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The Global Climate and Health Alliance and the Health and Climate Network submit that health is a prerequisite for the Paris Agreement's success and should be an explicit outcome of the Global Stocktake. They highlight that while 94% of countries include health in National Adaptation Plans, financing remains a critical barrier, with only 0.5% of some multilateral adaptation funding allocated to health projects. The submission emphasizes the significant health co-benefits of mitigation in energy, food, and transport sectors and calls for the quantification of health as a non-economic impact under loss and damage.

The Global Climate and Health Alliance (GCHA) and Health and Climate Network (HCN) submit that health is a prerequisite and critical indicator for the Paris Agreement's success. They highlight that mitigation in energy, food, and transport can prevent millions of deaths annually by 2040, yet only 28% of updated NDCs recognize these health co-benefits. While 94% of surveyed countries include health in National Adaptation Plans, funding remains a critical barrier, with only 0.5% of certain multilateral adaptation funds allocated to health-specific projects. The document urges the GST to quantify health impacts as non-economic losses and damages and to monitor the realization of the human right to a healthy environment.

The briefing discusses the sharp increase in agricultural and mining commodity prices since 2020, noting that while a 'supercycle' is debated, the trend threatens the Glasgow climate agreement's deforestation goals and food security in low-income countries. It highlights the critical role of scarce commodities like copper for electrification and warns that high fertilizer costs may impact 2022 harvests.

The report analyzes 13 voluntary sustainability standards (VSSs) and a joint field study by IISD and UNCTAD involving 57 interviews across six countries to determine how these standards impact poverty reduction for smallholder farmers. It identifies that VSS compliance can alleviate poverty by providing skills training, improving product quality, and increasing crop income and social capital. To maximize these benefits, the report recommends establishing living income references, improving land access, enhancing farmer knowledge, and stimulating demand for sustainable products, while urging VSS bodies to include farmers in decision-making and adopt gender-equality approaches.

The paper synthesises evidence on residential energy efficiency interventions (REEIs) to estimate their overall impact on energy consumption and emissions, while examining causes of variation and cost-effectiveness.

The document highlights the critical role of the steel industry in both global infrastructure and greenhouse gas emissions, arguing that the sector can be almost completely decarbonised by 2050 through appropriate policies and investments.

The 2021 NDC Update Report finds that while 95% of surveyed countries have strengthened greenhouse gas emissions targets, overall progress remains too slow and pledges insufficient. The report highlights a significant gap in long-term strategies (LTSs), with only 17% of Parties having communicated one to the UNFCCC as of October 2021. It emphasizes the critical role of subnational governments, noting that 80% of respondents view them as important for NDC implementation and 75% report their actual involvement in planning. The document warns against using 'green recovery' narratives as a 'smokescreen' for inaction and calls for a just transition to manage trade-offs between climate action and sustainable development goals.

The FAST-Infra Sustainable Infrastructure Label (SI Label) is a voluntary framework designed to identify infrastructure assets that demonstrate significant positive sustainability performance. To qualify, an asset must meet baseline standards—primarily the IFC Performance Standards—and show a significant positive contribution to at least one of 14 sustainability criteria across four dimensions: environmental, social, governance, and adaptation & resilience. The framework mandates environmental and social safeguards, including the use of the Equator Principles 4 and the publication of Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (ESIA). It requires a structured process of declaration, disclosure, and reporting, and strongly encourages an independent external review to ensure market integrity and investor confidence.

The document asserts that plastic is fundamentally carbon and cannot be part of a climate solution, as its production and incineration are projected to consume up to 13% of the global carbon budget for a 1.5°C limit. It systematically refutes five industry claims regarding emissions-free production, carbon-free fuel, carbon sinks, offset schemes, and bioplastics, concluding that these narratives divert policymakers from the necessary goal of reducing plastic production.

The document reports on a comprehensive global stocktake of human adaptation to climate change, utilizing machine learning and a network of 126 researchers to screen over 48,000 articles. The analysis reveals that documented adaptations are primarily fragmented, local, and incremental, with very little evidence of transformational adaptation or outcomes that effectively reduced risk. The authors conclude by identifying eight priorities to improve global adaptation research.

The Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) has introduced the Framework for Sustainable Finance Integrity to establish universal sustainability guardrails for the global financial system. The Framework aims to address the lack of a standardized system for tracking the integrity of net-zero commitments and coordinating action between public and private financial actors to meet the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals.

The authors find that the emissions commitment of current primary steel equipment is 21 Gt CO2eq, which is significantly lower than previous estimates of 52–65 Gt CO2eq. This suggests that future emissions are driven by the speed of novel technology and renewable energy deployment, rather than the long economic life of existing capital. The authors recommend improved monitoring of asset age and research into regulating emission-intensive equipment to avoid consuming the remaining carbon budget.

The briefing advocates for the inclusion of long-term strategies in the first global stocktake (2021-2023) to ensure a comprehensive assessment of global ambition. It details how these strategies can enrich the information collection, technical assessment, and high-level output phases, ultimately guiding the evolution of future Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and supporting developing countries in overcoming barriers to long-term planning.

The 2021 Production Gap Report finds that governments plan to produce significantly more fossil fuels by 2030 than is consistent with limiting global warming to 1.5°C or 2°C, with the gap remaining largely unchanged from previous assessments. While some G20 countries and multilateral development banks have reduced finance for fossil fuel production, over USD 300 billion in new funds have been directed toward fossil fuel activities since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, exceeding investments in clean energy.

The report finds that while the Paris Agreement has integrated forests into the international climate agenda, current national actions are insufficient to stop forest loss and greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. It argues that governments must increase the ambition of their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), align financial flows with climate goals, and implement six core strategies: strengthening governance, protecting indigenous land rights, aligning incentives, promoting multi-stakeholder collaboration, ensuring robust monitoring, and implementing demand-side measures in importing countries.

The UN High-level Dialogue on Energy (HLDE) resulted in the first-ever global roadmap for accelerating Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7) and the announcement of over 160 Energy Compacts. These voluntary commitments from governments, businesses, and civil society include more than USD 400 billion in new finance and investment to address energy poverty and decarbonize energy systems. The dialogue established specific milestones for 2025 and 2030, including the phase-out of coal and the tripling of global renewable power capacity.

The research finds that social impacts are rarely considered in studies of circular cities, and when they are, the focus is limited primarily to governance and employment, particularly regarding informal sector workers. The authors argue that the lack of a coherent overview of social consequences hinders effective policy decision-making and that further research is required to understand effects on health, culture, and human aspirations.

The document asserts that the period until 2030 is critical for limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C and that failure to meet Paris Agreement goals would permanently obstruct just and sustainable global development. It argues for the integration of cross-cutting solutions, increased international climate finance, and the finalization of Article 6 market mechanisms to incentivize transformation in developing countries and emerging economies. Key priority action areas identified include modernising global energy production, climate-friendly urbanisation, low-emission food security, ecosystem conservation, and sustainable water use.

The report outlines SEforALL's efforts to leverage the UN High-level Dialogue on Energy and COP26 to accelerate the energy transition. Key initiatives include the 'Be Bold' campaign for SDG7 and the Universal Energy Facility, which aims to provide 2 million new energy connections and displace 1 million fossil-fuel generators by 2023. Additionally, it notes a USD 1 billion fund established by the IKEA Foundation and The Rockefeller Foundation for distributed renewable energy.

The authors argue that the potential of climate change scenarios to inform policy strategies for limiting global warming is hindered by a lack of intermediary guidance services. To address this, they propose a 'climate change scenario service' framework designed to improve the salience, credibility, and legitimacy of these scenarios. The paper introduces the SENSES toolkit as a practical implementation of this concept, focusing primarily on mitigation scenarios while also providing materials for adaptation scenarios and impact projections.