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This fact sheet describes green bonds as fixed-income instruments earmarked for environmental projects, highlighting that energy and buildings receive the largest share of recent allocations (~30% each). It details the roles of institutional investors and MDBs—such as the World Bank and EIB—and outlines the technical requirements, costs (including a typical greenium of 2–5 bps), and timelines for issuing these instruments.

The report examines how the European Union's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is incentivising exporting countries to establish domestic carbon pricing systems to retain revenues and reduce trade costs.

Smart grid investments in ASEAN could create up to 650,000 jobs and attract global industrial investment by providing reliable, low-carbon energy. To scale from current pilot projects to a regional system, the report suggests a dual-track approach: regional harmonisation of technical standards and national focus on financial cost recovery. The total investment need for the region is estimated at $4-10.7 billion.

In the first half of 2025, China, India, the EU, and the US accounted for 63% of global electricity demand and 64% of power sector CO2 emissions. While China and India saw declines in fossil fuel generation and emissions due to clean energy growth outpacing demand, the US and EU experienced increases in emissions, driven by demand growth in the US and declines in wind and hydro output in the EU.

In the first half of 2025, global solar and wind generation grew sufficiently to exceed total electricity demand growth, resulting in renewables overtaking coal in the global electricity mix for the first time. While global power sector CO2 emissions fell marginally by 0.2%, results varied by region, with emissions decreasing in China and India but increasing in the US and EU.

The report 'Global Electricity Mid-Year Insights 2025' by Ember analyzes global electricity generation from January to June 2025. It finds that solar and wind growth exceeded global demand growth, leading to renewables overtaking coal's share in the global electricity mix for the first time on record and causing power sector CO2 emissions to plateau.

This research paper by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute examines how the United States can reduce its heavy reliance on critical mineral imports through circular economy strategies, specifically focusing on recycling and secondary recovery from waste streams like acid mine drainage and phosphate fertilizer byproducts.

The IDFC Green Finance Mapping Report 2025 provides an executive summary of green finance commitments made by members of the International Development Finance Club (IDFC) in 2024. It details the distribution of climate and biodiversity finance, noting a 13% decrease in total green finance commitments compared to 2023, while highlighting the continued dominance of mitigation finance and the growth of adaptation finance.

This briefing by the World Resources Institute (WRI) presents a financial case for climate adaptation, arguing that such investments are highly profitable and synergistic with general development goals. Based on an analysis of 320 projects, WRI finds that adaptation investments can yield significant returns through a 'triple dividend' of avoided losses, induced economic development, and additional social and environmental benefits.

This research paper analyzes Nigeria's potential to become a key supplier of critical minerals (such as lithium, cobalt, and copper) for the global energy transition. While Nigeria possesses vast reserves valued at over USD 700 billion, the sector is hindered by severe underinvestment in exploration and a lack of functional processing infrastructure. The report emphasizes a shift toward domestic value addition—rejecting raw ore exports in favor of local battery and component manufacturing—and highlights the influence of foreign investments, particularly from China. It recommends a comprehensive national strategy and massive infrastructure investment to move from raw material extraction to high-value downstream production.

This report by Ember analyzes the challenge of solar and wind energy curtailment in Chile, where renewable generation has grown rapidly but is hindered by limited transmission and storage capacity. It proposes a phased package of policy and technical measures—including battery storage, dynamic line rating, and demand response markets—to reduce waste and maximize the potential of Chile's clean energy resources over the next five years.

This policy brief by Ember analyzes the challenge of renewable energy curtailment (vertimientos) in Chile, where solar and wind generation have grown rapidly but are hindered by transmission bottlenecks and a lack of system flexibility. The document proposes a 'Clean Flexibility Kit' of short, medium, and long-term measures—including battery storage, dynamic line rating, and demand response markets—to maximize the use of clean energy and reduce economic losses for investors.

The September 2025 edition of the Carbon Minefields Oil and Gas Exploration Monitor reports on global oil and gas licensing activity, highlighting a trend of continued expansion despite climate targets. The document tracks the awarding of new exploration licences, the associated capital expenditure by major energy companies, and the projected carbon emissions resulting from these activities.

This report by the Climate Policy Initiative analyzes the scale and diversity of the forest-climate nexus across 91 tropical countries. It quantifies forest extent, carbon stocks, and deforestation rates to argue for differentiated, fit-for-purpose policy strategies rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. The analysis concludes that there is no inherent trade-off between forest conservation and economic development.

The executive summary of the 2025 Stocktake report by the Net Zero Tracker analyzes the prevalence and integrity of net-zero targets across national, subnational, and corporate entities as of September 2025, noting a rise in total targets despite political headwinds and significant gaps in target robustness.

This report analyzes the impact of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), signed in July 2025, on the advanced energy manufacturing sector in the United States. While the act provides tax certainty and introduces 'full expensing' for capital investments, it creates significant headwinds for solar, wind, and electric vehicle (EV) sectors through the early termination of clean energy tax credits and stricter foreign entity of concern (FEOC) restrictions regarding Chinese supply chains. The report suggests that future investment should prioritize grid equipment, geothermal, nuclear, and next-generation energy technologies where domestic demand continues to exceed capacity.

The research paper analyzes South Africa's Critical Minerals and Metals Strategy for South Africa (CMMSSA), released on 20 May 2025. The strategy aims to leverage the country's mineral wealth to drive industrialization and economic growth during the global energy transition. While the paper acknowledges the strategy's ambitious vision and integrated approach, it highlights significant risks regarding institutional capacity, regulatory contradictions with the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA), and a lack of concrete justice frameworks for affected communities.

This fact sheet by the World Resources Institute outlines the current state of the global circular economy, emphasizing the urgent need to reduce resource consumption to combat climate change and biodiversity loss. It highlights the disparity in material footprints between high- and low-income populations, the leadership and challenges of the European Union, and the stagnation of global resource productivity since 2000.

The document outlines the unsustainability of China's fossil fuel-driven economic model, citing high import dependence for oil and gas, the finite nature of coal reserves, and significant environmental degradation including carbon emissions that constitute one-third of the global total.

The China Energy Transition Review 2025 by Ember analyzes China's rapid shift toward clean energy and electrification, detailing how its domestic policies and manufacturing scale are driving down global costs and pushing global fossil fuel demand toward a structural decline.