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This document is a Japanese translation of an excerpt from the 'Boom & Bust Coal 2024' report by Global Energy Monitor and its partners. It tracks global coal-fired power plant plans as of April 2024, highlighting a contradiction where global coal capacity reached record highs in 2023 despite a general trend of shrinking development pipelines in most countries except China.

The global operating coal fleet grew by 48.4 GW (2%) in 2023 to 2,130 GW, primarily driven by China. While many countries have reduced their coal pipelines or committed to 'No New Coal,' China saw an eight-year high in new construction starts. Outside China, new construction hit a record annual low. However, global operating capacity has grown 11% since 2015, and only 15% of current capacity has a retirement commitment aligned with the 1.5°C goal.

The report finds that while most countries are reducing coal proposals, global operating capacity grew by 48.4 GW in 2023, primarily driven by China. It highlights a stark divergence between China's construction surge and a record low in new starts elsewhere, while noting that only 15% of global operating coal capacity has a Paris-aligned retirement commitment.

The Kuali Fund-GCF Gender Assessment analyzes gender disparities in the financial and agricultural sectors across Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Panama. It identifies systemic barriers—including limited access to credit, land ownership gaps, and the burden of unpaid care work—that hinder women-led micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and female smallholder farmers. The report argues that women are more vulnerable to climate change and face a significant financing gap, which the fund aims to address through a Gender Action Plan (GAP) involving technical assistance, gender-responsive financial products, and capacity building for financial service providers (FSPs).

The report examines how developing countries can capture a fair share of financial benefits from critical minerals, highlighting risks such as price volatility, oversupply, and opaque markets. It suggests opportunities for these nations to increase state participation, develop downstream processing capabilities, and reform fiscal incentives to maximize economic gains from the energy transition.

The report analyzes the fiscal risks and opportunities for developing countries producing critical minerals essential for the energy transition. It highlights the potential for significant additional revenues—estimated up to USD 25 billion annually in taxes and royalties by 2040—while warning of risks such as price volatility, lack of transparency in markets like cobalt and lithium, and the potential for oversupply due to substitutes. The document argues that producer countries can increase their economic benefits by enhancing domestic processing (adding value), re-evaluating state participation, and reforming overly generous tax incentives. It also addresses the impact of alternative financing like 'metal streaming' and the potential costs associated with carbon pricing mechanisms such as the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.

The report analyzes how developing countries can maximize financial gains from critical minerals during the energy transition. It identifies risks such as price volatility, opaque markets, and the impact of alternative financing like metal streaming. Opportunities include increasing state participation, developing downstream processing to add value, and reforming tax incentives. The document emphasizes that while significant additional revenues are possible—potentially between 98 billion and 259 billion USD annually by 2040—the window of opportunity is limited by potential oversupply and the development of substitute materials.

The document examines how the green energy transition in Africa could trigger conflict due to land displacement, environmental damage, and inequitable benefit distribution. It identifies five key categories of legal protections—land and resource rights, environmental and social protections, compensation and benefit sharing, access to information and participation, and access to justice—that can mitigate these risks. While many Sub-Saharan African countries have enacted basic protections, the brief emphasizes that the quality of implementation, institutional capacity, and political will are essential to prevent a 'green resource curse'.

The document argues that the current ecological crisis is driven by fossil-fuel-based economic systems and excessive consumption. It calls for a fundamental shift in economic and behavioral patterns, emphasizing the interconnectedness of climate change, biodiversity loss, water scarcity, air pollution, and social inequality. The guide advocates for a 'just transition' that protects the poor and marginalized, who suffer most from environmental degradation despite contributing the least to it.

The document outlines the environmental crises caused by fossil-fuel-driven economic systems, emphasizing the need for a 'just transition' and a shift toward circular economies. It highlights the critical state of biodiversity, water security, and air quality, noting that the poorest populations suffer most despite contributing least to the problem. The guide calls for systemic changes in food production, energy use, and consumption patterns to protect the planet for future generations.

The report highlights a significant global gap in reliable electricity for healthcare, estimating a total investment need of 4.9 billion USD, with the largest deficits in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. While solar standalone technology remains the most popular choice, there is a strategic shift toward service-based models like Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) to ensure long-term operation and maintenance. The document emphasizes the need for better intersectoral coordination between health, energy, and climate actors, alongside the adoption of data-driven decision-making and climate finance to achieve sustainable electrification.

The report highlights a significant global energy gap in healthcare, with an estimated 1 billion people lacking reliable power at local facilities. While electrification initiatives grew by 47% annually between 2018 and 2021, the sector faces a USD 4.9 billion investment gap, primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The analysis advocates for a shift from grant-based Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) models to long-term service-based models like Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) to ensure sustainable operations and maintenance.

The report identifies a significant global gap in healthcare electrification, with an estimated 1 billion people lacking reliable power at local facilities and a total investment need of USD 4.9 billion. While solar PV systems dominate current initiatives, the report argues for a shift from short-term procurement models (EPC) to long-term service-based models (ESCO) to ensure sustainable operation and maintenance (O&M). Key recommendations include developing country-specific taxonomies, enhancing inter-sectoral coordination between health and energy ministries, and leveraging climate finance and decentralized renewable energy certificates (D-RECs) to bridge the funding gap.

The author contends that sub-Saharan African low-income economies face a severe debt and solvency crisis, with debt service consuming 31 per cent of revenues and eroding poverty gains. The text calls for a comprehensive debt relief mechanism equivalent to the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative and reforms to the G20 Common Framework to facilitate quicker debt restructuring.

Turkey has expanded its influence in sub-Saharan Africa by leveraging a combination of humanitarian diplomacy, shared religious identity, and an anti-colonial narrative to establish soft power, which has subsequently paved the way for hard power interests. A key pillar of this strategy is the relationship with Somalia, recently solidified by a 10-year Defence and Economic Co-operation Framework Agreement granting Turkey authority over the management and defence of Somali waters. While Turkey positions itself as an alternative to Western powers, it faces competition from other middle powers like the UAE, Qatar, and Egypt. The document notes that Turkey's future engagement will be heavily influenced by its domestic economic crisis, potentially shifting priority toward high-yield economic activities such as defence exports and construction contracts over humanitarian aid.

The Maputo Manifesto 2024, issued following the 4th African Conference on Debt and Development, calls for a radical shift toward a feminist lens on debt and development in Africa. It highlights how rising debt servicing costs—which increased by 132% between 2010 and 2021—crowd out essential spending on health and education, disproportionately impacting women who comprise nearly 90% of Africa's informal employment. The document advocates for debt cancellation, the dismantling of patriarchal and neocolonial financial structures, and the implementation of gender-sensitive budgeting to ensure social justice and economic autonomy for the continent.

The GRP 2024–2029 Strategy focuses on three transformative opportunities: regenerative food systems, reimagined finance flows, and community-led resilience. The partnership aims to scale locally-led innovations and bridge the adaptation finance gap, which is currently five to ten times lower than required for developing countries. Key goals include transforming food and financial systems, scaling formal-informal collaborations, increasing transdisciplinary learning, and embedding resilience in the private sector. Geographically, the strategy prioritises sub-Saharan Africa, South and South East Asia, and Small Island Developing States in the Pacific and Caribbean.

The SUNCASA project, funded with USD 22 million by Global Affairs Canada and managed by IISD and WRI, implements nature-based solutions (NbS) to combat flooding, heat, and biodiversity loss in Dire Dawa, Kigali, and Johannesburg. The project targets 2.2 million beneficiaries, with a specific focus on gender equality and the empowerment of marginalized groups in climate adaptation planning.

The 2024 IPIE expert survey of 412 researchers across 66 countries identifies the availability of accurate information and diversity of voices as the primary features of a healthy information environment. Social media platform owners, governments, and politicians are cited as the most significant threats. While generative AI is viewed as a tool that could potentially improve content detection and journalism, 63% of experts express significant concern regarding its potential to amplify misinformation, harassment, and bias. Experts in developing countries report higher levels of concern regarding AI and platform-based threats but show greater optimism toward interventions like fact-checking and media literacy.

The International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE) submits recommendations to the OECD to strengthen information integrity. Key proposals include requiring online platforms to grant independent researchers access to data and systems, promoting innovative funding for independent media to ensure diversity of ownership, and implementing more stringent industry standards for the provenance of generative AI content. The IPIE also suggests that governments take enforcement actions and impose sanctions when disinformation poses significant risks to human rights and democratic processes, while advising the removal of language focusing on 'malicious intent' due to the difficulty of proof.