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This report examines a toolkit of regulatory and economic policy instruments used to curb deforestation and promote forest restoration in tropical regions. It analyzes the effectiveness of command-and-control measures, financial incentives, and the critical role of land tenure security, while highlighting how political cycles and electoral incentives create risks for long-term conservation success.

This report by the Climate Policy Initiative analyzes the scale and diversity of the forest-climate nexus across 91 tropical countries. It quantifies forest extent, carbon stocks, and deforestation rates to argue for differentiated, fit-for-purpose policy strategies rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. The analysis concludes that there is no inherent trade-off between forest conservation and economic development.

A solidarity letter from 154 civil society and Indigenous Peoples organizations across 28 countries in Latin America, Asia, and Africa urging New York Governor Kathy Hochul to sign the TREES Act (Bill # A.9711/S.8898) into law to protect tropical forests.

This policy brief argues that South Africa's 2025 G20 presidency provides a strategic opportunity to integrate subnational governments into the global climate and environmental agenda. It highlights the role of municipalities as frontline implementers of climate adaptation, mitigation, and biodiversity goals, while identifying systemic financial and capacity barriers that hinder their effectiveness in Africa and the Global South.

This concept note describes a discussion series episode titled "Grants under attack in South Africa: How to save social protection," which examines the National Treasury's instructions to the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) to reduce the number of social grant recipients to protect the fiscus.

This fact sheet by the World Resources Institute outlines the current state of the global circular economy, emphasizing the urgent need to reduce resource consumption to combat climate change and biodiversity loss. It highlights the disparity in material footprints between high- and low-income populations, the leadership and challenges of the European Union, and the stagnation of global resource productivity since 2000.

The China Energy Transition Review 2025 by Ember analyzes China's rapid shift toward clean energy and electrification, detailing how its domestic policies and manufacturing scale are driving down global costs and pushing global fossil fuel demand toward a structural decline.

This report by Ember examines how major global steelmakers—specifically ArcelorMittal, Nippon Steel, and POSCO—often omit fugitive methane emissions from coal mining in their Scope 3 emissions reporting. The analysis highlights that reliance on blast furnace technology and the sourcing of coal from high-methane mines in Australia significantly increase the actual climate impact of these companies' value chains, often by percentages that would materially alter their reported greenhouse gas footprints.

The Trase strategy for 2025–2030 outlines a mission to drive systemic change in commodity markets and supply chains by providing open-access data and intelligence to accelerate supply chain interventions and improve decision-maker responsiveness to risks.

This briefing, prepared for the 11th session of the open-ended intergovernmental working group (OEIGWG), advocates for the explicit inclusion of the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment (RtHE) within a proposed international legally binding instrument (LBI) to regulate transnational corporations and business enterprises.

This briefing paper argues for the adoption of a United Nations legally binding instrument (LBI) to regulate transnational corporations as a structural lever for environmental justice. It highlights the failure of voluntary frameworks to ensure corporate accountability for ecological destruction and human rights abuses, proposing that a binding treaty would operationalize the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment through mandatory due diligence, extraterritorial jurisdiction, and effective remediation.

The report 'Priority Actions for Deforestation- and Conversion-Free Finance' provides a strategic framework to align private financial flows with the goal of halting and reversing deforestation and ecosystem conversion by 2030. It outlines specific priority actions for three key groups: policymakers, central banks and financial supervisors, and financial institutions, emphasizing the need for coordinated action to manage nature-related risks and catalyze a transition to nature-positive business models.

This briefing note by the Forum on Trade, Environment, & the SDGs (TESS) examines the 'twin transition'—the simultaneous pursuit of digital and green transformations. It analyzes how digital technologies can both enable climate action and contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, focusing on the implications for developing countries and the pathways toward a net-zero digital economy by 2050.

This research paper examines the intersection of the evolving international trading system and the urgent need to address biodiversity loss, climate change, and sustainable development. It argues that while trade has historically contributed to environmental harm, it can be repurposed as a strategic tool for sustainability through new narratives, inclusive international cooperation, and coherent policy frameworks. The author identifies a shift from traditional trade liberalization toward 'multipurpose' approaches that balance security, resilience, and sustainability, and proposes a policy agenda to reorient trade rules, scale up sustainable technologies, and ensure equitable economic transformation for developing countries.

This fact sheet by the Institute for Economic Justice advocates for the implementation of Universal Social Protection Floors to combat global poverty, hunger, and inequality. It details the role of the G20 in promoting these floors, specifically highlighting the contributions of previous presidencies and the strategic opportunity presented by South Africa's G20 presidency to integrate social protection with economic and industrial strategies.

A policy brief by Dr Basani Baloyi analyzing the impact of Donald Trump's second administration's tariff regime on Africa and proposing a strategic response focused on regional integration, industrialization, and collective bargaining.

This factsheet by the Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ) provides an overview of the Group of 20 (G20), its governance, and the specific context of South Africa's 2025 presidency. It details the G20's composition, its operational tracks, the role of civil society engagement groups like the C20, and South Africa's priorities for its term.

This fact sheet by the Institute for Economic Justice examines the systemic failures of the international taxation system, which allow multinational corporations (MNCs) and the super-rich to avoid taxes. It critiques the G20/OECD Two-Pillar Framework for favoring developed nations and discusses the push for a more democratic UN Tax Convention, while evaluating the role of South Africa's G20 presidency in advancing tax justice.

This report by Ember analyzes national 2030 renewable capacity targets across 96 countries and the EU. It finds that despite the COP28 pledge to triple global renewable capacity by 2030, national targets have remained largely stagnant, collectively amounting to a doubling rather than a tripling of 2022 capacity levels.

The 33rd meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP-33) of the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI) took place in Asunción, Paraguay, on May 29-30, 2025. The meeting focused on strengthening regional scientific collaboration, advancing science diplomacy, and enhancing climate resilience across the Americas. Key outcomes included the adoption of 18 decisions, the creation of an Indigenous Peoples Advisory Committee (IPAC), the approval of an updated Open Science and Open Data Policy, and the admission of three new Associate members: the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the American Geophysical Union (AGU), and the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research (IVIC).