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Russia is attempting to leverage historical liberation-era ties and anti-Western rhetoric to maintain influence in Southern Africa, but faces significant constraints. While it maintains security cooperation and diplomatic links with several SADC members, its economic footprint remains modest, accounting for barely 1% of the region's external trade in 2024. The document highlights a gap between Moscow's symbolic gestures—such as debt forgiveness and limited grain shipments—and tangible developmental results, noting that sanctions and economic weakness hinder its ability to compete with China, the EU, and the US.

The report examines how the insurance and reinsurance sectors are responding to intensifying climate disruptions in global supply chains. It identifies critical structural, market, and modelling limits that undermine the industry's ability to absorb systemic risk, noting a trend toward 'un-insurability' in high-risk regions. The author argues that without a shift from simple risk transfer to a stewardship model integrated with long-term adaptation and public-private coordination, the sector may amplify rather than stabilize economic volatility.

The document explains that limiting global warming to 1.5°C will likely involve 'temperature overshoot', where targets are exceeded before returning to lower levels. Such overshoot increases the risk of triggering irreversible climate tipping points, such as the transformation of the Amazon rainforest into a savanna. The author argues that relying on large-scale carbon dioxide removal (CDR) or geoengineering to correct overshoot is risky and uncertain, emphasizing that immediate, deep emissions cuts are the only reliable way to maintain a habitable planet. It also introduces the concept of 'positive socio-economic tipping points' as a strategic means to accelerate the transition to net zero.

The analysis compares four scenarios for Africa's emissions: Business-as-usual (BAU), Net-zero by 2050 (NZ50), Net-zero by 2070 (NZ70), and Net-zero by 2100 (NZ100). While all net-zero pathways see renewables become the dominant energy source and a sharp fall in fossil fuel reliance, the timing of the transition creates significant trade-offs. The NZ50 scenario achieves the fastest emissions decline, reaching -0.33 GtCO₂/yr by 2050, but incurs the highest marginal abatement cost (averaging $78 per ton of CO₂) and causes the most disruption to food systems, including a 31% contraction in cropland and a near doubling of staple food prices. All net-zero scenarios rely on bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), which shifts water demand from agriculture to the energy sector. Regional challenges vary, with Western Africa facing steep decarbonization due to oil and gas reliance, and Southern Africa managing a coal-dependent system.

The document examines food price volatility in South Africa, attributing it to climate change, global shocks, and corporate market concentration. It proposes a phased implementation of public buffer stocks—beginning with white maize and expanding to wheat and indigenous grains—to protect vulnerable households and support smallholder farmers. The authors suggest that such a system, if governed transparently and linked to agroecological practices, could eventually integrate into a regional SADC mechanism to strengthen food sovereignty across Southern Africa.

The document examines the intersection of the AfCFTA and CAADP in promoting intra-African agricultural trade and productivity. It identifies significant barriers to food trade, including high tariffs on sensitive food items, burdensome sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards for small enterprises, and a lack of coordinated strategic food reserves. The brief argues that while food security (access) and food sovereignty (self-sufficiency) often require diverging policies, the AfCFTA provides a framework to balance both through targeted tariff removal, simplified compliance for micro-enterprises, and the protection of indigenous genetic resources.

Phaesun GmbH, in collaboration with Solar Cooling Engineering GmbH and Efficiency for Access, installed a solar-powered cold room in Homabay, Kenya, between April and September 2024. The facility, operated by WeHub Victoria Limited, uses SelfChill technology and thermal energy storage to chill up to 500 kg of agricultural products daily to 10°C. Built with wood and straw to minimize costs and carbon footprint, the project was funded by the Siemens initiative Cents4Sense, Siemens Stiftung, and the Efficiency for Access Research and Development Fund, keeping total investment costs under 30,000 EUR.

The document examines the intersection of climate change, gender, and food systems in southern Africa, arguing that climate shocks intensify the burden of unpaid care work disproportionately borne by rural and working-class women. It critiques technocratic, productivity-focused agricultural policies and proposes a framework based on Feminist Ecological Economics and Feminist Political Ecology to reorient food systems around human needs and ecological regeneration. Key recommendations include the redistribution of care work, support for agroecology, and the implementation of gender-responsive fiscal policies.

The report argues that ASEAN's transmission grid expansion must roughly double to align with IEA pathways, as current national plans for Indonesia, Viet Nam, the Philippines, and Thailand cover only about 45% of the required expansion. It highlights that 30 GW of solar and wind potential is located along planned interconnection routes in countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Brunei. To support this transition, the report proposes a six-pillar framework for future-ready grid planning—including smart modernisation, strategic expansion, and market reforms—and suggests learning from the integrated power systems of Europe and Southern Africa to move from bilateral to multilateral power trade.

The report outlines the necessity for ASEAN countries to shift from reactive grid expansion to proactive system transformation to support variable renewable energy. It proposes a six-pillar framework for future-ready grid planning—covering smart modernisation, strategic expansion, flexibility, regional integration, regulatory reform, and sustainable finance—and draws comparative lessons from the integrated power systems of Europe and Southern Africa to advocate for a more connected and resilient regional market.

The document outlines a strategy for South Africa to develop its green hydrogen ecosystem by prioritizing trade-focused investments that deliver local benefits. It identifies critical hurdles, including inefficient ports and a lack of domestic electrolyser manufacturing, and proposes solutions such as 'green corridors' for marine fuels and regional certification standards. The brief emphasizes that social acceptance, particularly regarding water scarcity and community consultation, is essential for the sector's viability.

The document advocates for a transition from industrialised agriculture to African Indigenous Foodways (AIFs), which are rooted in traditional ecological knowledge and agroecological principles. It emphasises that knowledge co-creation between farmers and researchers is essential to overcome gaps in documentation and the 'epistemicide' of indigenous knowledge systems. The brief highlights the role of networks like the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) and the Seed and Knowledge Initiative (SKI) in promoting seed sovereignty. It identifies significant funding gaps, noting that philanthropic support for agroecological transition is less than 1% of total philanthropic food and agriculture funding. The authors recommend that philanthropy shift toward community-led investment models, long-term trust-based funding, and support for participatory research to enhance climate resilience and biodiversity conservation.

The Global Resilience Partnership (GRP) launched its 2024-2029 Strategy and secured a four-year agreement with Sida to drive transformative change and locally-led innovation. Key 2024 activities include the expansion of the Resilience Hub to Climate Week NYC and London Climate Action Week, the growth of the PREPARE initiative with 39 participating companies, and the creation of the Resilient Planet Initiative (RPI) to democratise climate and adaptation data. Regional efforts include the Hindu Kush Himalaya Innovation Challenge for Entrepreneurs (HKH-ICE), the Resilient Agricultural Innovations for Nature (RAIN) Challenge in East Africa, and the Southern African Resilience Academy (SARA).

The study finds that WACC in Africa's power sector remains high compared to global benchmarks, driven primarily by a cost of equity that is on average double the cost of debt. While WACC is projected to decrease from 18% to 13% by 2070, significant regional disparities persist, with Eastern Africa facing the highest costs and Northern Africa the lowest. The authors argue that using uniform cost of capital assumptions leads to underestimation bias in energy costs and misguides policy, particularly for capital-intensive clean energy projects.

The methodology for the Landscape of Climate Finance in Africa 2024 describes the framework used to identify and categorize climate finance flows. It employs a taxonomy to distinguish between mitigation, adaptation, and dual-benefits finance across sectors such as energy, transport, and agriculture. The approach relies on a mix of public and proprietary data from sources like the OECD, BNEF, and the World Bank, while acknowledging significant gaps in domestic public expenditure tracking and private sector reporting. The document also details the classification of African countries by subregion and income status.

The Global Resilience Partnership (GRP) reports significant progress between 2020 and 2023 in scaling resilience innovations, democratizing knowledge, and influencing global policy. Key achievements include the incubation of the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance (ORRAA), the growth of the Resilience Evidence Coalition to over 1,700 members, and the establishment of the Resilience Hub at COP26, COP27, and COP28. GRP focused on amplifying Global South voices through initiatives like the South to South Resilience Academies and the Locally Led Adaptation principles. The report highlights the mobilization of private sector finance through the PREPARE Call to Action and the implementation of innovation challenges such as RAIN in East Africa. These efforts are designed to transition GRP toward its 2024-2029 strategy, focusing on transforming food and financial systems and embedding resilience in the private sector.

The paper argues for a shift in climate services from a product-oriented approach to a transdisciplinary knowledge co-production process centered on collaborative learning, drawing on six years of experience from the FRACTAL project in southern African cities.

The report argues that South Africa must move beyond linear thinking and 'energy blindness' to embrace systems and futures thinking for its energy transition. It identifies critical leverage points—ranging from infrastructure and regulatory reform to paradigm shifts in economic growth—to avoid energy poverty and social unrest. The framework outlines four strategic priorities: championing cross-border collaboration for energy democracies, practicing active non-alignment in renewable energy diplomacy, challenging 'used' (borrowed) energy futures, and transitioning from growth-centric economic models to anticipatory energy governance.

The Centre for Environmental Rights (CER), on behalf of the Life After Coal (LAC) coalition, submitted comments on the Gas Amendment Bill [B – 2023], arguing that accelerating gas infrastructure is irrational given the climate emergency and South Africa's extreme vulnerability to climate change. The submission criticizes the Bill for inadequate public consultation processes, lack of transparency regarding confidential information, and a failure to align with international climate targets such as the IPCC's 1.5°C benchmark.

The document advocates for a shift from traditional gender mainstreaming to Gender Transformative Approaches (GTAs) in Southern Africa to address the root causes of inequality and improve resilience to climate change and food insecurity. It provides a series of policy recommendations, including the integration of GTAs into national development plans and disaster risk reduction strategies, and highlights existing legal frameworks at global, continental, and regional levels that can enable these shifts.