate change adaptation from 'low politics' in environment ministries to the heart of government. Using a UK case study, the paper highlights the failure of traditional territorial adaptation to address cross-border risks—which propagate via trade, finance, people, and biophysical routes. It warns against the 'securitization' of adaptation by defence ministries and suggests three pathways for reform: empowering environment ministries, establishing central coordinators, or creating dedicated ministries of resilience.

The EU remains highly vulnerable to energy price shocks and supply disruptions due to a 58% reliance on imported fossil fuels for primary energy. While the power sector has largely transitioned to homegrown sources, sectors like transport (88% reliant on imports) and buildings remain exposed. The report argues that electrification can reduce fossil import dependency to 30% by 2040, noting that 67% of EU energy demand can already be electrified with mature technologies. Current frontrunners, such as Denmark with electric vehicles and the Netherlands with heat pumps, demonstrate significant displacement of oil and gas imports.