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3,753 documents from International Institute for Sustainable Development
A Scan of Natural Infrastructure Approaches
The report examines how the City of Nelson, Halifax Regional Municipality, and EPCOR integrate natural infrastructure into their water management. It highlights the use of local bylaws in Nelson, a multi-level policy hierarchy in Halifax, and a hybrid grey-natural approach by EPCOR in Edmonton to enhance climate resilience and flood mitigation.
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Document type: Report
Financial Benefit-Sharing Issues for Critical Minerals
The report examines how developing countries can capture a fair share of financial benefits from critical minerals, highlighting risks such as price volatility, oversupply, and opaque markets. It suggests opportunities for these nations to increase state participation, develop downstream processing capabilities, and reform fiscal incentives to maximize economic gains from the energy transition.
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Document type: Report
Problemas de Distribución de Beneficios Económicos en la extracción de Minerales Críticos: Desafíos y oportunidades para los países productores
The report analyzes the fiscal risks and opportunities for developing countries producing critical minerals essential for the energy transition. It highlights the potential for significant additional revenues—estimated up to USD 25 billion annually in taxes and royalties by 2040—while warning of risks such as price volatility, lack of transparency in markets like cobalt and lithium, and the potential for oversupply due to substitutes. The document argues that producer countries can increase their economic benefits by enhancing domestic processing (adding value), re-evaluating state participation, and reforming overly generous tax incentives. It also addresses the impact of alternative financing like 'metal streaming' and the potential costs associated with carbon pricing mechanisms such as the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.
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Document type: Report
Questions relatives au partage des avantages financiers issus des minéraux critiques : défis et opportunités pour les pays producteurs
The report analyzes how developing countries can maximize financial gains from critical minerals during the energy transition. It identifies risks such as price volatility, opaque markets, and the impact of alternative financing like metal streaming. Opportunities include increasing state participation, developing downstream processing to add value, and reforming tax incentives. The document emphasizes that while significant additional revenues are possible—potentially between 98 billion and 259 billion USD annually by 2040—the window of opportunity is limited by potential oversupply and the development of substitute materials.
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Document type: Report
Mapping India’s Energy Policy 2023
The document outlines the methodology used by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) to map public financial flows in India's energy sector. It defines government support as encompassing subsidies, state-owned enterprise investments, and lending by public financial institutions. The annex introduces new subsidies for green hydrogen, battery storage, and electric vehicles, while retrospectively revising methodologies for coal and renewable energy support. It also details the tracking of government receipts from coal, oil, gas, and renewables to provide a comprehensive view of the financial relationship between the state and the energy sector.
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Document type: Report
Monitoring Progress in Green Public Procurement
The report examines how governments can monitor green public procurement (GPP) to track progress toward climate goals. It categorizes monitoring into institutionalization, outputs, and outcomes, while detailing specific tools for measuring CO2 impacts. Through case studies of South Korea, Japan, Slovenia, Denmark, Malaysia, and the Netherlands, it identifies key success factors such as strong legal mandates and e-procurement integration. It also highlights significant barriers, including data insufficiency, decentralized procurement structures, and a lack of specialized technical skills. The document concludes with recommendations for governments to define clear targets, mandate monitoring through policy, and strengthen data management systems.
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Document type: Report
Estimate of Natural Infrastructure Public Grant Funding in Canada and the Canadian Prairies
The report estimates that CAD 346.6 million is provided annually via national grants for natural infrastructure in Canada, with CAD 98.4 million reaching the Prairie provinces from combined federal and provincial sources. It finds that while conservation is a common objective in funding programs, the majority of actual spending is directed toward restored ecosystems (57%) and engineered systems (41.1%), with conserved ecosystems receiving only 1.7% of funding. The Natural Infrastructure Fund (NIF) is identified as the only fund explicitly targeting natural infrastructure projects.
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Document type: Report
A Sustainable Asset Valuation of the Mass Rapid Transit System in Bogota, Colombia
The report evaluates the Bogota MRT system using the SAVi methodology, which integrates externalities like health, carbon emissions, and retail growth into a cost-benefit analysis. The analysis considers two demand scenarios (8% and 16% modal shift from private transport) over a 35-year period (2022–2058). While conventional benefit-cost ratios (BCR) are low (0.4 to 0.6), the sustainable BCR (S-BCR) ranges from 1.5 to 2.9, indicating the project is highly profitable from a societal perspective. Key benefits include significant retail revenue increases, health improvements from walking and reduced pollution, and a reduction in CO2 emissions by up to 10.79 million tonnes in the high-demand scenario.
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Document type: Report
A Sustainable Asset Valuation Assessment of Building and Transport Infrastructure Investment in the Shymkent–Tashkent–Khujand Economic Corridor
The report outlines a methodological framework for evaluating infrastructure in the Shymkent–Tashkent–Khujand economic corridor, comparing 'business-as-usual' scenarios with sustainable alternatives for transport and buildings. It proposes shifting from road-based freight to electrified rail and adopting green building standards to reduce CO2 emissions, lower operational costs, and improve health and employment outcomes. The assessment utilizes the SAVi methodology to integrate externalities, such as the social cost of carbon and health impacts, into a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis.
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Document type: Report
A Sustainable Asset Valuation of the Sustainable Transport Strategy in Bogota, Colombia
The report applies the SAVi methodology to analyze two scenarios for Bogota's transport infrastructure: a current scenario (20102022) focusing on BRT and NMT, and a future scenario (20102058) including the MRT system. The analysis finds that while conventional benefit-cost ratios (BCR) are low (0.3 to 0.6), the sustainable BCR (S-BCR), which incorporates externalities like health, retail revenues, and CO2 emissions, is significantly higher (3.8 to 6.1). The most substantial added benefits are identified as retail revenues and property value increases, while the only negative value is the time lost due to increased walking and cycling. The report concludes that the strategy is an attractive investment that improves quality of life and supports climate targets.
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Document type: Report
South Africa’s Energy Subsidies Inventory, 2023 Data, Definitions, and References
The report inventories major energy subsidies in South Africa, detailing fiscal support for oil, gas, electricity, coal, and nuclear energy. It highlights a significant increase in total quantified subsidies, reaching ZAR 118,317 million in FY 2022/2023, driven largely by carbon tax exemptions. The document describes specific mechanisms such as VAT exemptions for fuels, Free Basic Electricity for disadvantaged households, and various grants for state-owned enterprises like PetroSA and Eskom.
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Document type: Report
Measures to Enhance Forest Conservation and Reduce Deforestation
The report analyzes deforestation policies in five producing countries—Costa Rica, Gabon, Indonesia, Peru, and Rwanda—to identify successful strategies for forest conservation. It highlights seven key success factors for governments in the Global South, including the use of tailored measure combinations, targeting high-risk areas, and leveraging both public and private funding. Additionally, it examines how voluntary sustainability standards (VSSs) can complement legal regulations to help private sector actors reach net-zero emissions, though it notes that limited alignment and low corporate uptake currently hinder their impact.
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Document type: Report
A Sustainable Asset Valuation of the FAME II policy in India
The document assesses the FAME II policy in India, a funding scheme with a budget of INR 100 billion (USD 1.2 billion) designed to support the electrification of public and shared transportation through government subsidies. The analysis evaluates different scenarios regarding the allocation of subsidies and the cost-sharing balance between the government and consumers. Findings indicate that the policy stimulates economic growth and provides significant benefits, including employment creation and the avoidance of costs associated with fuel use, air pollution, and carbon dioxide emissions from internal combustion engine vehicles.
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Document type: Report
A Sustainable Asset Valuation of the Tirana–Durres Railway in Albania
The SAVi assessment of the Tirana–Durres railway in Albania indicates the project is highly profitable, with a benefit-cost ratio of 4.79 and cumulative discounted net benefits of EUR 415.51 million between 2023 and 2053. The primary economic drivers are avoided vehicle operating costs resulting from a shift from road to rail, followed by health benefits from reduced air pollution and increased physical activity, as well as time savings.
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Document type: Report
Essential Monitor's Guide for Prairie Water Retention
The document outlines the importance of monitoring water retention projects in the Prairies to ensure they meet specifications and to track long-term performance. It emphasizes that monitoring water quantity and quality helps optimize sites for climate adaptation and multiple benefits, including flood mitigation, drought resilience, water quality, biodiversity, and carbon storage. The guide aims to demystify the technical requirements of monitoring by reviewing equipment and analysis methods based on IISD's experience.
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Document type: Guide
Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement
The Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement (IFDA) aims to facilitate foreign direct investment (FDI), particularly for developing countries and least developed countries (LDCs), to foster sustainable development. The agreement focuses on improving transparency, streamlining administrative procedures, and enhancing cooperation between governments and investors. It includes specific special and differential treatment (S&DT) provisions, allowing developing and LDC members to self-designate implementation timelines across three categories (A, B, and C) based on their capacity. While it includes articles on responsible business conduct and anti-corruption, these are excluded from the WTO's dispute settlement mechanism. The agreement is currently being pursued as a plurilateral agreement under Annex 4 of the WTO Agreement, though this remains a point of debate among WTO members regarding the principle of consensus and the implementation burden on resource-strapped nations.
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Document type: Guide
El Acuerdo sobre Facilitación de Inversiones para el Desarrollo: Guía del lector
The document explains the WTO's Investment Facilitation for Development (IFD) Agreement, which aims to increase foreign direct investment (FDI) in developing countries and Least Developed Countries (LDCs). It outlines obligations for transparency, such as publishing investment measures and creating single-window portals, and the streamlining of administrative procedures to reduce bureaucracy. The agreement includes a 'firewall' to prevent its use in investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) claims and provides Special and Differential Treatment (S&DT) for developing nations through categorized implementation timelines (Categories A, B, and C). It also introduces non-binding provisions for sustainable investment, including corporate social responsibility and anti-corruption measures, and discusses the legal challenges of integrating the agreement as a plurilateral treaty within the WTO framework.
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Document type: Guide
L’accord de facilitation des investissements pour le développement : Guide du lecteur
The document details the Investment Facilitation for Development (IFD) Agreement, a plurilateral initiative within the WTO aimed at increasing foreign direct investment (FDI) flows, particularly to developing countries and Least Developed Countries (LDCs). It outlines key obligations regarding transparency, administrative simplification, and international cooperation, while establishing a 'firewall' to prevent the agreement from being used in investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) claims. The guide also describes a tiered system of Special and Differential Treatment (S&DT) for developing nations and the inclusion of non-binding provisions on sustainable investment and corporate responsible conduct.
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Document type: Guide
Essential Monitor’s Guide for Prairie Water Retention
The document outlines a framework for monitoring water retention projects in the Prairies, emphasizing the need for water and contaminant mass balances to evaluate performance. It details a range of monitoring tools—from low-cost metre sticks to expensive automated samplers—and explains how to use rating curves to estimate discharge. The guide highlights the importance of high-frequency data to capture rapid hydrologic events and suggests using monitoring data to develop hydraulic and water-quality treatment models for improving future site design and management.
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Document type: Guide
GLOBAL MARKET REPORT
The global soybean sector, valued at USD 155 billion, is dominated by Brazil, the United States, and Argentina. While production has surged, it has driven significant deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado. Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSSs) like RTRS and ProTerra aim to mitigate these impacts, but their adoption remains low, representing only 1.6% to 2.3% of global production as of 2021. The report finds that VSS compliance offers limited financial incentives for most farmers, with premiums often being minimal or non-existent, though organic soy commands significantly higher prices. Climate change threatens future yields, necessitating the development of resilient cultivars and the establishment of deforestation-free supply chains.
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Document type: Report