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The document explores the evolving relationship between Korea and Africa, focusing on how Korea's carbon-neutrality goals and technological expertise can support Africa's climate resilience. It identifies key areas for partnership, including renewable energy, green minerals for batteries, smart city development, and climate-resilient agriculture, while emphasizing the need for these initiatives to be African-led and aligned with the AU's strategic framework.

The document examines the challenges African countries face in accessing sustainable finance for regional infrastructure, noting a significant financing deficit and a lack of bankable projects. It highlights the disparity between climate mitigation and adaptation finance, arguing that adaptation is more critical for Africa's vulnerability. The brief analyzes the ASEAN regional approach—specifically its sustainability taxonomies and the ASEAN Catalytic Green Finance Facility—as a model for Africa. It evaluates current AU initiatives, such as the Alliance for Green Infrastructure in Africa and the Green Infrastructure Corridor for Intra-African Trade, and recommends integrating sustainability more deeply into AfCFTA protocols to attract investment and enhance climate resilience.

The toolkit outlines a systematic approach for capital market regulators in emerging markets to identify institutional gaps and strengthen their capacity. It introduces the DAART framework (Define success, Align stakeholders, Assemble resources, Respect sensitivities, and Tailor for results) to ensure assessments are context-specific and actionable. The guide emphasizes the dual role of regulators in emerging markets—supervising and developing markets—and provides a methodology for prioritizing gaps based on impact and feasibility to create a 'pitch deck' for securing external funding and technical assistance.

The Project Preparation Facility (PPF) has disbursed and committed USD 32.8 million (82% of its USD 40 million allocation) to support the development of climate funding proposals. To date, PPF support has enabled 11 approved funding proposals totaling nearly USD 3.0 billion in investment. The Secretariat has reduced processing times by 84% through streamlined approvals and introduced simplified funding and service modalities to better support direct access entities (DAEs). To cover a pipeline of 28 active requests and anticipated new needs, the document requests an additional USD 18.0 million for the remainder of GCF-1.

The Fair Cooling Fund provided USD 600,000 in grants to seven organizations to develop sustainable cold chain and cool home solutions. These investments unlocked an additional USD 1.37 million and supported projects in India, Ghana, Colombia, Egypt, and Rwanda, focusing on increasing incomes for smallholder farmers and reducing indoor and outdoor temperatures for low-income urban residents.

The document examines the potential of information and communication technologies (ICT) to improve economic accessibility in the Legal Amazon. It reviews global evidence showing that mobile and broadband services increase productivity, employment, and market access in developing regions. In the Legal Amazon, the brief identifies significant gaps in 3G/4G mobile internet access in rural areas and broadband access in both urban and rural sectors compared to the rest of Brazil, recommending targeted infrastructure investments to overcome these barriers.

The document examines the role of Africa in the global AI supply chain and the risks posed by the dominance of foreign AI firms, particularly from China and the Global North. It highlights specific harms including predatory financial offers via digital IDs in South Africa, human rights violations through facial recognition in Uganda and South Africa, and exploitative 'click work' in Kenyan refugee camps. The brief reviews emerging national AI strategies in Mauritius, Egypt, and Rwanda, and the SMARTAfrica 'Blueprint on Artificial Intelligence for Africa'. It argues that while EU frameworks like the AI Act and GDPR provide some guidance on human rights, they often fail to address African socio-economic realities, such as the gender digital divide and infrastructure deficits. The author recommends that African governments focus on building sustainable local AI ecosystems, enhancing regional data cooperation via the AfCFTA, and ensuring the economic participation of local communities.

The document examines the impact of AI in Africa, highlighting risks such as predatory data use in South Africa, surveillance in Uganda, and the exploitation of 'click work' in Kenyan refugee camps. It reviews national AI strategies in Egypt, Mauritius, and Rwanda, and the SMARTAfrica Blueprint, while cautioning against the uncritical transfer of EU regulatory models like the GDPR. The author recommends that African governments focus on building sustainable local AI ecosystems, enhancing digital skills for women, and establishing regional cooperation to regulate multinational tech monopolies.

The Rwanda Cooling Initiative (R-COOL), launched in 2018 by UNEP, BASE, and REMA, implements energy performance standards and labels to promote climate-friendly cooling. In 2021, the initiative expanded to include a financing initiative (FI) based on a 'green-on wage' model, aiming to provide low-interest loans for public and private sector employees to purchase approved appliances, with a target of unlocking USD 1 million for 12,500 appliances by 2024.

The IEU report for Q1 2022 outlines the completion of an evaluation on investments in least developed countries and the progress of the Second Performance Review (SPR). It details the development of 15 GCF Evaluation Standards to ensure high-quality, credible evidence and reports on the unit's budget expenditure, staffing updates, and communication efforts across various digital platforms.

The report examines the marginalization of agricultural biodiversity within the CBD and argues that industrial agriculture is a primary driver of biodiversity loss. It contrasts the 'peasant food web' with the 'agro-industrial chain,' highlighting the superior ecological and social outcomes of small-scale farming. The document criticizes 'false solutions' such as carbon offsets, sustainable intensification, and Nature-based Solutions (NbS), which it claims mask corporate interests. It calls for the new Global Biodiversity Framework to explicitly promote agroecology, protect the rights of indigenous peoples and small-scale farmers, and phase out industrial agricultural practices and harmful subsidies.

The proposal outlines a plan to mobilize the private sector in Burundi to address climate vulnerability. It focuses on three main objectives: nominating and preparing two national entities for Green Climate Fund (GCF) accreditation, developing an action plan to implement a private sector engagement framework, and training stakeholders in developing GCF project applications. The project is implemented by the Centre de Suivi Écologique (CSE) in collaboration with Burundi's Ministry of Environment, Agriculture, and Livestock.

Carbon Market Watch (CMW) critiques a draft guidance document for companies purchasing tropical forest carbon credits, primarily arguing that the draft implicitly supports 'offsetting'—which CMW deems scientifically inaccurate when substituting fossil carbon with biological carbon. CMW demands the removal of the word 'consensus' from the title, as the draft does not reflect the views of many NGOs and CSOs. The response emphasizes the need for mandatory transparency regarding how much revenue from credit transactions actually reaches indigenous peoples and local communities (IPs and LCs) versus intermediaries. CMW also insists that 'corresponding adjustments' under the Paris Agreement must be mandatory for any claims of emission reductions to prevent double counting.

The Stockholm Environment Institute argues that current global efforts are inadequate, highlighting a significant 'production gap' where fossil fuel plans exceed 1.5°C limits. The report emphasizes the need for 'just resilience' in adaptation, the urgent requirement for dedicated loss and damage financing, and the necessity of aligning financial flows with low-emission pathways while ensuring equity for developing nations.

The report finds that while updated NDCs show increased country ownership, better alignment with national planning processes like National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), and a higher number of prioritized actions, most of these actions remain implementation-unready due to a lack of clear indicators, costs, and time frames. It highlights a general lack of understanding and explicit planning for transformative adaptation and a limited operationalization of 'Loss and Damage' concepts within national contexts.

The author examines why most African countries have failed to ratify the 2018 Free Movement of Persons protocol despite its potential to boost trade, investment, and living standards. While small or poorer nations like Benin and Seychelles have adopted liberal visa policies, larger and wealthier states remain hesitant due to fears of economic competition and xenophobic political mobilization. To break this logjam, the author suggests clarifying the implementation roadmap, linking free movement to free trade processes, improving civil registration and identity systems, and encouraging progress through smaller regional or ad hoc groupings.

The report compiles academic articles, toolkits, and policy documents focusing on the role of women in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM). It highlights systemic marginalization, including restricted access to high-paying roles, finance, and land, while noting that ASM often provides a critical source of income and agency for women. The bibliography emphasizes the need for gender-responsive policies and formalization strategies to prevent further marginalization of women.

The document examines the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Africa, highlighting a tension between the continent's role as a provider of raw materials and labour and its dependence on foreign AI technologies from the Global North and China. It identifies significant risks associated with AI adoption, including the misuse of biometric digital IDs in Namibia and South Africa, the deployment of facial recognition for surveillance in Uganda and South Africa, and the exploitation of vulnerable populations through 'click work' in Kenyan refugee camps. The author analyses emerging national AI strategies in Egypt, Mauritius, and Rwanda, as well as the SMARTAfrica Blueprint, noting that while these frameworks address infrastructure and talent, they often overlook the labour rights of gig workers and the specific impact of automation on women. The brief evaluates the potential for policy transfer from the EU, specifically the AI Act and GDPR, warning that such frameworks may not account for African socio-economic rights or the technical constraints of local start-ups. It concludes by recommending that African policymakers focus on building inclusive digital infrastructure, fostering regional cooperation for data sharing, and implementing beneficiation frameworks to ensure local communities profit from the data used to train AI systems.

The document details how East Africa has experienced warming exceeding the global average, leading to increased drought frequency, glacier loss, and significant economic losses. Future projections indicate severe risks to human health, food security, and biodiversity, particularly if warming exceeds 1.5°C. It emphasizes the need for transformative adaptation, increased climate finance, and improved climate services to build regional resilience.

The report examines how financial aggregation—bundling small-scale energy assets into portfolios—can address the financing gap for distributed renewable energy (DRE) in developing countries. It identifies general SME financing barriers and specific aggregation hurdles, such as lack of track records and currency risk. The document proposes enablers including digital data solutions, standardisation of KPIs, and the use of green, social, and sustainability (GSS) bonds to attract institutional investors. While the market is nascent, the report highlights early successes in Rwanda, Côte d'Ivoire, and Brazil as blueprints for scaling clean energy access.