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The report advocates for a shift in the role of hydropower within global energy grids, moving away from high-impact dams toward a mix of wind, solar, storage, and low-impact hydropower. It demonstrates through modeling in Chile and Uganda that protecting free-flowing rivers and national parks has minimal impact on system costs. The document highlights the Mekong River basin as a critical area where strategic planning could prevent the loss of migratory fish biomass and delta sediment. It concludes that achieving this vision requires system-scale planning, regulatory reform, and redirected financial flows from multilateral development banks and institutional investors.

The Climate Action Tracker reports that global warming projections remain largely unchanged, with Paris Agreement commitments likely leading to 3.0°C of warming and real-world policies leading to 3.3°C. While some countries like Norway, Costa Rica, Chile, India, and South Africa show progress in decarbonisation and energy planning, others like China and Brazil show regressions in coal use and forest protection.

The report advocates for the development and deployment of zero-carbon hydrogen and ammonia to address sectors that are difficult to electrify. It details production methods such as steam methane reforming with carbon capture and storage (SMR+CCS) and electrolysis, while highlighting the scalability of ammonia due to existing global infrastructure. The document examines applications in heavy-duty transport, marine shipping, and grid-balancing, and calls for coordinated public-private initiatives to manage safety risks and establish supportive policy frameworks.

The report details the efforts and challenges of integrating human rights into the COP-24 outcomes, noting that while procedural participation in NDC planning was strengthened, substantive human rights references were often diluted or removed from final texts. It also documents the restriction of civil liberties by the Polish government during the conference and highlights specific policy areas, such as the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform and the Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss & Damage, where human rights frameworks were maintained or advanced.

The report examines Plan S, an initiative by European research funders to ensure full and immediate open access to publicly funded research. The authors argue that by primarily permitting Gold Open Access, Plan S may exclude researchers from 86% of all scientific journals and 97% of leading international journals. The document highlights risks to research quality, the potential for increased financial barriers via author payment (APCs), and negative impacts on the career trajectories of early-career researchers and marginalized groups. It concludes that the overall effect on the societal value of research is uncertain and recommends a formal impact assessment by Norwegian authorities.

The report examines Plan S, an initiative by European research funders to ensure immediate open access to publicly funded research by January 1, 2020. The authors argue that by primarily permitting Gold Open Access (Gold OA) journals, the plan may exclude researchers from 86% of all academic journals and 97% of leading journals. The analysis suggests that the author-pays model via Article Processing Charges (APCs) may not cover the actual costs of high-quality publishing, potentially leading to a decline in research quality, the rise of predatory journals, and increased inequalities for researchers in low-income countries or those in early career stages. Furthermore, the report highlights risks to academic freedom, international cooperation, and the reliability of research evaluations, as the loss of established journal hierarchies may introduce subjective biases in hiring and promotion.

The report examines the 'Blue Economy' of the Arctic, categorizing its resources into extractive, renewable, biological, connective, and experiential types. It highlights the immense investment potential—estimated up to US$1 trillion—and the accompanying risks of ecological collapse and social vulnerability. Through a SWOT analysis, the document identifies rapid climate change and a reliance on fossil fuel extraction as primary threats, while noting opportunities in the 'Blue Bio-Economy' and the potential to build sustainable infrastructure from the start. It concludes with six key recommendations for governments, investors, and Indigenous Peoples to ensure long-term ecosystem resilience and inclusive governance.

The Defenders in Development Campaign urges states and development finance institutions (DFIs) to integrate human rights protections into development projects, noting that defenders of land and environmental rights face extreme risks of violence and criminalization.

The We Mean Business coalition argues that while nearly 500 companies have set science-based emission reduction targets, stronger government policies are required to drive further business action. The coalition recommends specific interventions across zero-carbon grids, fleets, buildings, and agriculture, alongside broader systemic reforms including the removal of fossil fuel subsidies, the implementation of carbon pricing, and the adoption of TCFD disclosure requirements. The document emphasizes that these policies will provide the clarity and confidence businesses need for low-carbon capital investment and a just transition for workers.

The report argues that Liberia's progressive community forestry model is being hijacked by logging companies and a complicit Forestry Development Authority (FDA). Companies are using secret agreements, financial coercion, and legal loopholes to secure logging rights before communities officially obtain Authorised Forest Community status. This process often involves co-opting local elites and misleading poor, forest-dependent communities, mirroring previous scandals involving Private Use Permits (PUPs). The report highlights the role of Samling Global-linked companies and warns that these practices risk triggering land disputes and deforestation, undermining Liberia's climate commitments to Norway.

The document examines how host governments can stimulate direct local employment in mining to drive socioeconomic growth and maintain a social licence to operate. It outlines a five-step process for developing local employment policies: assessing the sector's role in national development, evaluating labour supply and demand, setting goals, formulating policies, and monitoring outcomes. The report categorizes interventions into regulatory 'stick' policies—such as employment quotas, mandated training, and visa restrictions—and facilitative 'carrot' policies, including bidding preferences, fiscal incentives, and support for training facilities. It emphasizes the need for context-specific strategies that address gender inequality and the inclusion of Indigenous Peoples, while warning that automation and technological trends may shift future workforce requirements.

The document examines the shift in international investment governance as countries move toward 'new-generation' model investment treaties. It highlights how states are revising their models to correct problematic language, integrate sustainable development goals, and limit the use of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). The text details specific national approaches from Canada, the Netherlands, India, Nigeria, and Brazil, while noting a general trend toward more transparent, consultative processes in drafting these agreements.

The report analyzes local content policies (LCPs) used by mineral-rich nations to increase the use of domestic labor, goods, and services in the mining sector. It details various policy instruments—ranging from mandatory quotas and ownership requirements to government incentives and voluntary business initiatives—and examines their practical application in countries such as Norway, Chile, Ghana, and Brazil. The document argues that LCPs often fail when implemented as blanket provisions without clear objectives or sufficient industrial capacity. It identifies critical prerequisites for success, including institutional readiness, a favorable business climate, and a long-term vision that transcends political cycles. The report concludes that effective LCPs require a combination of quantitative and qualitative measures, robust monitoring through key performance indicators, and strong partnerships between governments, mining firms, and local suppliers to ensure sustainable economic diversification.

The report examines downstream beneficiation—the domestic processing of raw materials—noting that policies are often driven by political goals rather than economic analysis. It identifies key prerequisites for success, including guaranteed market demand, infrastructure, and inexpensive energy, while arguing that proximity to raw materials is increasingly less important than proximity to consumers. The document analyzes five policy options: incentives, prescriptive measures, negotiations, bidding, and government-led investments, highlighting that without a strong business case, these can lead to inefficient 'white elephant' projects. It concludes with recommendations for governments to use market and cost-benefit analyses, including considerations for environmental externalities and the risk of stranded assets in the oil and gas sector due to global decarbonization targets.

The document argues against a sequential model of research where results are merely 'translated' for stakeholders at the end of a project. Instead, it advocates for knowledge co-creation, an inclusive process where stakeholders are involved from the design phase through data analysis and communication. Using examples from the 'Active Citizenship in Culturally and Religiously Diverse Societies' (ACT) project, the brief demonstrates how interactive workshops and conferences can facilitate the exchange of experiential and professional knowledge. It concludes that while this approach increases relevance, new evaluation mechanisms are needed to capture the unpredictable, bottom-up nature of its societal impact.

The report provides a detailed scoring guide and evaluation of eight fossil fuel companies—Arch Coal, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, CONSOL Energy, ExxonMobil, Peabody Energy, and Royal Dutch Shell—on their disclosure of climate-related risks. Using a scale from 'Egregious' to 'Advanced', the Union of Concerned Scientists assesses how these companies report on regulatory changes, physical climate impacts, market shifts, and internal governance. The findings indicate that while some companies provide detailed analysis of regulatory risks, most fail to adequately link physical risks to climate change or provide specific details on climate-related corporate governance.

The report analyzes the HYBRIT process, which replaces coal with hydrogen for the direct reduction of iron ore combined with an electric arc furnace to create fossil-free steel. While technically feasible and potentially cost-competitive depending on electricity and carbon prices, the transition faces systemic barriers including high investment risks, the need for large-scale electrolysis infrastructure, and the risk of carbon leakage in a globally competitive market.

The author suggests that the Talanoa Dialogue should be used as a platform for countries to share and replicate successful low-carbon policies. Based on a specific scenario, replicating successful policies in sectors covering 65% of global emissions could reduce emissions by approximately 10 GtCO2e by 2030 compared to current policies, effectively halving the reductions needed to keep temperature rise below 2 °C.

The Trump Administration's Safe Affordable Fuel-Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles Rule loosens carbon emissions standards for passenger cars and light trucks for 2021-2026 and rolls back the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) program. The author contends that these rules are detrimental to human health and the climate, and will likely fail to stop the global transition to a clean economy as international markets for combustion vehicles shrink and countries like Britain, France, Norway, India, and China move toward banning new gasoline and diesel vehicles by 2030 or 2040.

The study assesses the 2018 heatwave in Northern Europe using observational data and climate models to determine the role of human-induced warming. It finds that the probability of such an event has increased across the region, with the most significant increases in probability estimated in Ireland, Denmark, and the Netherlands. While the heat was most extreme in the high Arctic (northern Finland), where it exceeded historical records, the risk ratio was more easily quantified in southern regions. The authors conclude that anthropogenic climate change made these heatwaves more likely, though the exact magnitude of the increase is harder to quantify in Scandinavia due to high natural variability.