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In 2024, global new coal capacity reached its lowest level in two decades at 44 GW, though China and India continued significant expansions. While the EU27 saw a fourfold increase in plant closures and the UK shut its last coal plant, Indonesia faces a contradictory trend: overall proposed capacity is down 90% since 2015, but 'captive' coal plants for industrial use are surging. Indonesia's transition is further complicated by conflicting government statements on a 2040 phase-out, the withdrawal of the US from the JETP leadership, and record coal production reaching 831 million tons in 2024.

The report analyzes the rise of international disputes and geopolitical tensions, noting that state-based conflicts reached a historic high of 59 active conflicts in 2023. Utilizing Shared Socioeconomic Pathways, the document develops three plausible storylines to illustrate how the collapse of globalization, escalating rivalries, and the decline of multilateral institutions could reshape economic landscapes and international relations. These scenarios are intended to help policymakers address vulnerabilities in trade networks and food systems while enhancing resilience against climate risks.

The research identifies six globally-influential climate adaptation imaginaries—Eco Modern State, Just Adaptation, Promethean (Green) Growth, High Tech Society, Human Stewardship, and Knowledge Society—and argues that dominant visions often reproduce existing power relations and business-as-usual approaches.

The paper identifies that usable groundwater is rapidly decreasing globally due to mismanagement and climate change, posing a particular challenge for the nearly 600 transboundary aquifers. To address this, the authors propose five governance recommendations: enhancing flexible international mechanisms, addressing the need for data, prioritizing the precautionary principle and pollution prevention, integrating surface and subsurface water and land governance, and expanding the institutional capacity of binational or multinational actors.

The report evaluates 2,618 commitments from the Our Ocean Conference (2014-2024), totaling US$160 billion in pledged funds. As of January 2025, 43% of commitments are completed, with $133.4 billion mobilized. The majority of pledged finance (54%) is directed toward ocean-climate action. The paper recommends increasing engagement with the private sector, academia, and marginalized groups, including small island developing states and Indigenous communities.

The RMI roadmap sets a target of 10 Gt CO2/y of durable technological carbon dioxide removal by 2050 and aims to advance non-CO2 greenhouse gas removal science to enable deployment decisions by the early 2030s.

The Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) has introduced a methodology framework for developing Climate Finance Roadmaps to address a global climate investment gap estimated at USD 6.1 trillion per year by 2030. The framework is designed to identify suitable investors, necessary financial instruments, and regulatory measures to mobilize climate finance at scale. CPI intends to test this approach in pilot geographies and sectors and invites external stakeholders to adopt the framework or provide feedback to refine the living methodology.

The November 2024 update reveals a three-year stagnation in global warming projections, with current policies setting the world on a path toward 2.7°C of warming by 2100. While renewable energy and electric vehicle deployment have seen record growth, these gains are offset by all-time high fossil fuel subsidies and increased funding for fossil fuel projects. The report warns that without a substantial increase in the ambition of 2030 and 2035 targets, the 1.5°C limit will likely be breached in the early 2030s, leading to a multidecadal overshoot.

The document outlines the technical framework for the State of Climate Action series, focusing on tracking global greenhouse gas emission reductions and carbon removal. It details the process of translating sectoral transformations into actionable targets and the categorization of progress (e.g., 'on track' or 'off track'). The 2024 update introduces 2035 targets for 16 indicators, a new indicator for wind and solar power in electricity generation, and revised transport sector targets based on recent modeling.

The report finds that while regenerative agriculture is widely adopted in the communications of 24 out of 30 analyzed multinational food and agriculture companies, it lacks a common definition and scientific rigor. The analysis suggests that companies often conflate emission reductions with removals, overstate the potential of soil carbon sequestration, and use 'regenerative grazing' to justify unsustainable livestock production levels. Ultimately, the report argues that current corporate applications of regenerative agriculture lack the ambition to significantly impact climate mitigation and often serve as a layer over business-as-usual practices rather than a systemic redesign of food production.

The OCI+ tool reveals that global oil and gas resources vary by up to five times in life-cycle emissions intensity. The document emphasizes that supply-side emissions from production, refining, and transport can rival end-use consumption, making the identification of high-emitting assets critical for short-term climate action. It highlights methane reduction as the highest priority, noting that methane accounts for over half of operational emissions and advocating for the use of a 20-year global warming potential (GWP20) to accurately assess climate risks.

The document explores how artificial intelligence (AI) and Earth observation technologies can enhance the mapping, monitoring, and stewardship of forests to combat climate change and support Sustainable Development Goals. While these tools offer potential for more efficient forest management, the author warns that their increased use could introduce new risks that might make sustainability efforts counterproductive. The article focuses on identifying these risks and opportunities, as well as proposing governance mechanisms to ensure the design of sustainable, forest-focused AI.

The report highlights that while contrail-induced warming is a significant climate problem, it is solvable through targeted solutions like flight rerouting. It emphasizes that the primary barrier to accurate contrail prediction is a lack of reliable humidity data at cruising altitudes. The document advocates for increased investment in atmospheric science, expanded flight trials to test operational feasibility, and the integration of air traffic management to prevent airspace congestion as contrail avoidance is scaled.

The chemicals industry accounts for 4% to 6% of global greenhouse gas emissions, a level comparable to the steel industry. While chemicals are essential for 96% of manufactured goods and over 75% of emission reduction technologies, their production relies heavily on fossil fuel feedstocks and energy-intensive processes. RMI advocates for a systems approach to decarbonization focusing on reducing petrochemical demand through circular economy principles, improving process and energy efficiency via renewables and hydrogen, and transitioning to defossilized feedstocks to avoid over-reliance on carbon capture and storage (CCS).

A collaboration between University College London and the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) asserts that existing fossil fuel capacity is sufficient to meet energy demand under 1.5°C-aligned scenarios. The authors propose a "No New Fossil Fuels" norm as a politically and legally feasible first step toward a full transition, noting that peer-reviewed science indicates no room for new oil and gas fields or coal- and gas-fired power plants.

The authors call for a coordinated effort by the WTO, OECD, IMF, and World Bank to create a robust analytical base to identify and eliminate 'bad subsidies'—those that distort trade and harm the environment—while promoting 'good subsidies' that address market failures. The text highlights the high costs of fossil fuel and agricultural subsidies and the carbon footprint of state support in the aluminium sector, advocating for a socially responsible, progressive transition to sustainable government support.

In 2023, the share of renewables in the global electricity mix exceeded 30% for the first time, driven by record solar and wind generation. Despite this, total power sector emissions reached a record high of 14,153 million tonnes of CO2 because clean growth could not fully meet rising demand and was hampered by a record fall in hydropower. While carbon intensity hit a record low of 480 gCO2/kWh, fossil generation increased by 135 TWh, primarily in emerging economies like China and India where droughts reduced hydro output.

This briefing from the International Institute for Sustainable Development examines the increasing trend of incorporating voluntary sustainability standards (VSSs) into free trade agreements (FTAs) and provides recommendations to maximize their effectiveness in promoting sustainable global production and consumption.

The paper evaluates the quality of six major global scenario sets using scenario diversity analysis, a quantitative method designed to assess how well a set of scenarios covers the space of future possibilities. While the results indicate that the assessed sets perform relatively well in terms of diversity, the authors highlight a potential trade-off between the breadth of future possibilities covered and the introduction of redundancy within the sets, particularly when using classic scenario architecture methods.

The 2024 Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor finds that while the ambition of 51 major global companies has improved, their 2030 targets—with a median absolute emission reduction of 30% for full value chain emissions—remain insufficient to limit warming to 1.5°C. The report highlights a reliance on 'false solutions' like CCUS and carbon removals over actual emission reductions, and criticizes the leniency of validation practices by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). It argues that the current voluntary accountability system is impaired by corporate influence and must transition to formal accountability.