Search Climate Insights Directory

This policy brief by the International Institute for Sustainable Development examines the evolution of global development goals, from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDGs). It analyzes the lessons learned from the MDGs, the expanded scope of the SDGs, and how the 2030 Agenda can serve as a framework for recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COP26 Resilience Hub Synthesis Report outlines the outcomes of the Resilience Hub, which served as the home for the UNFCCC’s Race to Resilience during COP26. The report identifies five core messages for advancing global climate adaptation and resilience, emphasizing the need for locally led action, diversified finance, knowledge brokering, nature-based solutions, and the inclusion of marginalized groups in decision-making.

This report analyzes global access to cooling in 2021, focusing on 54 high-impact countries. It details how the combined effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and rising global temperatures have increased the number of people at risk due to a lack of sustainable cooling, particularly among the rural and urban poor.

This report by the Climate Policy Initiative, supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), proposes a framework for measuring climate finance flows to small-scale agriculture in developing countries and provides a snapshot of international financial commitments for 2017 and 2018.

A statement by the Global Resilience Partnership arguing that the COVID-19 pandemic exposed systemic fragilities caused by a global economic focus on productivity over resilience. The authors advocate for a shift toward inclusive governance, localized value chains, and a sustainable relationship with nature to protect vulnerable populations from future shocks.

This briefing paper by the Stockholm Environment Institute analyzes Green Climate Fund (GCF) funding proposals from 2015 to July 2018 to evaluate the extent of financial support directed toward energy access, particularly in high-impact and low-income countries.

The Global Resilience Partnership (GRP) case study outlines a framework for 'learning from failure' in resilience-building initiatives. By utilizing Challenge Funds to distribute risk and establishing a high-trust relationship between the GRP Secretariat and grantees, the organization encourages an iterative 'probe-sense-respond' approach. Key findings emphasize the need for flexible targets, a 'do no harm' principle in vulnerable contexts, and a systematic MEL process that captures not just what failed, but why. Case studies from Kenya, the Philippines, and the Sahel demonstrate how pausing unsuccessful pilots and redesigning products based on real-time evidence leads to more effective, scalable resilience solutions.

This research paper examines the capacity of green bonds to bridge the global adaptation finance gap, specifically focusing on private sector involvement. The author concludes that while green bonds can finance adaptation, they currently do so to a very limited extent and are unlikely to significantly close the finance gap due to geographic mismatches, project scale issues, and a general lack of corporate climate risk awareness.

This report by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) estimates the public funding required by 2030 to end hunger, double the incomes of smallholder farmers, and maintain agricultural greenhouse gas emissions within the limits of the Paris Agreement. Using a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model, the authors determine that donors must nearly double their current annual contributions to food security, supplemented by increased domestic tax revenue in low- and middle-income countries.

This report by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) estimates the public spending required to end hunger, double the incomes of small-scale producers, and maintain agricultural greenhouse gas emissions within Paris Agreement limits by 2030. It identifies a significant funding gap, requiring both an increase in official development assistance (ODA) and higher domestic taxation in low- and middle-income countries.

This report chapter from Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) analyzes development finance for energy projects with gender equality objectives between 2008 and 2018. It highlights a significant gap between general development finance and energy-specific finance targeting gender equality, identifies methodological failures in current tracking systems, and proposes a new framework for reporting and measuring gender-focused energy outcomes.

Sivan Kartha, a Senior Scientist at the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), argues that an equitable approach to the energy transition is the only practical way to address the climate crisis. Speaking at COP25, Kartha warns that a 5-degree Celsius increase in global temperature would represent an existential risk to humanity, comparable in scale to the transition out of the last Ice Age, and emphasizes that wealthy nations must lead in reducing emissions and supporting less privileged populations to achieve global net-zero emissions.

In a transcribed set of remarks delivered at COP25, SEI Senior Scientist Sivan Kartha argues that the only practical and fair way to achieve global zero emissions is for the world's most privileged populations to eliminate their own emissions and provide financial and technological support to less privileged populations.

The 'Building a Resilient Future Outcome Document' records the proceedings of a one-day event held on 22 September 2019 in New York City, convened by the Global Resilience Partnership. The event brought together over 500 practitioners to identify actions and partnerships to accelerate climate adaptation and resilience, specifically responding to the UN Climate Action Summit's Call for Action. The document outlines high-level messages, specific commitments from seven thematic action sessions, and a roadmap for building a global movement to protect vulnerable communities from climate-related shocks.

The Resilience Insights report by the Global Resilience Partnership (GRP) synthesizes evidence from innovation challenges and partner programs to identify effective strategies for building resilience in vulnerable communities. It emphasizes a shift from reactive to systemic, transformative approaches, highlighting five key intervention areas: nature-based solutions, empowerment of marginalized groups, information/technology, inclusive finance, and low-cost infrastructure. The report argues that effective programming must be systemic, layered, inclusive, and long-term, moving beyond short-term project cycles to achieve sustainable, non-linear transformational change.

This outcome document details the proceedings and commitments from a cross-cutting roundtable on Climate Action and Resilience held during UNFCCC COP 24 in Katowice, Poland, on December 10, 2018. Organised by The Climate Resilience Network, the event focused on scaling up investments to enhance climate resilience for the most vulnerable people and countries, emphasizing the need for inclusive, people-centered actions and the integration of local and indigenous knowledge.

A fact sheet detailing a green bond issuance by Sindicatum Renewable Energy, a Singapore-based company focusing on small-scale renewables in South and Southeast Asia.

This report assesses progress toward Goal 4 of the New York Declaration on Forests, which focuses on supporting alternatives to deforestation driven by basic needs, such as subsistence farming and fuelwood collection. The document highlights a significant lack of aggregate global data to measure progress, relying instead on proxy indicators like the distribution of clean cookstoves and related financial funding.

The 2018 Energy Progress Report, a joint publication by five custodian agencies, evaluates global progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7). It concludes that the world is not on track to achieve universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy by 2030, as current progress falls short across all four SDG7 targets: electricity access, clean cooking, energy efficiency, and the share of renewable energy.

This policy brief examines the implementation gap of the United Nations Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) in national legislation, particularly in low-income countries. It identifies regulatory capacity and GDP per capita as primary barriers to implementation and proposes strategies such as regional collaboration, integration into national chemicals strategies, and alignment with the Agenda 2030 to increase global coverage.