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The report 'Boom & Bust Coal 2026' by Global Energy Monitor analyzes the global coal power portfolio in 2025, highlighting a divergence where coal capacity continued to grow despite a decrease in actual coal-fired electricity generation. The document details regional trends, noting that new coal development is increasingly concentrated in China and India, while other regions like Latin America have ceased new coal projects. It also examines the specific challenges facing Ukraine's energy infrastructure due to Russian attacks and the debate over whether to restore old coal plants or transition to decentralized renewable energy.

This research paper analyzes the structural decline of Official Development Assistance (ODA) and the systemic failures in allocating climate finance toward adaptation and resilience between 2024 and 2026. It argues that the primary constraint is not a lack of information or foresight, but an institutional 'decision gap' that prevents organizations from translating risk analysis into operational preparedness.

The Global Resilience Partnership (GRP) has issued guidelines for its May 2026 Innovation Challenges, a call for proposals seeking transformative resilience solutions from entrepreneurs and organisations in the Global South. The initiative offers selected winners up to US$50,000 in funding and a comprehensive support package including mentoring, a leadership academy, and communications assistance to scale innovations that address climate and environmental risks.

This briefing by the South African Institute of International Affairs examines the collapse of multilateralism in the Sahel, focusing on how military coups in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger have led to the formation of the Alliance des États du Sahel (AES) and a strategic pivot away from Western-led institutions toward partners like Russia and China.

The report 'Boom & Bust Coal 2026' bySS analyzes global coal power trends in 2025, highlighting a growing gap where coal capacity is increasing while actual electricity production isS is declining. This trend is most prominent in China and India, where coal plants are increasingly used as 'system insurance' to support the integration of renewables. While the number of countries pursuing new coal projects is decreasing, Indonesia remains a significant outlier, expanding coal capacity primarily through 'captive' power plants for mineral processing (nickel and aluminum) and facing regulatory contradictions between its climate commitments and energy planning documents.

An Ember report finds that global coal mine methane (CMM) emissions remained broadly steady between 2021 and 2023, despite an 8% increase in global coal production. The report highlights significant discrepancies between official UNFCCC-reported data and independent estimates, noting that six of the nine largest emitters failed to submit official 2023 CMM data.

The Global Coal Mine Methane Review 2026 reports that coal mine methane (CMM) emissions have remained steady at approximately 35 million tonnes despite rising coal production since the 2021 Global Methane Pledge. The report highlights a critical lack of transparency, estimating that 89% of emissions were unreported to the UNFCCC in 2023, and that 87% of global coal production relies on generic emission factors rather than direct measurements. While satellite monitoring is increasing, it currently captures emissions from only 10% of global hard coal production. The report concludes that existing technologies could reduce CMM emissions by 54-63% by 2030, with some measures available at no net cost, and that such reductions are affordable relative to industry profits.

This report by Ember analyses electricity generation data to demonstrate that fossil fuel power has reached a structural peak and is in permanent decline across all 38 OECD member countries as of 2025. It highlights how the rapid scaling of solar and wind is displacing thermal generation, a trend that is now extending into major emerging economies like China and India.

This research paper by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) analyzes the misalignment of global public finance, noting that in 2024, public support for fossil fuels exceeded USD 1.2 trillion, nearly five times the USD 254 billion provided to clean energy. The report examines fossil fuel subsidies, G20 renewable energy support, state-owned enterprise (SOE) capital expenditure, and international public finance, arguing that governments must shift from blanket subsidies to targeted social protection and clean energy investment to reduce fiscal exposure and energy vulnerability.

This policy brief examines the United States government's recent shift toward using equity investments to secure critical mineral supply chains, particularly to reduce dependence on China. While these deals provide essential up-front capital and have catalyzed private investment, the author argues that equity alone is insufficient and must be paired with demand-side supports, such as price floors and offtake agreements, to ensure long-term market stability.

In 2025, record solar and wind growth met 99% of global electricity demand increases, causing fossil fuel generation to decline for the first time since 2020. Renewables surpassed coal as a share of global electricity generation for the first time in a century, reaching 33.8%.

The global electricity sector has transitioned from fossil-fuelled growth to clean growth, with clean power meeting all global demand growth in 2025. This shift is driven largely by the plateauing of fossil generation in China and the rapid scale-up of solar and wind power. Battery storage is now emerging as a critical technology to displace fossil fuels during non-daylight hours, particularly in high-solar regions.

This research paper by the Institute for Security Studies examines agricultural reforms in China, Brazil, and Egypt to identify potential lessons for improving productivity and food security in Africa.

This briefing by Zero Carbon Analytics explains the mechanisms of El Niño, its interaction with climate change, and its global socio-economic and environmental impacts. It highlights a 61% chance of an El Niño event emerging between May and July 2026, noting that human-caused warming is likely increasing the frequency and severity of such events, while simultaneously making them harder to predict.

The report argues that the convergence of trade and climate policy is creating systemic gaps that marginalize developing countries. It highlights the mismatch between WTO rules and climate objectives, the lack of a unified governance space between the WTO and UNFCCC, and a scarcity of granular data on distributional impacts. To ensure a just transition, the authors advocate for a multilateral agenda that prioritizes development, differentiation, and the treatment of green technologies as global public goods.

This briefing from RMI and the New Energy Industrial Strategy (NEIS) Center analyzes the global energy crisis triggered by the US-Iran war. It argues that while governments are currently relying on short-term fixes like strategic reserves and subsidies, the crisis provides an opportunity to accelerate the transition to clean energy, electrification, and efficiency to reduce long-term vulnerability to volatile global fuel markets.

The research paper 'The New Twin Fossil Shock' analyzes how two major energy crises in the 2020s—the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and the 2026 shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz—are accelerating the global transition to an 'electric age.' The authors argue that unlike the oil shocks of the 1970s, current alternatives such as solar, wind, and electric vehicles (EVs) are cost-competitive, scalable, and provide a permanent route out of fossil fuel dependency.

The US electric vehicle (EV) market is experiencing a slowdown in momentum due to federal policy shifts, including the expiration of purchase tax credits and the repeal of tailpipe emission limits. While EV sales fell 4% in 2025, charging infrastructure continues to expand through private investment. Automakers are pivoting away from all-electric targets toward a mix of hybrids and affordable models, while manufacturing investments in the Midwest and South have seen significant cancellations.

The research paper argues for a binding international agreement on fossil fuel subsidies within the WTO framework to address global negative externalities and climate change. It proposes using the Agreement on Climate Change, Trade and Sustainability (ACCTS) as a model, specifically highlighting the Standardized Carbon Rate Measurement (SCRM) as a way to move beyond definitional debates. The authors suggest that successful subsidy reduction must be linked to a state's capacity to transition to green energy and may require WTO waivers on local content requirements to support renewable energy transitions.

This research paper by the Institute for Security Studies outlines a proposed 'Energy Policy scenario' for Africa to transition toward a low-emissions energy future. It analyzes the gap between current fossil fuel production and climate targets, the potential for scaling renewables and nuclear energy, and the role of energy efficiency in reducing total demand.