Search Climate Insights Directory

This submission by Amnesty International and the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) argues that climate change causes widespread human rights violations and that affected individuals and communities are entitled to effective remedies and reparations under international law. The document critiques current UNFCCC mechanisms for being voluntary and excluding compensation, while proposing human rights- and equity-based frameworks for addressing loss and damage.

This fact sheet from the Climate Policy Initiative provides an overview of public adaptation finance flows, primarily for the year 2013, detailing the sources, instruments, sectors, and geographic destinations of these funds.

This briefing by the Climate Policy Initiative synthesizes survey results from 15 Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) and Development Banks (DBs) from developed countries to evaluate their role in scaling up green and climate investments. It analyzes 2012 financial commitments, identifies barriers to scaling investment, and examines the institutions' approach to fossil fuel financing and risk management.

This executive summary analyzes finance commitments for electricity and clean cooking access in 20 high-impact countries between 2013-14 and 2015-16. While electricity finance increased, it remains insufficient to meet 2030 universal access goals, with a significant geographical imbalance favoring Asia over Sub-Saharan Africa. Finance for clean cooking has decreased and remains critically low.

The Green Affordable Housing Finance instrument, developed by Reall and the Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance, uses a coordinated system of construction and mortgage loan guarantees to incentivize local lenders to finance sustainable affordable housing for low-income households in Africa and South Asia.

This policy brief by the Climate Policy Initiative and the Global Center on Adaptation analyzes the widening gap between adaptation finance needs and actual flows, with a specific focus on Africa. It highlights that current funding is insufficient, heavily reliant on debt, and concentrated in a few countries, while calling for standardized tracking and more ambitious public and private commitments to avoid massive economic losses.

This guide by the Climate Policy Initiative explains the role of guarantees as financial instruments to transfer risk from borrowers or lenders to third parties, such as multilateral development banks or governments. It details the types of risks covered, the impact on borrowing costs, the institutional and regulatory capacities required for effective implementation, and the specific challenges facing the deployment of guarantees for climate-related projects in emerging and mature markets.

This report by the Climate Policy Initiative details the 2018 green finance commitments of the International Development Finance Club (IDFC) member institutions, noting a decrease in total commitments compared to 2017 but a significant increase in adaptation finance.

This policy brief by the Climate Policy Initiative examines the significant gap between the required and actual adaptation finance in Asia. It identifies systemic barriers—including institutional capacity constraints, a reliance on loan-based funding, and a lack of local community integration—and proposes a 'whole-of-government' approach to scale and improve the quality of climate resilience investments.

This report by the CIFAR Alliance Investors Working Group explores how fintech innovations—specifically in data and digital infrastructure, online marketplaces, and insurtech—can scale climate resilience solutions for vulnerable communities in emerging markets. It presents 11 case studies of ventures that address both acute weather-related disasters and chronic long-term climate changes affecting livelihoods.

A December 2019 briefing by Global Energy Monitor detailing the financial risks associated with Japanese public finance institutions' continued support for coal power projects in South and Southeast Asia amidst falling renewable energy costs.

This briefing analyzes the historical and systemic link between poverty and environmental degradation, arguing that sustainable development requires integrating these two goals. It highlights how extreme wealth inequality drives resource overconsumption and how the world's poorest populations are disproportionately affected by climate-related disasters, conflict, and zoonotic pandemics like COVID-19. The text advocates for shifting government metrics from GDP to national well-being indices and limiting the resource consumption of the wealthiest 10% to allow the poor to escape poverty within planetary boundaries.

This guide provides a framework for companies and investment funds to make financial commitments to the 'Private Sector Pledge for Zero Hunger'. It outlines how businesses can align their investments with scientific evidence to help eradicate hunger by 2030, detailing the types of eligible investments, priority regions, and the governance structure for implementing these non-binding pledges.

This report by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) argues for an integrated approach to climate change in the agriculture sector, moving away from treating mitigation and adaptation as separate policy goals. It identifies specific agricultural management practices that provide a 'triple dividend' of increased food security, improved adaptive capacity, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions, while outlining the financial, institutional, and technical barriers to their adoption.

The 'State of Global Environmental Governance 2024' report by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) analyzes the intersection of environmental governance and a global 'polycrisis' characterized by geopolitical instability, climate disasters, and financial crises. It highlights a trend toward 'greenlash' and the increasing role of international courts in enforcing environmental commitments, while noting that global governance remains largely siloed across the Rio Conventions and other multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs).

The Trade Knowledge Network (TKN) is an initiative of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) launched in 1997 to integrate sustainable development into trade policy and practice across national, bilateral, regional, and multilateral levels.

This research paper by Jodie Keane explores the nature of intra-Commonwealth value chains using a mixed-methods approach. It analyzes trade intensity, shifts in intermediate goods sourcing, and firm-level data to determine how Commonwealth members integrate into regional versus global value chains (GVCs). The findings suggest a prevalence of additive value chains and a specific tendency for Small Island Developing States to export within the Commonwealth.

This briefing describes the development and findings of a global Evidence Gap Map (EGM) on sustainable energy, co-funded by Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) and 3ie. The EGM systematically screens rigorous evidence on the causal effects of sustainable energy interventions in low- and middle-income countries (L&MICs) to support SDG 7 targets regarding energy access, efficiency, and renewables.

The Powering Healthcare Africa Project (2021-2023), supported by Power Africa and implemented by SEforALL, aims to achieve universal electrification of health facilities by 2030 in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia through policy advocacy, investment, and technical assistance.

This policy brief by the Stockholm Environment Institute examines the impact of ground-level ozone (O3) on agricultural productivity and food security in South Asia. It argues that O3 is a significant threat to crop yields, potentially posing a more immediate risk to food security than climate change, and calls for international cooperation to reduce precursor emissions and improve crop breeding.