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The document discusses the necessity and design of an ex ante assessment process for INDCs to ensure alignment with international objectives and build trust among UNFCCC Parties, highlighting three key decision points for COP 20 in Lima.

The World Resources Institute (WRI) welcomes the 2014 climate pledges from the U.S. and China, noting that the U.S. target of cutting emissions 26-28% below 2005 levels by 2025 and China's goal to peak emissions around 2030 provide critical momentum for the Paris agreement. While praising the cooperation, WRI emphasizes that China's emissions should peak before 2030 to mitigate severe climate impacts and urges both nations to exceed their initial targets to leverage low-carbon economic opportunities.

The author contends that the climate crisis and poverty are linked, requiring a radical shift toward social justice and sustainability. Using Portugal as an example, the text highlights how renewable energy can drive GDP growth and job creation, while criticizing austerity measures and the lack of public awareness in Portugal, where only 6% of the population views climate change as a serious problem.

The author describes a shift in the climate movement following the failure of the 2009 Copenhagen summit, noting the emergence of a 'green, circular economy' and decentralized energy projects. It urges Green parties to represent these citizen-led demands—specifically the abandonment of fossil fuels and the increase of renewable energy—during the run-up to COP 21 in Paris to ensure that alternative, sustainable models become the political norm.

The author contends that the global ecological crisis and social poverty are linked, requiring a radical political shift toward sustainability and social justice. Using Portugal as an example, the text highlights the severe climate risks facing the Iberian Peninsula—including water scarcity, soil degradation, and rising sea levels—while noting that Portuguese public and political discourse remains dominated by short-term economic concerns and austerity. Despite this, the document points to the success of Portugal's renewable energy sector, which provided 27% of the country's energy and created 40,000 jobs in 2013, as evidence that climate policy can drive economic growth and employment.

The CFAS Guide outlines the state of climate finance negotiations leading up to COP20 in Lima. It details the goal of mobilizing 100 billion USD annually by 2020, the role of the Standing Committee on Finance (SCF) in monitoring financial flows, and the operational progress of the Green Climate Fund (GCF), Adaptation Fund, and Global Environment Facility (GEF). The document emphasizes the need for predictability in funding, the balance between mitigation and adaptation, and the development of measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) systems for climate support.

Carbon Market Watch criticizes EU leaders for adopting a 2030 climate deal that it argues weakens emission reductions to 31% due to excess permits and provides up to €300 billion in subsidies to industry. Separately, the organization highlights human rights abuses and lack of consultation affecting indigenous communities in Guatemala associated with the UN-registered Santa Rita hydroelectric project.

The ACT 2015 consortium proposes five key ingredients for a successful 2015 global climate agreement: a clear long-term goal (including net zero by 2050), a commitment to non-regression of national targets, a five-year cycle for strengthening commitments, the integration of independent expert analysis, and a transparent progress assessment mechanism.

The text calls for world leaders to move beyond declarations and establish a binding global climate pact, citing the IPCC's findings on human-induced warming and the scale of the People’s Climate Mobilization on September 21, 2014, as evidence of the urgent need for coordinated international action on emissions and renewable energy.

The March 2014 Bonn Climate Change Conference served as the first negotiating session of the year for UNFCCC Parties to identify elements for a new universal climate agreement and exchange views on intended nationally-determined contributions (INDCs).

The March 2014 Bonn Climate Change Conference served as a critical session for the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) to define the elements of a post-2020 universal climate agreement. A primary point of contention emerged regarding the scope of intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs), with developed nations viewing them as mitigation-only commitments while the G77/China sought to bundle them with adaptation and finance. The session also included technical workshops on renewable energy and energy efficiency to address the pre-2020 ambition gap and encourage subnational engagement.

The document describes the effort by the Green vice mayor of Vienna to transform Mariahilferstrasse, the city's most congested shopping street, into a pedestrian area. Despite exhaustive planning and a test run from August 2013 to February 2014, the project faced significant public opposition and 'collective hysteria' regarding safety. The author argues that the resistance stemmed from a clash of urban visions: one seeking a 'liveable city' with a 'radical limitation of cars' and another viewing the city merely as a place of work. Ultimately, a referendum saw 53% of citizens in the two adjacent districts vote in favour of the project. The author concludes that for the green transformation to succeed, the movement must move beyond its 'small green microcosm' and develop narratives of 'gain and of abundance' to convince majorities rather than preaching abstinence.

In the 2014 French municipal elections, Eric Piolle of the Europe Ecologie les Verts (EELV) party won the mayoralty of Grenoble with 40% of the vote in the second round. This victory is highlighted as a significant achievement for French ecologists, as it occurred without the support of the Socialist Party. The document attributes the success to a long history of ecological activism in Grenoble, a comprehensive program featuring 120 precise measures, and a coalition that included the Parti de Gauche. Piolle's victory allows him to govern without Socialist Party councillors due to the French electoral system's majority bonus.

Friends of the Earth expresses concern that EU-U.S. trade negotiations may weaken health and environmental safeguards, particularly concerning food safety, GM crops, and chemical regulations. The organization calls for the blocking of the Keystone XL pipeline and the implementation of the EU's Fuel Quality Directive to prevent the proliferation of tar sands. Additionally, it criticizes the 'EU 2030 package' as inadequate and argues that leaders are pursuing a corporate-driven agenda of deregulation rather than investing in energy efficiency and community-owned renewables.

The World Resources Institute (WRI) endorses President Obama's commitment to enact new emissions standards for existing power plants as part of the Climate Action Plan. WRI argues that such standards can drive innovation and economic opportunity, noting that the average U.S. coal plant is nearly 40 years old. The statement emphasizes that U.S. domestic leadership is essential to meeting its international commitment to reduce emissions by 17% below 2005 levels by 2020 and to securing a universal climate agreement in Paris in 2015.

The SB 40 conference in Bonn saw limited progress on reforming Kyoto Protocol mechanisms and defining a framework for various mitigation approaches, though 60 nations agreed to phase out fossil fuels by mid-century. Negotiations on the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Joint Implementation (JI) were largely postponed to future sessions in Lima, while discussions continued on including land-use sectors in the CDM and the role of local stakeholder consultation.

The World Resources Institute outlines five priority areas for the Green Climate Fund (GCF) Board's fifth meeting in Paris: defining funding focus, mobilizing predictable financial resources, ensuring equitable distribution between adaptation and mitigation, building diverse partnerships, and optimizing financial incentives for investors. The briefing emphasizes that current commitments, such as the US$100 billion annual pledge by developed countries, are insufficient compared to the estimated annual needs of developing countries, which could reach $565 billion for mitigation and $70-100 billion for adaptation by 2030.

The author expresses skepticism that current green technologies, such as renewables and electric vehicles, can drive a 'Green Industrial Revolution' (GIR) similar to the steam engine or electricity. While the potential market for energy services is substantial, the author argues that these technologies are unlikely to produce the drastic direct productivity gains (price drops) or the profound indirect economic reorganizations necessary to stimulate a decades-long growth wave. Instead, the author suggests that significant growth would require either hypothetical technological breakthroughs or 'techno-autonomous' reorganizations like the functionality economy.

Over 440 labour and social lawyers from Europe have issued a manifesto calling on the European Union to protect fundamental social rights against the pressures of the economic and financial crisis. The signatories argue that austerity measures and labour market deregulaton—often forced by the 'troika' (IMF, European Commission, and ECB)—are undermining collective bargaining, increasing poverty, and threatening the viability of the European project. They urge the EU to adhere to the Lisbon Treaty and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, asserting that high labour and social standards are essential pre-conditions for sustainable economic development.

The report examines how ICTs impact sustainability across first, second, and third-order effects. It criticizes the Rio+20 summit for failing to systematically address the information society and calls for a new, multistakeholder approach to bridge the paradigm gap between the ICT and sustainable development communities.