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The Nature4Cities Latam project is a 24-month readiness initiative designed to address barriers to the adoption of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) in six selected secondary cities across Cuba, Ecuador, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic. The project focuses on strengthening the knowledge base, reinforcing policy frameworks, fostering private sector partnerships, and developing innovative climate finance strategies. Key deliverables include city-level vulnerability and GHG assessments, Nature-Based Urban adaptation and mitigation Plans, and a regional online platform for knowledge sharing. The initiative aims to transition from pilot assessments to a pipeline of fundable project concept notes for the Green Climate Fund.

The report advocates for the establishment of a UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Climate Change to address the holistic impact of the climate crisis on human rights. Based on consultations with 157 participants across 55 countries, it argues that a dedicated mandate would ensure consistency in how the Human Rights Council addresses climate change, increase accountability for state and non-state actors, and protect vulnerable groups, including Indigenous Peoples and environmental defenders. The document outlines regional priorities—such as addressing climate debt in Africa and climate displacement in Asia and the Pacific—and emphasizes the need for the role to be supported by sufficient financial resources and political will from Member States.

The report advocates for a UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and climate change, detailing regional priorities and global consensus on the need for a rights-based approach to climate action.

The 'Voices from the Frontline of Covid-19' project, led by CDKN and ICCCAD, documented 50 stories from June 2020 to October 2021 to understand how vulnerable communities navigate the combined impacts of the pandemic and climate change. The project emphasizes the role of spontaneous community organizing, particularly leadership from women and young people, in maintaining progress toward Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) including food security, health, and climate action. The document urges policy-makers to devolve decision-making to the local level, co-fund micro-finance mechanisms, and partner flexibly with local civil society organizations to build resilience against future shocks.

The 2021 Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Index reveals a slowing pace of global improvement and widening disparities in women's status. While developed countries, particularly Nordic nations, lead the index, fragile states and regions like South Asia perform poorly. The report highlights how the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing inequalities, particularly through job losses in female-dominated sectors and increased risks of intimate partner violence. Additionally, new indices for forcibly displaced women and subnational data for Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the United States demonstrate that national averages often conceal severe internal disparities and the compounding disadvantages of displacement.

Cooling access gaps for the rural and urban poor grew across all analyzed regions in 2021. In Africa, 776 million people across 31 high-impact countries face cooling challenges, with 215 million urban poor at highest risk. In Asia and the Middle East, the population at highest risk rose to 645 million in 2021, with significant rural poor increases in India and Bangladesh. In Latin America and the Caribbean, the number of people at highest risk in six high-impact countries reached 48.8 million, with the majority being the urban poor.

The document argues that climate change creates systemic, transboundary risks to food security that cannot be managed through traditional national strategies like diversification. Using a 'stress test' methodology, it identifies critical vulnerabilities in the trade of maize, rice, wheat, soy, sugar cane, and coffee, highlighting that a few major exporters—such as the US, Brazil, and China—transmit significant risk to global consumers. The authors call for a shift from national adaptation to a cooperative multilateral approach, utilizing frameworks like the Paris Agreement's Global Goal on Adaptation and rethinking climate finance to target systemic resilience in global commodity markets.

The report by Friends of the Earth Latin America and the Caribbean (ATALC) examines how Transnational Corporations (TNCs) drive a capitalist system of accumulation through extractivism and the commercialization of services. It highlights the 'architecture of impunity'—including Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanisms—that allows TNCs to avoid accountability for environmental destruction and human rights abuses. The document details the impacts of agribusiness, forestry, mining, and energy sectors, noting that more than two-thirds of global territory defenders killed in 2019 were in Latin America. It advocates for a UN Binding Treaty to regulate TNCs and a transition toward an economy based on the sustainability of life and peoples' sovereignty.

The report by Friends of the Earth Latin America and the Caribbean (ATALC) analyzes how transnational corporations (TNCs) exercise disproportionate economic and political power to exploit natural resources and labor in Latin America and the Caribbean. It details the 'architecture of impunity' created by trade agreements and investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanisms, which allow TNCs to avoid accountability for human rights and environmental violations. The document categorizes impacts across extractivism, agribusiness, forestry, mining, energy, and services, highlighting the specific burdens on women and the criminalization of land defenders. It advocates for a legally binding UN treaty to regulate TNCs and a transition from a capitalist, extractivist model to one based on popular sovereignty and sustainability.

The report concludes that Goal 6 was met through the adoption of SDG 15, but highlights significant gaps in how forest conservation is measured and reported. It notes that indicators for SDG target 15.2 measure net rather than gross deforestation, failing to capture the extent of natural forest loss. Furthermore, the report warns that SDG targets 15.1 and 15.2 were set to expire in 2020 without adopted revisions. Reporting challenges persist at national levels, with many countries lacking the data and statistical systems needed to track progress, while corporate reporting on SDGs remains largely superficial.

The document argues that Mexico's food systems can drive a just recovery by integrating sustainable practices in the primary sector, shortening distribution chains, and improving public nutrition. It highlights the vulnerability of the sector to the climate crisis and the exacerbation of food insecurity and malnutrition caused by the pandemic. Key recommendations include reorienting agricultural subsidies toward crop diversification, implementing sustainability certifications for exporters, supporting small and medium producers with organic fertilizers and digital commerce, and aligning public food procurement with nutritional health standards.

The guide argues that traditional mining tax regimes, primarily based on corporate income tax and royalties, are outdated and vulnerable to profit shifting. It highlights how the energy transition, disruptive technologies like AI and automation, and climate change are altering the economic landscape of the extractive sector. The document proposes a three-step dialogue process involving governments, industry, and civil society to identify innovative fiscal reforms that ensure sustainable and equitable revenue collection for resource-rich developing nations.

The Green Climate Fund's overall pipeline as of July 2020 consists of 438 projects with a total value of $69,258M, including $20,392M in GCF funding and $48,866M in co-financing. The pipeline is divided between the Public Sector (DMA) and Private Sector (PSF), with the majority of projects and funding allocated to the Public Sector. Geographically, Asia-Pacific holds the highest total project value at $28,227M, followed by Africa at $23,453M. Thematically, cross-cutting projects represent the largest number of projects (200), while mitigation projects have the highest total value ($27,147M). The pipeline is further split into funding proposals (109 projects) and concept notes (329 projects).

The research investigates the hypothesis that African agricultural exporters could substitute for US goods rendered expensive by tariffs. Using trade data from 2017 to 2019, the author finds that while African exports to China grew, the rate of growth declined over time and was significantly lower than that of competitors in Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean. The paper argues that Africa has been unable to fully capitalise on the trade war due to a lack of state incentives, poor manufacturing sectors, and a failure to develop specific industries like pork, despite the potential created by the African swine flu in China.

The IAI and SECTEI have signed a letter of intent to collaborate on science diplomacy and government scientific advisory, specifically focusing on global environmental change and sustainable development. A primary initial activity is the integration of Mexico City scientific advisors into the IAI Science, Technology and Policy Fellowship (STeP) program. Under this agreement, SECTEI will propose at least four fellows for the 2020-2021 period and manage their institutional conditions, while the IAI will provide professional training, fund two international trips per fellow, and facilitate international networking. The collaboration aims to strengthen the 'Catedra de Diplomacia y Patrimonio de la Ciencia' and the 'Programa de Estancias de Interfaz Ciencia-Politica de la Ciudad de México' to ensure public policy is based on scientific evidence.

The document outlines a transition from administrative to strategic public procurement in Latin America and the Caribbean, highlighting four regional case studies and ten essential components for reform to support sustainable development.

The IAI has launched the STeP Fellowship Program, starting with a pilot in Argentina's agricultural sector involving three post-doctoral scientists funded by CREA and CONICET. Modeled after the AAAS program, STeP aims to place scientists in government or private organizations to facilitate the integration of scientific knowledge into policy processes across Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI) identifies three factors driving the adoption of open science in Latin America and the Caribbean: a high reliance on public funding for research, a long history of open access initiatives dating back to the 1970s, and the creation of regional governance tools like the Escazú Agreement. The document highlights the FAPESP foundation in Brazil as a successful public funding model and advocates for the reform of scientific publishing economic models, specifically criticizing article processing charges. It suggests that South-South cooperation, including learning from ASEAN countries and the African Open Science Platform, can strengthen the Global South's voice in the international science community.

The report examines the global banana market, noting that while bananas are the most valuable traded fruit, the sector faces significant challenges including climate change, the Tropical Race 4 fungal disease, and poor farmer livelihoods. It highlights the growth of voluntary sustainability standards (VSSs), which accounted for 7% of production in 2016, and identifies opportunities to expand these standards in countries like India, China, and specific LHDCs such as Tanzania and Rwanda to improve environmental and social outcomes.

The report finds that global adaptation finance is dominated by public development finance, with a heavy concentration in water and wastewater management. While finance often aligns with the most vulnerable sectors in specific countries like Pakistan, Zambia, and Niger, significant funding gaps remain relative to Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) targets. The authors highlight critical data gaps in private sector and domestic public finance and recommend the use of new datasets from the Climate Bonds Initiative and CDP to improve tracking accuracy.