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INTRODUCTION TO THE VIRTUAL POWER PURCHASE AGREEMENT
This guide from the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) introduces the Virtual Power Purchase Agreement (VPPA), explaining its mechanism as a financial instrument for corporate renewable energy procurement. It distinguishes VPPAs from physical PPAs, detailing how they allow companies to support new renewable energy capacity and meet sustainability goals without taking ownership of physical electricity or altering their existing utility relationships.
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Document type: Guide
Green Bond Fact Sheet
A fact sheet detailing a USD 0.5 million private placement green bond issued by UGE International on October 23, 2018, to finance solar projects.
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Document type: Fact sheet
Electric Buses: Benefits Outweigh Costs
This fact sheet, based on interviews with EESI staff, examines the transition from diesel to battery-powered electric buses (BEBs), highlighting their environmental and health benefits, economic trade-offs, and the current state of deployment in the United States and globally.
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Document type: Fact sheet
Strengthening Financial Resilience to Climate Change
This fact sheet examines the role of insurance and alternative risk financing in building financial resilience against climate change. It details the growing 'protection gap'—the difference between total economic losses and insured losses—and explores emerging tools such as catastrophe bonds, microinsurance, and sovereign risk pools designed to manage the increasing frequency and intensity of climate-related disasters.
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Document type: Fact sheet
The Carbon-Free Regions Handbook: Mobility
The Carbon-Free Regions Handbook: Mobility is a guide by RMI that outlines strategic actions for regional governments to reduce the carbon intensity of transportation, which currently accounts for 14% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
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Document type: Guide
Ride-Hailing Drivers Are Ideal Candidates for Electric Vehicles
This guide by the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) argues that ride-hailing drivers for transportation network companies (TNCs) are ideal candidates for electric vehicle (EV) adoption due to high vehicle utilization, which maximizes savings on fuel and maintenance and increases potential carbon offsets.
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Document type: Guide
Carbon-Free City Handbook: Transportation and Mobility
The Carbon-Free City Handbook: Transportation and Mobility is a guide by RMI that outlines twelve strategic actions for cities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector, which accounts for 36 percent of emissions in large cities. The guide provides descriptions of these actions—ranging from fleet electrification and combustion vehicle reduction to the implementation of car-free zones and expanded public transit—and supports them with a curated list of action documents, recommended resources, and citations from various global cities.
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Document type: Guide
The Carbon-Free City Handbook: Buildings
The Carbon-Free City Handbook: Buildings provides a set of five strategic actions for cities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the built environment, which accounts for nearly 50 percent of all GHG emissions in large cities.
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Document type: Guide
The Carbon-Free City Handbook
The Carbon-Free City Handbook, published by the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) in November 2017, provides a guide for city governments to implement 22 "no-regrets" actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The handbook focuses on five key sectors: buildings, transportation and mobility, electricity, industry, and biological resources, offering a framework for cities to transition toward 100% renewable energy and carbon-free operations through immediate, actionable, and economically viable policies.
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Document type: Guide
Biogas: Converting Waste to Energy
This fact sheet from the Environmental and Energy Study Institute describes the process and benefits of using anaerobic digestion to convert organic waste—including livestock manure, food waste, and wastewater—into biogas. It outlines the potential for biogas to provide baseload power, reduce methane emissions, and create jobs in the United States, while detailing the regulatory frameworks and funding programs that support the industry.
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Document type: Fact sheet
The U.S. Climate Alliance and Related Actions
This fact sheet describes the formation and goals of the United States Climate Alliance and other subnational efforts to uphold the 2016 Paris Agreement following the Trump Administration's decision to withdraw the United States from the accord.
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Document type: Fact sheet
Three Low-Carbon Lessons from China for U.S. Cities and Companies
This briefing by RMI analyzes China's 'energy quota' for buildings—the Standard for Energy Consumption of Civil Buildings (GB/T51161-2016)—and identifies three primary lessons for U.S. cities and companies: the importance of meter-based peer assessment, the challenges of aligning operational targets with design codes, and the benefits of localizing performance targets to account for regional market dynamics.
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Document type: Briefing
A CONSORTIUM APPROACH TO TRANSIT DATA INTEROPERABILITY
This report by the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) examines the barriers to transit data interoperability in the United States and proposes a multistakeholder consortium to develop industry-wide data standards. The authors argue that interoperable data is essential for 'mobility as a service' (MaaS), which allows users to seamlessly combine various transportation modes. The report identifies significant market potential for improved data sharing and provides a detailed set of minimum data requirements for transportation service providers (TSPs) to enable a complete multimodal user experience.
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Document type: Report
UK-CHINA COLLABORATION ON GROWING A GLOBAL GREEN BOND MARKET
This report by the Climate Bonds Initiative and the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) outlines a framework for collaboration between the United Kingdom and China to expand the global green bond market. It identifies the UK as a global hub for green finance and China as a leader in policy support, proposing joint actions to scale cross-border issuance, harmonise green definitions, and develop robust project pipelines to meet the massive investment needs of the low-carbon transition.
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Document type: Report
A Flooded World
A briefing by the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) discussing research on accelerated sea-level rise and the necessary emissions reductions for Canada to meet global climate targets.
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Document type: Briefing
Despite Stay, America’s Economy and Climate Need the Clean Power Plan
The World Resources Institute argues that the U.S. Supreme Court's temporary stay on the Clean Power Plan (CPP) should not deter climate action, asserting that the plan is legally sound and provides significant economic and public health benefits that outweigh its compliance costs.
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Document type: Statement
COMMUNITY ENERGY RESOURCE GUIDE
The Community Energy Resource Guide, published by the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) in December 2015, provides a comprehensive roadmap for U.S. communities to develop energy action plans. It outlines a collaborative planning process, methods for analyzing energy landscapes, and specific tactics across the buildings, electricity, transportation, and industry sectors to accelerate the adoption of renewable energy and energy efficiency.
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Document type: Guide
South African Foreign Policy and the UN Security Council: Assessing its Impact on the African Peace and Security Architecture
This policy brief examines South Africa's two terms as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council (UNSC) in 2007–2008 and 2011–2012. It focuses on South Africa's efforts to strengthen the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) by formalising institutional links between the UNSC and the African Union (AU), advocating for predictable financial resources, and promoting the role of regional organisations in security management under Chapter VIII of the UN Charter.
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Document type: Policy brief
Turkey and the G-20 Presidency: Implications for LIDCs and Africa
This policy brief analyzes Turkey's 2015 G-20 presidency, focusing on its priorities of inclusiveness, investment, and implementation, and their implications for Africa and low-income developing countries (LIDCs). The authors argue that while Turkey has expanded its diplomatic and economic engagement with Africa through a 'bottom-up' approach, the G-20's institutional framework remains problematic due to the underrepresentation of African nations and a disconnect between its finance and development tracks.
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Document type: Policy brief
High Octane Fuels: Challenges and Opportunities
This fact sheet examines the potential for deploying mid-level ethanol blends (E25 to E40) in the United States passenger vehicle fleet to improve fuel efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It discusses the role of ethanol as a renewable octane provider, the compatibility of existing vehicle fleets and retail infrastructure, and the lifecycle GHG reductions associated with different ethanol sources.
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Document type: Fact sheet