Search Climate Insights Directory

The document outlines a regulatory response framework consisting of four phases: identifying the impact of a systemic risk, implementing a response, monitoring efficacy, and adapting for future risks. Based on research across 31 sub-Saharan African countries during COVID-19, it emphasizes the importance of proactive engagement, the use of Suptech for data collection, and the balance between regulatory certainty and flexibility. It identifies future systemic concerns including climate risks and cyber-security.

The RRI programme, a partnership between Cenfri and FSD Africa, worked to remove barriers to inclusive finance for an estimated 5.6 million people in sub-Saharan Africa. The initiative focused on regulatory reform, capacity building for 750 regulators, and providing advice to 530 financial service providers to foster innovation in payments, insurance, and remittances. Key findings highlight that simple adaptations to supervisory processes are often more effective than complex regulatory sandboxes and that regional payment and data infrastructure are critical for the success of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA).

The document outlines systemic financing barriers in Africa, noting that climate tech start-ups, nature-based enterprises, and women entrepreneurs—particularly in Francophone West Africa—struggle to access necessary investment. It highlights that Africa receives only 6% of global biodiversity funding and that in Senegal, only 3.5% of women entrepreneurs access formal finance. A specific case study focuses on Saglan Wajee General Hospital in Ethiopia, which, supported by FSD Africa's BimaLab, launched 'Efoy', a micro-health insurance product. Efoy 1.0 attracted over 1,200 customers in its first year, and the subsequent Efoy 2.0 has reached 900 new clients, providing affordable coverage for low- and middle-income families.

The report examines the role of fund domiciles in Sub-Saharan African private equity, highlighting the dominance of Mauritius due to its tax efficiency and legal stability. While there is growing interest in onshore alternatives—particularly in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, and Morocco—the report finds that the high standards of legal, regulatory, and tax frameworks in offshore centres create a significant barrier to entry. It argues that donors should focus on strengthening the broader business environment and supporting private equity investment in SMEs rather than solely attempting to replicate administrative offshore hubs.

The report analyzes how MEFMI countries utilized external financing, including emergency facilities from the IMF and World Bank, to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. It details the shift in creditor composition toward bilateral and private lenders, the deterioration of debt risk ratings, and the specific policy responses adopted by member states. The document concludes with ten key lessons for public debt management during crises, emphasizing the importance of official external finance, operational risk management, and transparency.

The report examines how the COVID-19 pandemic affected local currency bond markets (LCBMs) across MEFMI member countries. It finds that while the crisis increased government borrowing needs and operational risks, most countries maintained stability through fiscal, monetary, and financial policy interventions. Key findings include a general increase in the average time to maturity of domestic debt, a shift in investor behavior toward safe assets, and the use of liability management operations like rollovers and switches. The document concludes that deepening LCBMs, strengthening debt management strategies, and improving market transparency are essential for resilience against future crises.

The GCF's private sector strategy aims to mobilize private investment for climate action in developing countries, particularly for the most vulnerable, including LDCs, SIDS, and African states. The strategy is organized around four pillars: promoting a conducive investment environment, accelerating innovation in business models and technology, derisking market-creating investments, and strengthening national and regional financial institutions. To implement this, the GCF is introducing the Project-Specific Evaluation Approach (PSEA) to improve access for non-accredited private entities and is expanding its use of blended finance, including guarantees, equity, and insurance products. The fund also focuses on helping countries translate their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) into bankable investment plans while mitigating currency risks and avoiding increases in sovereign debt.

This document is a Vietnamese translation of excerpts from the 'Boom & Burst Coal 2024' report by Global Energy Monitor and its partners. It analyzes global coal power trends in 2023, highlighting a dichotomy where new construction has hit a 9-year low outside China but an 8-year high within China. The report provides a detailed assessment of Vietnam's energy transition, focusing on the Power Development Plan VIII (PDP8) and the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), while noting that global coal capacity reached an all-time high in 2023.

Global Witness reveals that the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), largely funded by UK aid, committed $749.8 million to fossil fuel projects between 2002 and 2018. The report highlights the use of highly polluting heavy fuel oil (HFO) in West Africa and the continued funding of gas plants in Togo and Cote D'Ivoire in 2019. It further criticizes PIDG's investments in diesel-powered telecommunications towers and high-carbon industrial projects, while noting that 43% of its renewable energy spending went to biomass and hydropower. The document calls for an immediate end to all UK overseas fossil fuel investments across all government departments and agencies.

The document defines non-sewered sanitation systems (NSSS) as reticulation-free systems where human excreta are stored on-site for treatment or disposal. It highlights the economic return of water and sanitation investments, noting a USD 2.5 - 5 return in reduced healthcare costs for every dollar spent. In South Africa, NSSS are presented as solutions to water scarcity, aging infrastructure, and rapid urbanization, with a potential R4.7bn investment opportunity in metropolitan projects and a R3.4bn government allocation for school sanitation over two years. Globally, the document projects that water infrastructure costs will rise from USD 6.7 trillion by 2030 to USD 22.6 trillion by 2050, with Sub-Saharan Africa leading in annual costs to achieve basic and safe sanitation.

The workshop addressed the emerging waste stream of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels in South Africa, noting that while most current waste stems from damage, obsolete panels will increase significantly within five years. Participants discussed the legal ban on solar panels in landfills starting August 2021, the need for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes, and the trade-offs between centralized recycling facilities and local dismantling hubs. The report highlights the importance of the waste management hierarchy—preventing, reusing, and repairing—and suggests that while full local recycling may not be feasible in the short term, local pre-processing and the export of PV cells are viable options.

The document details the use of Black Soldier Fly (BSF) larvae to convert low-grade organic waste into high-value protein and oil for animal feed, pet food, and pharmaceuticals. It focuses on Maltento, a Cape Town company that processes organic by-products like spent brewery grain and fruit/vegetable pulp. The study argues that this circular economy approach reduces landfill reliance, lowers greenhouse gas emissions, and decreases dependency on volatile global imports of soy and fishmeal. In 2021, Maltento processed approximately 6,000 tonnes of organics, creating jobs and providing a more stable price for protein derivatives.

The policy brief highlights the risks of improper nitrogen use in Latin American agriculture and wastewater management, advocating for evidence-based policies to prevent soil degradation and water contamination. It details a research project by the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI) and the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) to monitor nitrogen cycles and develop management tools across several American countries.

The document examines how progressive taxation can address extreme poverty and economic inequality, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Africa. It evaluates several tax instruments, including Financial Transaction Taxes (FTTs), net wealth taxes, property taxes, and Resource Rent Taxes (RTT), detailing their potential to generate revenue for social protection and climate justice. Using South Africa as a case study, the brief provides specific revenue estimates for various progressive measures, such as a net wealth tax that could raise between R70 and R160 billion.

The policy brief advocates for the G20 to push the IMF for a new $650 billion SDR allocation to address the intersecting debt and climate crises in the Global South. It argues that SDRs are a critical alternative to debt-based financing, as they do not require repayment and can be used for fiscal support, climate adaptation, and mitigation. The brief also recommends that the IMF revert its accounting of SDRs from liabilities to equity (as per BPM5) to prevent artificial increases in debt-to-GDP ratios and facilitate the donation of unused SDRs from advanced economies to indebted nations.

The document argues that poverty and environmental degradation are mutually reinforcing systemic issues that must be addressed together. It traces the shift from measuring poverty solely by household income to multidimensional indices, such as the Human Development Index (HDI) and the Planetary-Pressures Adjusted HDI, which incorporate carbon emissions and material footprints. The text highlights how climate change, conflict, and the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately affect the poor, while noting that the resource consumption of the wealthiest 10% of the global population prevents the poor from escaping poverty within planetary boundaries. It recommends that governments shift from GDP-centric metrics to national well-being indices that include marginalized groups and environmental health.

The briefing examines the Green Climate Fund's (GCF) potential to address the lack of gender-responsiveness and the bias toward large-scale mitigation in international climate finance. It highlights the specific vulnerabilities of poor rural women in Sub-Saharan Africa and calls for the GCF to implement operational modalities that ensure equitable access to funding and gender-disaggregated data for policy making.

The document critiques the European Union's proposed priority areas for the Africa-EU strategy, noting that it overlooks critical issues from the Abidjan Declaration and AU Agenda 2063. It highlights gaps in addressing poverty, healthcare, transport infrastructure, and internet access, while emphasizing that debt relief in response to COVID-19 will be a critical test for the partnership.

This policy brief by the Institute for Security Studies examines the intersection of climate change, gender inequality, and human mobility in Africa. It argues that gender-neutral climate policies deepen existing inequalities and that women, despite being key agents of adaptation, face disproportionate risks and barriers to resources, finance, and decision-making.

The text examines the role of peace education in transforming societies from a reliance on military solutions to a culture of peace. It discusses various typologies of peace education, its implementation in formal and informal settings, and specifically evaluates its application and potential in South Africa and the wider sub-Saharan African region. The author contends that investing in peace educators is significantly more cost-effective than maintaining military budgets and is a necessary component of sustainable regional security.