Search Climate Insights Directory

The WACA program aims to strengthen coastal resilience in Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Mauritania, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, and Togo by mainstreaming climate risks into national policies and investing in transport, urban, and natural resource sectors. Supported by a USD 222 million package approved by the World Bank in 2018, the initiative utilizes a 'WACA Marketplace' to match investment demand with partner financing. As of June 2021, 17% of committed funds were disbursed, with specific outcomes in Benin including the securing of 3,500 households from erosion and flooding. The document highlights that the success of such regional instruments depends on strong regional cooperation, political stability, a pipeline of bankable projects, and currency stability.

The R4 Rural Resilience Initiative, launched in 2011 by the World Food Program and Oxfam America, employs a four-pronged strategy—risk reduction, risk transfer, prudent risk-taking, and risk reserves—to help farmers adapt to climate risks. By 2020, the program provided index insurance and complementary services to nearly 180,000 farmers across ten countries, leveraging existing government safety nets and community partnerships to scale its impact.

The ACT Fund is a mid-market greenfield infrastructure fund designed to overcome investment barriers in West Africa by combining technical assistance, equity, and subordinated debt. It utilizes a 'blended currency mechanism' to reduce financing friction during early project stages and provides structured exit solutions for international equity by refinancing projects with local-currency senior debt once they are operational. The fund targets an initial capitalization of USD 150 million for equity and USD 100 million for subordinated debt, with a primary focus on renewable energy before expanding into urban mobility, water, and waste systems.

The document analyzes the multidimensional relationship between China and West Africa, highlighting significant asymmetries in trade and foreign direct investment. It identifies health cooperation, economic recovery, regional integration, and debt restructuring as primary priorities for the FOCAC 8 summit. The author argues that West African nations should move beyond bilateral opportunism toward a strategic regional approach led by ECOWAS, incorporating non-state actors and civil society to address concerns over transparency, debt sustainability, and environmental impacts.

Ghana's updated NDC (2020-2030) aims to reduce absolute greenhouse gas emissions by 64 MtCO2e and benefit nearly 38 million people. The plan consists of 13 adaptation and 34 mitigation measures, requiring an estimated investment of US$ 9.3 to US$ 15.5 billion. The strategy emphasizes sustainable energy transition, landscape restoration, and social inclusion, with a specific focus on reducing short-lived climate pollutants to improve public health.

The paper examines the 'solidarity economy' in Central and Eastern Europe, arguing that while the region has a deep tradition of informal mutual aid and survival networks, these practices often inadvertently subsidize capitalist accumulation by covering reproduction costs that capital does not pay. It contrasts the 'new' solidarity movements in Western Europe and North America with the 'traditional' survival strategies of the semi-periphery, suggesting that for a genuine solidarity economy to emerge, these existing practices must be transformed from extractive to generative purposes.

The report uses surveys and workshops with stakeholders in Dakar to assess how climate change risks are perceived and which adaptation strategies are most acceptable. It finds that while risks are seen as immediate, climate change is a low political priority compared to public services and health. Stakeholders prefer nature-based solutions and risk governance over hard infrastructure, though administrative and financial constraints are seen as major barriers to implementation.

The report identifies significant ESG risks in the aquaculture industry, specifically high fish mortality and the use of wild-caught fish in feed, which threaten long-term profitability and food security. It finds that most investors lack robust policies to mitigate these risks and warns that some 'green bonds' in the sector may be used for greenwashing. The document recommends that investors require investees to disclose supply chains, reduce mortality rates, and eliminate wild-caught fish in feed by 2025.

The report argues that the aquaculture industry faces significant systemic risks due to high fish mortality rates and a dependence on fishmeal and fish oil (FMFO) derived from wild-caught fish. It finds that most investors fail to integrate these material risks into their policies, often relying on inadequate certification schemes. The document highlights the economic cost of fish deaths, the threat to food security in regions like West Africa due to FMFO extraction, and the potential for 'greenwashing' through green bonds. It recommends that investors require full supply chain transparency, the elimination of wild-caught fish in feed by 2025, and the adoption of robust fish-welfare standards.

The report examines Ghana's progress in localising the SDGs, highlighting the use of its decentralised planning system to align global goals with local development plans. While it finds robust institutional and legal frameworks, it identifies significant challenges in funding and data collection.

The Powering Healthcare Solutions Catalogue provides a directory of companies offering off-grid energy systems and medical appliances for low-income regions. It highlights a variety of technical solutions, including plug-and-play systems, containerized microgrids, and solar-powered medical equipment, aimed at improving healthcare delivery in areas with unreliable electricity, such as Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Friends of the Earth International and 81 other organizations condemn the Colombian government's use of military and police force against peaceful protesters. The statement links social unrest to economic inequality, the failure to implement FARC-EP peace accords, and an extractive development model that prioritizes capital accumulation over nature and human rights. It calls for an end to human rights violations, the cessation of aerial glyphosate spraying, and the implementation of comprehensive agrarian reform.

The report assesses coastal risks in the Dakar region, specifically within the departments of Dakar, Pikine, and Guédiawaye. It identifies high-risk areas for flooding, such as the canal of Ngor and the Port of Dakar, and high-risk areas for erosion, including the beach of Hanika. Projections indicate that without adaptation, the population at risk of coastal flooding will increase by 20-30% by 2050 and over 80% by 2100. Economic damages to buildings are expected to rise by 30% by 2050 and up to 180% by 2100 under the worst-case scenario.

The document presents four science-based narrative scenarios for fishery conflicts occurring between 2030 and 2060. These scenarios are designed to address a gap in existing projections by incorporating broader societal trends alongside environmental stressors like climate change and overfishing. The scenarios focus on the North-East Atlantic, the East China Sea, the coast of West Africa, and the Arctic, serving as tools to enhance anticipatory governance for ocean security.

The Totota Electric Cooperative (TEC) in rural Liberia, established in 2018 through a partnership between NRECA International and USAID/Liberia, has achieved financial self-sufficiency within two years. The utility utilizes a solar hybrid mini-grid to provide electricity to over 1,500 people across 341 households and businesses, supporting local economic growth through services like cold storage. To improve operational efficiency and monitoring, NRECA International developed the 'TEC Dashboard,' an automated web-based platform that tracks key performance indicators such as energy use, power outages, and bill payments in real time, replacing cumbersome manual data collection.

The report finds that Spanish supermarkets are failing to address the sustainability of their aquaculture supply chains, with none setting targets to eliminate wild fish from feed. It highlights the ecological damage caused by the production of Fish Meal and Fish Oil (FMFO) in regions like Peru and West Africa and criticizes the industry's reliance on certifications as a substitute for genuine sustainability.

The VOICE Network critiques the cocoa industry's reliance on voluntary measures to address child labour in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, citing NORC research that 1.5 million children are involved in production. The network argues that poverty is the primary driver and advocates for mandatory due diligence regulations, living incomes for farming families, and increased government investment in education and healthcare.

Mighty Earth defends its role in supporting Indonesia's deforestation reductions and expresses concern that provisions of the Omnibus Law may undermine these environmental and economic successes.

Mighty Earth defends its role in supporting Indonesia's environmental goals and expresses concern that certain provisions of the recently passed Omnibus Law could jeopardize the country's progress in reducing deforestation and protecting biodiversity.

The ASER Solar Rural Electrification Project aims to provide 100% solar mini-grids to 1,000 isolated villages in Senegal between 2021 and 2026. With a total financing package of EUR 198.7 million, including EUR 75.4 million from the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the project targets the electrification of 38,900 households and the support of 3,739 productive use applications. The initiative focuses on reducing CO2 emissions, improving rural resilience to climate change, and empowering women and youth through technical assistance and financial incentives for energy-powered businesses.