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The briefing examines the risks associated with China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Southeast Asia, particularly regarding carbon-intensive energy projects and hydropower dams. It argues that current investment patterns may lead to carbon lock-in and ecological damage. To mitigate these risks, the authors propose a decision-making framework based on transparency, stakeholder participation, and adherence to international sustainable finance standards.

The private sector in Southeast Asia faces significant risks from climate change, including warming temperatures and sea-level rise, which can impact business strategy, finance, and operations. While there is momentum to reduce emissions, there is a lack of equivalent effort to build resilience, necessitating urgent action to increase adaptive capacity.

The document highlights the high climate risk in Southeast Asia and specifically Northern Thailand, where agricultural productivity is threatened by temperature shifts and precipitation changes. It argues that vulnerability is disproportionately higher for specific groups, including women and girls, and seeks to fill a research gap regarding how age, gender, poverty, and ethnicity intersect to shape the climate challenges faced by young women and girls in this region.

The Clean Air Task Force criticizes the EPA's proposed 2019 Renewable Volume Obligations (RVOs), noting that cellulosic biofuels account for less than 2% of the total mandate despite a congressional goal for them to represent nearly one-third. The organization asserts that the RFS allows corn ethanol and soy biodiesel to dominate the market, with increased soy biodiesel production contributing to deforestation in Southeast Asia and Latin America.

The document argues that tropical forests, mangroves, and peatlands can provide 23 percent of the cost-effective mitigation needed by 2030 to limit warming to 2°C. It highlights that deforestation impacts the climate not only through carbon emissions but also through non-radiative forcings like disrupted water cycles and surface albedo changes, which can lead to hotter and drier conditions locally and continentally. The authors emphasize that while reforestation has high potential, it faces uncertainties regarding land availability and competition with food security, whereas avoiding deforestation provides more certain mitigation benefits.

The document details various green asset-backed securities (ABS) and aggregation mechanisms used to fund low-carbon transitions. It highlights specific instruments such as synthetic ABS, PACE ABS, solar ABS, and green covered bonds, providing examples of issuers and the types of underlying assets—ranging from energy-efficient mortgages to electric vehicle leases—that enable institutional investors to finance smaller-scale green assets.

The assessment finds that the world is not on track to meet the 2020 milestone of halving natural forest loss. While net forest loss declined by 23 percent between 2010-15 compared to a 2000-10 baseline, gross tree-cover loss increased by an average of 35 percent between 2014 and 2016 relative to a 2001-13 baseline. Tropical deforestation emissions rose by 25 percent between 2014 and 2016 compared to the 2001-13 benchmark, with 2016 emissions peaking at 5 gigatons of Carbon Dioxide equivalent (Gt CO e). Significant drivers include agricultural expansion for palm oil in Southeast Asia and soy in Latin America, as well as severe droughts and wildfires caused by a strong El Niño event.

The report highlights a critical lack of aggregate global data to measure progress in reducing deforestation caused by basic needs. It uses the distribution of clean cookstoves and related funding as proxy indicators, noting that while annual distributions reached approximately 20 million, the number of stoves meeting clean and efficient standards declined from nearly 15 million in 2014 to 13 million in 2015. Financial support also showed a downward trend between 2012 and 2015, with Official Development Assistance (ODA) for fuelwood dropping from USD 81 million to USD 3.2 million and carbon offset transactions falling from USD 65 million to USD 15 million.

The 2017 AdaptationWatch report argues that the Paris Agreement has shifted climate policy into an era of implementation, yet significant gaps remain in adaptation finance and transparency. It highlights that adaptation funding is overwhelmingly lower than mitigation funding and is often difficult for the most vulnerable nations to access due to complex accreditation processes and a lack of clear definitions distinguishing adaptation from general development. The report examines regional experiences, noting that while Latin American and Caribbean countries have made progress in institutional frameworks and GCF Readiness, Southeast Asia faces a disconnect between global finance scales and local needs. It also identifies a critical lack of compliance and standardized methodology in the Biennial Update Reports (BURs) of non-Annex I Parties, which obscures the actual amount of finance received. The document concludes with ten recommendations, emphasizing the need for increased adaptation finance, co-designing actions with local communities, and reorienting capacity building toward long-term, in-country ownership.

Mighty Earth and a coalition of environmental groups support the reduction of US biodiesel mandates, arguing that the fuel is not 'green' because it relies on virgin vegetable oils that drive deforestation in Latin America and Southeast Asia. The document highlights that biodiesel production contributes to carbon emissions and water pollution, such as the Gulf of Mexico's Dead Zone. While the EPA initially sought input on reducing mandates, the document notes that President Trump later intervened to reverse this course due to pressure from agricultural lobbying groups.

The document outlines the financial and environmental modeling for a proposed USD 100 million equity fund designed to scale up renewable energy projects. It details the use of an option mechanism to make early-stage development more attractive to investors, projecting that public finance could mobilize significant private capital and abate substantial CO2 emissions. It also compares RESF to various other clean energy funds and technical assistance initiatives across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Mighty Earth highlights a new palm oil policy from BNP Paribas that requires financed companies to protect forests, indigenous people, and adhere to human rights and labor standards. The author argues that this shift reflects a growing trend where deforestation is becoming a business liability, citing the $4 billion value decline of IOI following its suspension by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. The document calls for other financial institutions to adopt similar policies and urges BNP Paribas and HSBC to apply these standards to POSCO Daewoo, which has cleared 99 square kilometers of forest in Papua, Indonesia, between September 2015 and April 2017.

The report analyzes the climate pledges of 18 Asian countries, finding that while energy and transport are primary mitigation focuses, there are significant gaps in quantified climate finance requirements and the integration of gender and social inclusion. It highlights a regional disparity in disaster risk reduction planning, with South Asian countries generally showing higher levels of integration than their South-East Asian counterparts.

The document assesses the dual nature of large-scale agricultural investments, noting that while they can create employment and market opportunities, they often lead to water depletion, land tenure insecurity, and disproportionate burdens on women. It highlights that water demand for irrigation in investment areas can rise by 50% and that weak institutional enforcement often fails to protect local communities. The author advocates for a 'social tenure model' and the use of specific Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to frame investment design to ensure sustainability and inclusivity.

The document analyzes how voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) in eight agricultural markets can mitigate biodiversity loss, noting that while VSS are growing and address key themes like habitat conservation, they often prioritize management practices over performance outcomes and are distributed based on low compliance costs rather than biodiversity need.

The report argues that Olam, a Singapore-based agribusiness, operates a 'black box' in its palm oil supply chain by concealing the identity of its suppliers, which allows the company to source oil from producers engaged in deforestation. In Gabon, the report alleges that Olam has cleared approximately 20,000 hectares of forest since 2012, violating FSC standards. In Southeast Asia, Olam's lack of transparency is linked to the 'haze' crisis caused by peatland and forest fires. The document calls for Olam to adopt a 'zero deforestation' policy, publish its supplier list, and restore destroyed habitats.

The document outlines five key strategies for building effective local climate partnerships: strategic partner selection, the inclusion of marginalised and opposing groups, leveraging local actors with clear spheres of influence, ensuring mutual benefit through co-design, and employing a trusted facilitator or knowledge broker.

The document outlines five key strategies for local governments to build effective climate partnerships: choosing partners strategically beyond the environmental sector, involving marginalised and opposing groups, leveraging local actors while understanding their spheres of influence, ensuring mutual benefit through co-design, and employing a trusted facilitator or knowledge broker. It illustrates these points with examples such as solar energy initiatives in Pakistan and Indonesia, climate-smart agriculture in Nepal, and coastal management in Belize.

The Clean Air Task Force (CATF) opposes New York City's proposed biodiesel heating fuel mandate, arguing that increasing demand for vegetable oil-derived biodiesel drives the expansion of palm oil production. This expansion leads to the destruction of tropical peatland forests, particularly in Indonesia and Malaysia, resulting in significant carbon dioxide releases and public health crises. CATF contends that even soybean-based biodiesel contributes to these impacts through global market fungibility and that current USEPA lifecycle analyses underestimate these greenhouse gas emissions.

The author contends that traditional attempts to control water through artificial solutions have created vulnerabilities that are now being exposed by a changing climate. The document advocates for a 'resilience mindset' in water management, particularly within humanitarian and development funding, moving away from short-term recovery toward long-term capacity for communities to thrive despite recurrent water challenges. This approach emphasizes the use of predictive models, early warning systems, and the integration of indigenous knowledge. To implement this, the Global Resilience Partnership (GRP) has focused on the Sahel, Horn of Africa, and South and Southeast Asia, and has launched a Water Window Challenge with a $10 million commitment from the Z Zurich Foundation to fund innovative flood-resilience solutions.