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This executive summary from the Stockholm Environment Institute examines policy coherence between the Paris Agreement and Agenda 2030, drawing on research from nine countries. It argues that incoherence is driven by power asymmetries, vested interests, and the prioritization of economic growth over social and environmental goals, rather than simple coordination failures.

This report by Ember and the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) argues that falling costs for 'electrotech'—solar, batteries, and electric end-use technologies—provide a faster and cheaper path to energy access and economic development for emerging markets than traditional fossil-fuel-based models. It highlights how many CVF nations are already leapfrogging developed economies in solar penetration and electrification, reducing their dependence on expensive fossil fuel imports.

This report by Ember examines how the growth of solar power in South Asia is reducing the power sector's exposure to global fossil fuel price shocks, while highlighting that broader fossil fuel dependence persists in transport and industry. The authors argue that further reductions in fuel imports require the electrification of non-power sectors and enhanced regional grid integration, with India serving as a central hub for electricity trade.

The 'Principles for Taxonomy Interoperability' report, published by the Climate Bonds Initiative in November 2025, provides a framework for sustainable finance taxonomy developers and policymakers to ensure that national and regional taxonomies are comparable and interoperable. Launched under the Taxonomy Roadmap Initiative at COP29, the document outlines seven high-level principles designed to reduce barriers to cross-border capital flows by establishing common design features, terminology, and implementation strategies while respecting jurisdictional priorities.

The 'Princípios de Interoperabilidade Taxonômica' report, published by the Climate Bonds Initiative in November 2025, provides a high-level framework to help sustainable finance taxonomy developers and policymakers increase the comparability and cross-border flow of capital. It introduces seven principles designed to align national and regional taxonomies through common languages, scientific baselines, and collaborative international efforts, supporting the broader 'Taxonomy Roadmap Initiative' launched at COP29.

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 briefing by Trend Asia argues that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) continues to support fossil gas through technical assistance (TA) and ambiguous policy language, despite pledges to align with the Paris Agreement. The document contends that framing gas as a 'transitional fuel' or 'low-carbon' enables the planning of infrastructure that locks countries into long-term fossil dependency and risks creating stranded assets.

This policy note by Daniel Bradlow of the South African Institute of International Affairs outlines priorities for South Africa's 2025 G20 presidency to address the sovereign debt crisis in Africa. The author argues that current global governance mechanisms, including the IMF and G20 frameworks, are insufficient to meet the combined debt, climate, and development needs of African nations. The document proposes a 'holistic approach' to debt restructuring that integrates financial obligations with social and environmental commitments, suggests using the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable (GSDR) for reform, and discusses the tension between liquidity and solvency perspectives on restoring financial access.

This research paper examines the human rights records of the BRICS nations, arguing that there is a significant gap between the human rights protections declared in their constitutions and their actual implementation. The authors express concern that the expansion of BRICS to include more autocratic regimes may create a safe haven for governments seeking to avoid Western-led human rights sanctions while pursuing economic and geopolitical dominance.

This report by Ember evaluates power sector data transparency across 39 Asian economies, finding that limited data availability hinders the speed of decarbonisation in a region that accounts for 80% of global coal consumption.

This report by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) analyzes trade frictions arising from national and subnational plastic pollution measures implemented by WTO members. By examining Specific Trade Concerns (STCs) and Trade Policy Review (TPR) questions, the authors identify six primary types of regulatory issues—timing, transparency, stakeholder engagement, proportionality, justification, and discrimination—and provide recommendations to help policy-makers design measures that minimize trade disruptions.

This report, published by the Africa Policy Research Institute in 2023, examines the diverse narratives surrounding China's engagement in Africa. It challenges binary Western interpretations—which often frame China as either a benevolent partner or a predatory actor—by highlighting the agency of African states and the pragmatic ways they leverage Chinese finance and infrastructure for domestic goals. The document analyzes specific narrative contests, such as the 'debt-trap' discourse and the 'Indo-Pacific' strategic concept, arguing that African perspectives are often marginalized in global policy discussions.

This briefing note provides guidance for finance ministers of debtor countries participating in the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable (GSDR). It argues for the establishment of guiding principles for domestic debt restructuring (DDR) to ensure that long-term economic growth and poverty reduction are prioritized and that the burden of adjustment is shared fairly between domestic and foreign creditors.

This statement, co-authored by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), UN Development Programme, International Science Council, and Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), summarizes insights from the first Science Day. It advocates for a stronger science-policy interface and the creation of a "global transformation road map" to accelerate progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) amid stalled global progress.

This research paper by the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) examines the disparity between solar energy potential and installed capacity in developing economies, attributing the gap to high costs of capital driven by sovereign and off-taker risks. The authors propose the establishment of a Global Credit Guarantee Facility (GCGF) to de-risk cross-border financing and lower risk premiums for renewable energy projects in Emerging Market & Development Economy (EMDE) countries.

This report assesses power sector data transparency across 39 Asian economies, evaluating them against six criteria: time granularity, publishing lag, geographic granularity, fuel breakdown, ease of access, and additional data. The analysis finds that overall transparency is insufficient to support a coal-to-clean electricity transition in the region, with more than half of the economies scoring poorly.

This report identifies best practices in power sector data transparency across Asia and Oceania, highlighting New Zealand, Australia, and India as leaders. It details the technical requirements for high-quality data—such as hourly granularity, real-time publishing, and unit-level geographical detail—and provides a case study on the public-private partnership between India's NITI Aayog and the Vasudha Foundation to create a centralized energy data platform.

The Asia Data Transparency Report 2023 evaluates power sector data transparency across 39 economies in Asia-Pacific and Central Asia. It finds that over half of the region suffers from poor or insufficient data transparency, which hinders the transition from coal to clean electricity. The report identifies high-performing economies, provides a case study on India's public-private partnership for data aggregation, and offers nine recommendations to improve data governance.

This briefing examines the need for reform within international financial institutions (IFIs), specifically the IMF and Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), to better support climate-vulnerable developing nations. It highlights how the current global financial system, characterized by structural imbalances and risk aversion, exacerbates debt crises in the global south, hindering their ability to invest in climate resilience. The document focuses on the Bridgetown Agenda as a framework for reform, proposing mechanisms such as the rechanneling of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) and the modernization of MDB Capital Adequacy Frameworks to unlock significant additional lending for climate action.

This Stockholm Environment Institute report analyzes the global interactions between the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement under a 1.5°C climate boundary condition. Using expert perceptions and a cross-impact matrix, the study finds that most interactions are synergetic (62%), suggesting that climate-resilient development is possible. Key accelerators for progress include the mobilization of climate finance and the mainstreaming of climate policy into national strategies. The report highlights that addressing root causes of vulnerability (poverty, inequality, and basic service access) is essential for building global resilience.