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The Advancing Natural Infrastructure in Canada forum highlighted the role of natural infrastructure (NI)—managed natural systems like plants, soil, and wetlands—in addressing climate change risks and infrastructure gaps. The forum identified critical needs for scaling NI, including dedicated funding, performance metrics, public sector accounting for natural assets, and improved guidance for planning and implementation.

The document outlines Colombia's progress in establishing a National Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) system for climate change adaptation as part of a broader effort to align national actions with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement, and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

The document discusses the use of the integrated vulnerability assessment (IVA) framework to incorporate community-level vulnerability data into the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) processes of three Pacific island states: Kiribati, Tuvalu, and the Solomon Islands. Developed in 2016 by Pacific organizations, the IVA Framework aims to provide a standardized and coordinated approach to assessing climate vulnerability in the region.

The policy brief argues that women are frequently excluded from contract farming agreements despite providing the majority of the labor, and that contracted crops often displace the subsistence crops women grow for household nutrition. To remedy this, the authors propose incorporating legal protections into contracts and national legislation, drawing on principles from consumer protection, franchising, and mortgage laws. Key recommendations include requiring spousal consent for contract validity, ensuring informed consent through plain-language summaries, and conferring third-party rights to women who perform substantial work but are not signatories to the contract.

The report outlines the value of natural infrastructure (NI) in Canada for climate adaptation, specifically for flood and drought mitigation. It identifies significant barriers in federal funding programs, such as the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP) and the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund (DMAF), including high funding thresholds and restrictions on private land eligibility. The document explores innovative financing mechanisms like green bonds and insurance-linked resilience bonds, while emphasizing the need for natural asset accounting in public sector financial statements to incentivize municipal protection of NI.

The document analyzes the transition from NAFTA's environmental side agreement to the CUSMA framework, highlighting the preservation of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) and the introduction of a broader definition of 'affecting trade or investment' to strengthen environmental law enforcement. It notes the loss of the CEC's authority to produce unsolicited reports and identifies new commitments regarding fisheries, endangered species, and marine litter, while observing that climate change is explicitly absent from the ECA work program.

The report details how developing countries approach investment treaty negotiations, highlighting a trend toward renegotiating outdated agreements and the use of model treaties. It identifies the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and investment authorities as the primary leads in negotiations and provides a detailed mapping of ratification processes across various nations.

The authors argue that the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) currently hinders the low-carbon transition by treating fossil-fuel and renewable energy investments identically. They propose a modernization process that abandons 'energy-source neutrality' in favor of state-specific lists that encourage low-carbon investments and phase out carbon-intensive ones. The paper also suggests reforming Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) by requiring the exhaustion of local remedies, introducing state-to-state dispute settlement, and clarifying 'denial of benefits' clauses to protect climate policy space. Substantive recommendations include narrowing the 'Fair and Equitable Treatment' (FET) standard, defining indirect expropriation to protect public welfare measures, and adopting a 'sunk-costs' approach for valuing damages in the phase-out of fossil fuels.

The policy brief examines how women are often excluded from contract farming agreements despite providing the majority of the labor, and how contract crops often displace the subsistence crops women manage. It suggests adapting legal principles from consumer protection, franchising, and mortgage laws to ensure women's consent, informed participation, and direct access to benefits within agricultural contracts.

The report examines how kerosene and LPG subsidy policies and their reforms affect women and girls in low-income households across Bangladesh, India, and Nigeria, focusing on income, energy use, and energy supply effects.

The report analyzes Indonesia's fiscal shift from fossil fuel dependence, noting a significant drop in upstream oil and gas revenues from 35% of total revenues in 2001 to 6% in 2016. It argues that current fuel and electricity subsidies are inefficient and that the government underutilizes the fiscal space available through energy consumption taxes compared to other BRIICS countries. The document advocates for investing subsidy savings and fossil fuel taxes into social development, economic diversification, and renewable energy.

The report argues that tokenization—the digitalization of assets into cryptographic tokens on a blockchain—can make sustainable infrastructure more bankable by lowering transaction costs and increasing liquidity. It highlights that sustainable projects often face higher upfront capital expenditures and perceived technological risks, necessitating innovative financing. The document also references specific sustainable asset valuation assessments in Mongolia and Colombia.

The research analyzes six international water quality offset programs to determine how regulated dischargers can offset excess pollutant loads against reductions made elsewhere in a watershed. The study specifically aims to provide design and implementation lessons for Manitoba, where over 200 wastewater treatment facilities contribute to the eutrophication of Lake Winnipeg.

The study reviewed 30 local plans in Manitoba and found that very few explicitly address climate change adaptation: only five development plans and two integrated watershed management plans, with no emergency plans including such considerations. To close these gaps, the report recommends that the Province of Manitoba collaborate with the Canadian Centre for Climate Services and the Prairie Climate Centre to provide municipalities and watershed districts with local climate projections and updated planning templates.

The review of 30 local plans in Manitoba reveals a significant gap in explicit climate change adaptation planning. Only seven plans explicitly considered adaptation, with the majority of documents failing to reference specific climate projections or establish dedicated adaptation actions. While flood risks are universally acknowledged, drought and other climate-related hazards receive minimal attention. The report recommends that the Province of Manitoba integrate adaptation considerations into planning templates and collaborate with climate service centres to provide municipalities with local projection data.

The SADC–IISD Investment Facilitation Workshop, held in August 2018, aimed to transition the concept of investment facilitation toward a focus on sustainable development. Participants from 13 SADC member states analyzed the distinctions between trade and investment facilitation and reviewed the UNCTAD Global Action Menu. The workshop concluded that facilitation measures should primarily remain at the national level to preserve regulatory space, while the regional (SADC) and international levels should focus on information sharing, capacity building, and technical assistance rather than new legal obligations.

The report evaluates green economy (GE) investments in Georgia, focusing on buildings, agriculture, and tourism. Using the SAVi methodology, it demonstrates that while traditional financial analysis suggests these investments may not be profitable, incorporating environmental, social, and economic externalities reveals a high sustainable internal rate of return (S-IRR) of 84% and a sustainable net present value (S-NPV) of approximately GEL 20.4 billion.

The report analyzes Indonesia's shift from a high fiscal reliance on oil and gas revenues to a more diversified economy. It highlights a critical imbalance where government revenues from fossil fuel production are largely offset by inefficient consumption subsidies that disproportionately benefit wealthy households. The document warns of the risk of stranded assets valued between USD 200–300 billion and argues for phasing out fossil fuel subsidies to create fiscal space for renewable energy and social development.

Indonesia has successfully reduced its fiscal reliance on oil and gas production, but continues to struggle with inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that benefit wealthy households and hinder the growth of renewable energy. While the government has diversified its economy into manufacturing and finance, contradictory policies—such as maintaining price caps on fuels and prioritizing coal for electrification—create risks of stranded assets and environmental degradation. The report argues for the complete removal of fossil fuel subsidies, the implementation of consumption-based energy taxes, and the strategic investment of resource rents into social safety nets and renewable energy infrastructure to ensure a just transition.

The report analyzes the legal frameworks of 22 IGF member countries, identifying systemic weaknesses in how ESIAs and related plans (ESMPs, closure plans, and RAPs) are used as decision-making tools. Key issues include ambiguity over the rights of exploration permit holders during the transition to exploitation, inadequate sequencing of document submission, and weak monitoring mechanisms. It argues that ESIAs should be capable of leading to project rejection and recommends the use of Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEAs) to identify sensitive areas before exploration permits are granted. The document also highlights the risk of international arbitration arising from these legal ambiguities.