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The document proposes the creation of an Agricultural Water Security Market (AWSM) in southwestern Manitoba to manage water resource demands from the agricultural and oil and gas sectors amidst climate-driven supply variability.

This report by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and Integrated Research and Action for Development (IRADe) examines the vulnerability of India's trucking industry to diesel price increases. It identifies structural issues—such as extreme fragmentation, lack of entry barriers, and dependence on brokers—that prevent truck operators from passing increased fuel costs to customers. The report recommends short-term measures like fixing minimum freight rates and reducing tollgate delays, alongside long-term structural reforms to improve fuel efficiency and professionalize the industry.

This document serves as an introduction to a guidebook designed to assist policy-makers in Southeast Asia in formulating fossil-fuel subsidy reform strategies tailored to their specific objectives and circumstances.

This essay examines the evolution of international investment treaties since 1959, arguing that the current regime's opaque processes and vague standards pose risks to sustainable development and require a paradigm shift in purpose and rationale.

Scott Vaughan's keynote address at the Ontario Climate Consortium’s Inaugural Climate Change Research Symposium discusses the urgent need for integrated climate adaptation strategies, the economic risks of non-linear temperature increases, and the necessity of policy coherence in government spending.

This report provides a critical commentary on the February 2013 draft Investment Chapter of the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). The author argues that the draft largely ignores concerns from the European Parliament and civil society, particularly regarding the inclusion of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) and the use of broad, open-ended definitions that may limit the policy space of governments to regulate in the public interest.

This policy brief by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) analyzes four proposed regulatory scenarios for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Canada's oil and gas sector. The authors evaluate the trade-offs between emission-intensity targets and price ceilings, concluding that a 40 per cent intensity standard with a two-tiered price ceiling offers a balanced approach to environmental performance and economic competitiveness.

This briefing reports on a roundtable workshop held in Beijing on April 24, 2013, convened by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and the Global Environmental Institute (GEI). The event brought together representatives from the Chinese government, academia, and enterprises to discuss reforming the international investment treaty framework to better balance investor protections with the policy space of host states and the goals of sustainable development.

This document consists of several distinct text fragments. The primary section is an introduction to a report by the International Institute for Sustainable Development that compares climate change vulnerability assessments (VAs) in Tunisia and Indonesia using a four-component framework (Framing, Process, Inputs, and Outputs). Additional fragments discuss nature-based solutions for road resilience in Indonesia and the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), a $20 billion financing mechanism aimed at accelerating the retirement of coal plants and the development of renewable energy in Indonesia and South Africa.

This guide provides a ten-step framework for parliamentarians, government officials, and local communities to negotiate agricultural investment contracts with foreign investors from a sustainable development perspective. It emphasizes the importance of preparatory data, independent feasibility studies, and legally binding environmental and social obligations to avoid the negative impacts often associated with large-scale land acquisitions.

This guide provides a 10-step framework for parliamentarians, officials, and local communities to negotiate investment contracts for agricultural land and water with foreign investors, focusing on sustainable development and the protection of local rights.

This report by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) analyzes the legal principles and methods used to determine compensation for the expropriation of foreign investments. It examines the tension between customary international law and Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs), highlighting how vague treaty language often leaves the calculation of compensation to the discretion of arbitral tribunals and accounting firms. The document provides recommendations for States to draft more precise BIT clauses to protect public funds and maintain regulatory space for public interest legislation.

This guide by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) analyzes the legal principles and methods for calculating compensation in cases of expropriation of foreign investments. It examines the differences between customary international law and Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs), highlighting the challenges of valuing indirect expropriation and the risks associated with various valuation methods used by arbitral tribunals.

This 2013 report by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) evaluates the commercial-scale harvesting of cattail biomass in Manitoba for use as a bioenergy feedstock and a nutrient-management tool. Through trials at Pelly’s Lake and along Highway 1, the study demonstrated that existing agricultural windrowers and balers can effectively harvest cattails, though efficiency is highly dependent on soil moisture and weather. The project successfully recovered phosphorus from the biomass, highlighting the potential for improving water quality in the Lake Winnipeg basin. Key challenges included equipment plugging and the risk of machinery becoming stuck in soft wetland soils. The report concludes that while commercially viable, costs vary by site, and future success depends on optimizing harvest timing and potentially managing wetland water levels.

This report provides a greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions baseline projection for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) from 1990 to 2030. It establishes a business-as-usual (BAU) reference scenario across seven sectors—agriculture, land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF), energy supply, energy demand, transportation, industrial processes, and waste—to help the DRC identify and design nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAs).

This case study examines the investment incentive policies for renewable energy in Thailand, analyzing their effectiveness in overcoming barriers to deployment. It details a variety of financial, fiscal, and regional incentives, while highlighting the transition from a feed-in premium (adder) system to a fixed-price feed-in tariff (FIT) to manage costs and avoid overcapacity.

This briefing by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) examines the financial sustainability of public-private partnerships (PPPs) used to address infrastructure deficits. It details the mechanisms of project finance, including the use of Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) and high gearing ratios, while cautioning that PPPs are not a substitute for government budgets as public funds eventually cover the costs. The document also explores how PPP contracts can be designed to achieve broader environmental and social sustainability goals.

This briefing examines how public authorities can manage and modify existing public-private partnerships (PPPs) to improve their economic, environmental, and social sustainability. Using the United Kingdom's Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and its transition to Private Finance 2 (PF2) as a primary case study, the document provides a framework for 'health checks' to assess value-for-money, life-cycle environmental impacts, and social returns during the lifetime of long-term contracts.

This report, commissioned by the UNDP and implemented by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), assesses climate risks and risk management capacity for the water and agriculture sectors in the Yaque del Sur basin of the Dominican Republic. It combines scientific modelling (WEAP and DSSAT) with participatory community consultations to identify vulnerabilities and propose concrete adaptation strategies.

This report evaluates climate risks and management capacities for the water and agriculture sectors in the Dominican Republic, with a specific focus on the Yaque del Sur basin. It combines scientific modeling (WEAP and DSSAT) with participatory community research to identify vulnerabilities and propose adaptation strategies. The analysis highlights a critical water deficit in the Yaque del Sur basin, exacerbated by rising temperatures and declining precipitation, which threatens food security and rural livelihoods. The report identifies significant gaps in institutional coordination between disaster risk management and climate change adaptation bodies and recommends a comprehensive national program to integrate these approaches, improve data accessibility, and implement specific field-level interventions such as crop diversification and irrigation efficiency improvements.