Search Climate Insights Directory

The Canadian Climate Institute finds that Canada is lagging behind its major global trading partners in the adoption of key climate and sustainable finance policies. While Canada has implemented carbon pricing and net-zero commitments, it lacks a national taxonomy, mandatory climate disclosure, and formal transition plan frameworks. This policy gap risks increasing costs for Canadian businesses and hindering their ability to compete in markets that are increasingly aligning around carbon neutrality and transparent climate risk reporting.

China is advancing a 1.3 TW pipeline of utility-scale solar and wind projects, with operating capacity reaching 1.4 TW by 2025. The country has become a global leader in offshore wind, growing its capacity to 42.7 GW by March 2025. While offshore wind is being used to decarbonize coastal industries and produce green hydrogen, the sector faces challenges from the 2021 phaseout of national subsidies and competition from ongoing coal and gas developments. The report suggests adopting hybrid auction mechanisms and centralized marine spatial planning to ensure sustainable growth.

Susanne Riegraf, Deputy of the Federal Government Commissioner for Disarmament and Arms Control, delivered a keynote speech at the Berlin Biosecurity Dialogue on June 19, 2025. She highlighted the increasing risk of biological weapons due to the convergence of biotechnology, AI, and quantum computing, noting that AI-modified proteins can evade conventional detection methods. Riegraf discussed the limitations of the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), which lacks a verification regime, and the need for NATO allies to enhance collective biodefense and early-warning systems. She also detailed Germany's interagency coordination challenges and its international support efforts through the German Biosecurity Programme and the Global Health Protection Programme.

Since April 2025, the United States has imposed high tariffs on several ASEAN nations, leading these countries to prioritize negotiation and diversification over retaliation. While Vietnam and Thailand faced the highest tariffs (up to 46% and 36% respectively), most members are balancing individual bilateral talks with a coordinated regional response led by Malaysia as the 2025 ASEAN chair. Strategies include increasing U.S. imports of energy and aircraft, leveraging the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), and implementing domestic stimulus packages, such as Thailand's USD 15 billion fund, to protect local industries.

The United States faces significant vulnerabilities in its critical mineral supply chain, relying on imports for 100% of 12 critical minerals and 50% or more for another 28 as of 2024. While the U.S. possesses deposits of many essential minerals, domestic production is hindered by permitting processes that average 16 years and the higher cost of domestic operations compared to overseas production. The document highlights the environmental risks of open-pit mining—including greenhouse gas emissions and groundwater contamination—and the specific impact on Native American reservations, where a high percentage of nickel, lithium, and cobalt resources are located. It explores secondary recovery from waste like coal ash and desalination brine as a sustainable alternative, though these methods currently face economic and technical barriers. Recent U.S. policy efforts include the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and 2025 executive orders aimed at expediting permitting and exploring deep-sea mining.

The report contends that Canadian LNG projects are high-risk investments due to capital intensity, market volatility, and declining global demand. It highlights that importers in Europe and Asia are shifting toward renewables to avoid the price spikes and supply shocks associated with LNG. The authors argue that new LNG infrastructure threatens to become stranded assets, potentially requiring further taxpayer subsidies, while simultaneously increasing global greenhouse gas emissions and delaying the energy transition.

The June roundup highlights a decline in oil production investment and a surge in clean energy spending, with solar investment nearly equaling oil production spending. It analyzes the resilience of oil markets despite conflict in the Middle East, the acceleration of peak oil demand due to electric vehicle adoption in China, and various national policy shifts in the UK, Canada, and the US. Additionally, it reports on 'world first' projects in hydrogen blending and carbon capture and storage (CCS) in the US and Norway.

The report analyzes gender inequalities in ten target countries to integrate gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) into the Global Green Bond Initiative (GGBI). It identifies systemic barriers—including gendered divisions of labor, educational gaps, and limited access to finance and property—that reduce women's resilience to climate change. The document outlines a strategy to mainstream gender into green bond issuances through gender-responsive policies, the use of gender-specific KPIs, and the appointment of gender experts to ensure equitable benefit-sharing and increased women's leadership in climate finance.

The report argues that Japan's continued reliance on imported liquefied natural gas (LNG), as outlined in its 7th Strategic Energy Plan, creates significant geopolitical security risks and threatens its 2050 net-zero target. It recommends a five-step acceleration of decarbonisation, focusing on grid modernisation, domestic renewable energy expansion, and methane abatement in the LNG supply chain.

The Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor 2025 finds that none of the 20 assessed companies demonstrate a climate strategy of 'reasonable' or 'high' integrity. The report highlights that 2030 emission reduction targets are increasingly 'unfit for purpose' due to structural obstacles, including incomplete emissions disclosures and sector-specific accounting malpractices. In the tech sector, soaring energy demand from AI and a reliance on outdated market-based accounting for electricity undermine target credibility. The automotive sector shows inadequate progress in phasing out internal combustion engines, while the fashion sector lacks commitments to reduce overproduction. The agrifood sector is criticised for relying on undefined land-based carbon removals to obscure a lack of structural emission reductions. The report argues for the adoption of transition-specific alignment targets to complement general GHG targets.

As of May 2025, China's operational solar and wind capacity reached 1.4 billion kW, surpassing fossil fuel capacity for the first time in Q1 2025. The country leads globally in planned and under-construction projects, with over 1.3 billion kW in the pipeline. While offshore wind represents only 9% of total wind capacity, China accounts for 49% of global cumulative offshore installations as of March 2025. The document highlights the role of coastal provinces like Jiangsu and Guangdong in driving this growth and suggests transitioning from local to national-level policies and adopting international bidding models to ensure long-term stability and technical innovation.

China is advancing a 1.3 TW pipeline of utility-scale solar and wind projects, with operating capacity reaching 1.4 TW by 2025. While solar and onshore wind are expanding rapidly, particularly in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, offshore wind has emerged as a global powerhouse, accounting for 50% of global capacity. However, the offshore sector faces challenges from the 2021 phaseout of national subsidies and competition from planned coal and gas capacity in coastal provinces. The document argues for a transition from provincial development to a coordinated national policy framework incorporating hybrid auction mechanisms and robust spatial planning.

The policy brief examines the barriers to phasing out oil and gas within G20 nations, noting that while renewable capacity has grown, fossil fuel subsidies and deep industrial integration persist. It advocates for measurable phase-out targets, subsidy reform, and increased concessional financing for the Global South to ensure a just energy transition.

The document examines the intersection of trade and the bioeconomy, arguing that while international trade can exacerbate biodiversity loss, it can also be leveraged through price-based, support, and regulatory measures to promote sustainability. It highlights the economic significance of biodiversity-based trade and calls for enhanced international cooperation, particularly through the G20, to align policies, remove harmful subsidies, and support low- and middle-income countries in their transition.

Ember's submission to the Independent Review of Greenhouse Gas Removals warns against overreliance on Power BECCS, citing significant delays at the Drax power station, technological uncertainty, and high costs to consumers. The document highlights that Drax's BECCS project has been delayed to the early 2030s despite substantial public subsidies and that the technology's carbon neutrality is scientifically contested. Ember notes a 60.1% decrease in estimated residual emissions to be balanced by engineered removals between the 6th and 7th Carbon Budgets. It further argues that Power BECCS creates a dangerous dependence on imported biomass, with over 99% of Drax's 2024 wood pellets being imported, primarily from North America. The report recommends winding down Drax subsidies after 2031 and prioritising decarbonisation of easier-to-abate sectors like power, buildings, and transport.

The report identifies a significant gap in India's green hydrogen sector, where announced production capacity exceeds the 2030 target of 5 million metric tons (MMT) by 2.5 times, yet commissioned capacity remains below 0.01 MMT as of 2024. To address barriers like high costs and limited infrastructure, the report outlines five strategies to unlock 2.1–5 MMT of demand by 2030: blending in high-volume sectors (0.8–3.0 MMT), substitution in niche industries (0.04–0.07 MMT), green public procurement for steel (0.4–0.6 MMT), exporting hydrogen and ammonia (0.75–1.1 MMT), and exporting hydrogen-embedded products (0.1–0.2 MMT). It also emphasizes the need for enablers such as viability gap funding, sovereign guarantees, and hydrogen hubs.

The document details the journey of Desmond, a Ghanaian entrepreneur who founded Complete Farmer in 2017 to bridge the gap between traditional farming and modern technology. The startup addresses inefficiencies in the agricultural value chain by connecting smallholder farmers with global buyers, utilizing a model inspired by Alibaba. Key challenges identified include poor infrastructure—such as road networks and storage—and a lack of local technical talent and seed funding. To mitigate these, the company established 10 fulfillment centres (six owned) to reduce post-harvest losses and implemented youth-focused recruitment and training programmes. The COVID-19 pandemic served as a turning point in 2020, increasing demand for the platform's marketplace model. While the company has seen success through international investment and incubators like MEST, it faces scaling limitations due to insufficient capital and regional infrastructure gaps.

The Institute for Energy Economics Japan (IEEJ) produces energy forecasts with significantly higher gas demand and carbon emissions than those of the IEA, ExxonMobil, and BP. This is driven by higher projected costs for solar and wind, a preference for thermal power as a backup to renewables, and optimistic forecasts for carbon capture and storage (CCS) deployment. The IEEJ maintains close ties to the Japanese government and industry, while Japan remains a major global financier and trader of gas.

The report examines climate governance, targets, monitoring processes, and compliance mechanisms in the UK, EU, Germany, US, Japan, and South Korea. It argues that monitoring frameworks are essential for translating long-term net-zero visions into actionable policies and corrective actions, specifically to support Southeast Asian nations in their energy transitions.

The report argues that while Europe possesses world-class R&D infrastructure and talent, its fusion energy sector is hindered by fragmented governance and an outdated sequential roadmap. It recommends shifting to a Key Enabling Technologies (KET)-based strategy, centralising governance under Fusion for Energy (F4E), and establishing a robust public-private partnership (PPP) framework to support startups and prevent 'brain drain' to the U.S. and China.