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The document examines Russia's soft-power strategy in Africa, noting that while Russia is primarily associated with hard power, it leverages Soviet-era legacies, education, and anti-Western narratives to attract African elites and populations. It identifies key strengths in the promotion of multipolarity and traditional values, while highlighting limitations such as insufficient financial resources and the mixed results of vaccine diplomacy.

The WWF-US Corporate Partnership Report for FY2021 outlines the organization's strategic approach to private sector engagement, categorizing partnerships into sustainable business practices, communications and awareness, philanthropy, and employee engagement. The report lists numerous corporate partners across various budget tiers, highlighting specific collaborations on issues such as plastic waste, deforestation, and climate targets. In FY21, income from these corporate partnerships accounted for 3% of the WWF-US office's total income.

The report argues that EPR should be a core component of the EU's strategy for sustainable textiles to operationalise the 'polluter pays' principle and reduce over-consumption. It recommends a harmonised EU-wide approach to EPR, including a consistent definition of 'producer', a broad scope of in-scope products, and the use of eco-modulation to incentivise better design. Because EPR alone cannot address all environmental, social, and animal welfare impacts, the report proposes a suite of complementary measures, such as banning hazardous chemicals, implementing minimum eco-design requirements for durability and repairability, and introducing recycled content targets. The authors advocate for a single, industry-owned, not-for-profit EPR scheme per Member State to better coordinate strategic infrastructure investment and data reporting.

The author contends that Bosnia-Herzegovina is facing a severe crisis of state stability, not due to dormant ethnic conflict, but because of a political elite that uses ethnic nationalism to maintain power and protect clientelist networks. The document highlights the destabilising actions of leaders like Milorad Dodik and Dragan Čović, who use blocking tactics and threats of secession to extort the national government. It criticises the international community, specifically the EU and US, for a passive 'carrot and stick' approach and superficial negotiations that fail to deter unconstitutional politics, warning that the current trajectory could lead to the de facto secession of the Republika Srpska and the dissolution of the state.

The policy brief examines the long-standing tension between the World Trade Organization's (WTO) focus on trade liberalization and the need for environmental protection. It highlights the failure of the Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE) to produce recommendations and the persistence of harmful subsidies in agriculture, fisheries, and fossil fuels. The author argues that the WTO must integrate science-policy interfaces and prioritize sustainable development to support the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, noting recent member-led initiatives on plastics and climate as potential paths forward.

The document refutes the 'green inflation' myth, asserting that solar and wind are the cheapest forms of new electricity generation in 90% of the world. It contrasts the 'experience curves' of renewable technologies, where costs drop as deployment doubles, with the volatile commodity pricing of fossil fuels. While short-term supply chain disruptions and material shortages, such as polysilicon, have caused temporary price hikes, the long-term structural trend remains downward. The text concludes that transitioning to renewables will reduce global energy expenditures from 3.2% of GDP to less than 1.6% by mid-century.

The document examines the shift from physical to digital public spaces, highlighting the rise of 'surveillance capitalism' and 'data colonization' by tech giants and states. It defines 'democratic public communication spaces' as those that strengthen excluded voices and guarantee data sovereignty. The authors warn of 'voice poverty' and the erasure of linguistic diversity, noting that only 7% of the world's languages appear online. To combat these injustices, the paper recommends revitalizing public interest media, supporting community-managed infrastructure, and implementing comprehensive media literacy training.

The statement examines the intersection of digital transformation, human rights, and democracy. It highlights how 'surveillance capitalism' and algorithmic bias threaten human autonomy and equality, while disinformation and hate speech undermine the democratic public sphere. The author advocates for global regulatory frameworks, such as the EU's GDPR and Digital Services Act, to protect informational self-determination and ensure inclusive digital participation.

The briefing analyzes the proposed return of U.S. nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missiles (SLCMs) from a Japanese security perspective. It argues that the capabilities once sought by Japan—such as low yield, stealth, and survivability—are already provided by other modernized U.S. assets, including the W76-2 low-yield SLBM warhead, B61-12 bombs, and long-range stand-off (LRSO) missiles. The author concludes that nuclear SLCMs would be a duplicative capability with low marginal benefit, especially given China's increasing anti-access and anti-denial (A2/AD) capabilities.

The briefing outlines critical areas of focus for Africa in 2022, including democratic transitions in eighteen countries, the management of military coups in states like Mali and Sudan, and the fight against terrorism in regions such as the Lake Chad Basin. It highlights Africa's priorities for COP27, specifically the need for climate finance, technology transfer, and a just transition that supports industrialisation. Additionally, it examines the evolution of China-Africa relations following the FOCAC Ministerial Meeting and the potential impact of China's debt on Kenya's elections.

The report examines the global trend of establishing green taxonomies to define sustainable economic activities and reduce 'greenwashing'. It details three primary methodology types: whitelist-based, technical screening criteria-based, and principle-based. A significant portion of the document compares the EU's six-objective framework with China's three-objective system, highlighting the 'Common Ground Taxonomy' as a tool to improve interoperability between the two markets. The report concludes that while taxonomies are essential for product development and risk management, challenges remain regarding data quality and the need to incorporate transition guidelines for high-emission industries.

The report examines the rise of green taxonomies as classification systems to identify sustainable economic activities and reduce greenwashing. It identifies three primary development approaches: whitelist-based, technical screening criteria (TSC) based, and principle-based. A central focus is the alignment between the EU and China taxonomies via the International Platform on Sustainable Finance (IPSF) and the Common Ground Taxonomy (CGT), which aims to facilitate cross-border green capital flows. The document details how these taxonomies are implemented by regulators for mandatory disclosure and by financial intermediaries for product development and risk management.

The Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor 2022 assesses 25 multinational companies, finding that most 'net zero' pledges are ambiguous and lack deep emission reduction commitments. The report highlights a systemic reliance on low-quality carbon offsets and renewable energy certificates (RECs) that often fail to provide additional climate benefits. While a few companies demonstrate leadership in renewable energy procurement and value chain engagement, the overall integrity of corporate climate strategies remains low, with many targets falling short of the 1.5C Paris Agreement goal.

The EU ETS is a 'cap and trade' system covering power, industry, and aviation across the EU and several other European nations. While it has successfully reduced emissions in the power sector, the document argues that free allocation of permits has led to stagnant industrial emissions and significant windfall profits for companies. The guide details the role of the Market Stability Reserve in managing oversupply and discusses the proposed Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism as a potential replacement for carbon leakage protections.

The report analyzes the evolution of biological weapons threats from the 1940s to the 2010s, noting a shift from battlefield utility and strategic deterrence toward hybrid warfare and assassination tools. It argues that the COVID-19 pandemic acts as a 'game changer' that could either trigger a new era of proliferation or foster unprecedented international cooperation. The authors propose three future scenarios: one where bioweapons become a key component of deterrence, one where the world pivots toward collective biosecurity, and a hybrid world of ambiguous threats driven by disinformation. The report concludes that U.S. policy must rebalance its focus from bioterrorism to state-based threats and increase funding for biodefense.

The report finds that the 2020 target of restoring 150 million hectares of forest was not met, with only 18% achieved by 2019. It highlights the difficulty of monitoring restoration progress due to the limitations of satellite data and notes that in regions like Central America, gross tree cover gains have been offset by higher rates of loss. The document argues that achieving the 2030 goal requires transforming the enabling environment through quantified targets, strengthened policy and finance, and more consistent monitoring frameworks.

The report argues that while COVID-19 provided a temporary respite for the environment, it exacerbated social inequalities and led to a rebound in carbon emissions. It contends that current 'green recovery' efforts are insufficient, primarily limited to wealthy nations and focused narrowly on decarbonisation while neglecting nature and social justice. The authors advocate for a structural shift toward a circular economy, nature-based solutions, and innovative finance like debt-for-nature swaps to ensure a sustainable and equitable transition.

In 2021, China's coal-fired power construction reached its highest level since 2016, with 33 GW of new capacity starting construction. Despite carbon neutrality targets, investment in long-process steel remains high, with China accounting for 85% of global new long-process capacity. The report warns that these investments lock in coal dependency and risk creating stranded assets valued at hundreds of billions of dollars. While there is growth in electric arc furnace (EAF) steel and renewable energy targets, the scale of new fossil-fuel infrastructure continues to outpace the transition needed to meet Paris Agreement goals.

The document reports a surge in China's coal power construction and coal-based steelmaking investments in 2021, contradicting the country's carbon neutrality goals. It highlights that 33 GW of new coal power plants started construction in 2021 and 74 million tonnes of coal-based steelmaking capacity were approved. The report warns that these investments risk creating billions of dollars in stranded assets and lock the sectors into coal dependency, while noting a simultaneous but insufficient scale-up of clean energy.

Global Energy Monitor identifies 193,400 km of gas pipelines in construction or pre-construction, representing a US$485.8 billion stranded asset risk. The report highlights that China, India, Russia, Australia, the U.S., and Brazil are leading this expansion despite IEA warnings that gas usage must peak soon to align with the 1.5°C net-zero scenario. While some financial institutions and 39 countries have committed to ending public finance for fossil fuels by 2022, the gas industry continues to push for massive infrastructure growth, often justified by the potential for future hydrogen upcycling.