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Carbon Market Watch argues that the proposed CLEAR Methodology for Cooking Energy Transitions contains shortcomings and optionalities that risk overcrediting. The organization recommends replacing arbitrary downward adjustments for the Hawthorne effect with scientific evidence, adopting a conservative 4:1 wood-to-charcoal conversion factor, and implementing the annual downward baseline adjustments required by the Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism (PACM) Standard. Additionally, it suggests increasing the default leakage adjustment factor to 5%, updating fraction of non-renewable biomass (fNRB) values more frequently, and strengthening additionality testing by lowering the common practice threshold to 20%.

Climate Bonds proposes a framework of five hallmarks to identify companies whose decarbonisation is rapid and robust enough to align with the goal of halving emissions by 2030 and reaching net zero by 2050. These hallmarks—Paris-aligned targets, robust plans, implementation action, internal monitoring, and external reporting—shift the focus from relative sector benchmarking to absolute measures tied to transition pathways. To support this, Climate Bonds is expanding its Standard and Certification Scheme to certify transitioning non-financial corporates and their Sustainability-Linked Bonds (SLBs), while also expanding market screening for all SLBs.

BRICS nations now generate over half of the world's solar power, driven primarily by China, India, and Brazil. In 2024, these countries accounted for 51% of global solar electricity generation, with China alone contributing 39%. Solar power met 37% of the total increase in electricity generation across BRICS members in 2024, contributing to a total clean energy share of 70% for new generation growth. While China, India, and Brazil show strong continued growth in 2025, other members like Russia, Indonesia, and Egypt lag in solar deployment or remain dependent on fossil fuels.

Twenty years after the 7/7 bombings, Islamist extremism remains a significant security threat in the UK, though it has shifted from top-down, group-organised attacks to grassroots, self-initiated actions by loosely connected individuals. The landscape is now characterised by a mix of traditional ideologies and hybridised forms of extremism amplified by social media. While some global movements have transitioned toward nationalist local governance, others, particularly in Africa, are expanding. A critical emerging trend is the radicalisation of minors, with a significant portion of recent terrorism convictions involving children and a rise in Prevent referrals for youth.

The report introduces a nine-step roadmap for mCDR companies to establish robust MRV systems, emphasizing the integration of direct measurements and modeling to quantify carbon removal. It outlines the organizational steps from initial strategy development to industry knowledge sharing, while highlighting the interdependence of MRV with engineering, permitting, and community engagement.

The Germany-South Africa JET-P is a minilateral climate finance initiative designed to support South Africa's transition from coal to renewable energy and green industrialisation. While it has successfully established an institutional framework and attracted significant funding—with Germany as the largest grant contributor—it faces critical hurdles. These include delays in coal plant decommissioning, concerns over the 'justice' of fund allocation (with a perceived bias toward international partners), and the risk of increasing national debt through a reliance on loans. The document argues that for the JET-P to achieve transformational change, it must move beyond financial pledges to deliver tangible emissions cuts, job creation, and inclusive livelihood improvements, drawing on lessons from Germany's own Ruhr valley transition.

The paper argues that while the quantity of climate finance is widely discussed, its quality—defined by its ability to catalyze transformational change—remains under-analyzed and non-standardized. It introduces a three-tiered framework for assessing quality: the project level (direct, measurable results), the market level (stimulating supply and demand for climate solutions), and the system level (structural shifts toward low-emission and equitable economies). The author defines 'transformational climate finance' as high-quality finance that moves beyond one-off projects to influence broader markets and systems. The document identifies ten dimensions for achieving this transformation and notes that while project-level measurement is common, market- and system-level indicators are currently limited among public providers. The goal is to foster global consensus and standardization of quality metrics to optimize the deployment of scarce public resources.

Dr Basani Baloyi argues that unpaid care work is an invisible economic powerhouse that sustains global systems but remains excluded from GDP calculations. The address highlights Brazil's National Caregiving Policy and South Africa's G20 priorities as models for transformation. It asserts that investing in care infrastructure—guided by the ILO's 5R framework—would generate significant GDP returns, create millions of jobs, and address the looming demographic crisis of an aging global population.

The paper proposes the minerals-energy-food (MEF) complex to address failures in existing natural resource governance frameworks, specifically the inability to differentiate between physical resources and traded commodities. It highlights how current resource flows create power asymmetries where extraction occurs in low-income countries while benefits concentrate in wealthy nations, citing the Democratic Republic of Congo's cobalt mining as an example. The authors argue that fragmented governance silos and complex supply chains transmit risks across borders, necessitating an integrated approach to avoid conflict and inequality while supporting climate action.

The BRICS bloc generated over half of the world's electricity in 2024, with China dominating renewable energy production. While solar and wind capacity have grown exponentially in China, India, and Brazil since 2015, progress has stalled in Russia and South Africa. Hydropower's share of BRICS renewable generation fell from 82% in 2015 to 45% in 2023 as solar and wind expanded. China leads the bloc in total renewable energy jobs, though Brazil has the highest proportion of such jobs relative to its population.

The study finds that excluding 'extra electricity costs'—expenses for voltage stabilizers, generators, and alternative energy sources—significantly understates energy poverty in Benin. While 51% of connected households are energy poor based on electricity bills alone, this figure rises to 72% when defensive expenditures are included. Power generator operation is the largest cost driver, accounting for 46% of total extra electricity costs. Key determinants of energy poverty include low household wealth, lack of tertiary education, and the use of electricity for economic activities.

The US power sector is experiencing unprecedented load growth, requiring the grid to expand more than five times faster than in the previous two decades. To address this, the report recommends maximizing existing grid value through grid-enhancing technologies (GETs) and demand-side flexibility, accelerating connections via 'energy parks' and streamlined interconnection processes, and adopting proactive, scenario-based planning. It also suggests targeted affordability measures for low-income customers and specialized rate designs for large loads to prevent cost-shifting and stranded-asset risks.

The European plastic industry is facing a structural decline characterized by falling production and facility closures due to overcapacity and weak demand. While the industry blames EU regulations for a loss of competitiveness, the document argues that reducing production is the most sensible economic approach. It urges the EU to use its leadership role in the Global Plastics Treaty negotiations to advocate for primary plastic production limits and a managed phasedown to sustainable levels, while avoiding new petrochemical buildouts.

The document analyzes various treaty flexibility mechanisms—such as reservations, differentiated timelines, and optional annexes—to recommend an approach for the future plastics treaty that balances broad adoption with environmental effectiveness. It argues against using optional annexes for chemicals of concern, suggesting instead a system of general and specific exemptions similar to those in the Minamata and Stockholm Conventions.

As of Q1 2025, the cumulative aligned GSS+ debt volume reached USD 5.9 trillion, with green bonds remaining the dominant theme. While Q1 2025 saw a 17% year-on-year decline in volume compared to Q1 2024, development banks achieved a record quarterly volume of USD 63.6 billion. The market is led by supranationals and the USA, France, and China as the primary country sources.

By the end of 2024, China's cumulative aligned GSS+ volume reached USD 555.5 billion, making it the fourth largest source globally. While green bonds continue to dominate, representing 80% of cumulative aligned volume, the market saw a 4% decrease in total aligned volume in 2024 to USD 84.6 billion, largely due to a 33% drop in issuance from financial corporates. The report highlights a significant growth in aligned social and sustainability (S&S) volumes, which rose 316% year-on-year to USD 15.7 billion. However, sustainability-linked bonds (SLBs) face severe integrity challenges, with only three Chinese deals achieving alignment with Climate Bonds methodology. The document also spotlights the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area as a key region for GSS+ growth and details recent policy shifts, including the February 2025 Sovereign Green Bond Framework and the Multi-Jurisdiction Common Ground Taxonomy.

The document outlines a comprehensive framework for tracking global climate finance, focusing on real-economy investments in mitigation, adaptation, and dual-benefit activities. It defines a multi-layered taxonomy covering finance origins (domestic, international, indeterminate), actors (public, private, third-sector), and financial instruments. The methodology emphasizes a conservative approach to avoid double counting and carbon lock-in, utilizing a mix of primary project-level data and secondary market-sizing benchmarks from sources like the IEA and BNEF. Key 2025 updates include the integration of Luxembourg Green Exchange bond data, a new project-level hydrogen investment dataset, and the first-time inclusion of 2- and 3-wheeler electric vehicle sales in China and India.

The report analyzes the complementary roles of VCEFs, MDBs, and NDBs in the climate finance architecture, focusing on financial instruments like guarantees, equity, and local currency lending. It identifies systemic barriers such as complex accreditation and slow approval processes and proposes a framework for non-financial collaboration through country platforms, technical assistance, and the creation of enabling policy environments. The document provides a set of short- and mid-term recommendations to harmonize metrics, simplify due diligence, and unlock the potential of NDBs to increase the flow of climate finance to emerging markets and developing economies.

The report argues that while the quantity of climate finance is widely tracked, its quality—defined as the degree to which it induces structural shifts toward low-emission, climate-resilient, and equitable economies—remains under-analyzed and non-standardized. It introduces a three-level analytical framework (project, market, and system) to move beyond one-off interventions toward 'transformational climate finance.' The study identifies ten dimensions for assessing transformational potential, including affordability, equity and justice, and programmatic approaches. It also reviews existing measurement tools used by institutions like the IFC, GCF, and UK ICF, noting a convergence in project-level tracking but significant fragmentation in market and system-level assessments.

The Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor 2025 finds that none of the 20 assessed companies demonstrate a climate strategy of 'reasonable' or 'high' integrity. The report highlights that 2030 emission reduction targets are increasingly 'unfit for purpose' due to structural obstacles, including incomplete emissions disclosures and sector-specific accounting malpractices. In the tech sector, soaring energy demand from AI and a reliance on outdated market-based accounting for electricity undermine target credibility. The automotive sector shows inadequate progress in phasing out internal combustion engines, while the fashion sector lacks commitments to reduce overproduction. The agrifood sector is criticised for relying on undefined land-based carbon removals to obscure a lack of structural emission reductions. The report argues for the adoption of transition-specific alignment targets to complement general GHG targets.