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The H2Global mechanism lacks minimum sustainability standards, leaving the ambition of future tenders to individual funders. While the BMWK pilot tender aligns with EU regulations on renewable electricity additionality and correlation, it fails to incentivise surplus electricity sharing for local energy access. Water and land use safeguards are insufficient, as they overlook competing local demands for resources and may miss locally significant sites. Additionally, local value creation measures are limited by an export-focused design and unclear guidelines, reducing the potential for sustainable economic impact in producing countries.

The study evaluates Germany's Carbon Contracts for Difference (KSV) and finds that while the program aims to support industrial decarbonization, it may indirectly subsidize 'low-carbon' (fossil) hydrogen. The authors warn against proposed changes to funding guidelines that would remove emission reduction criteria, which would diminish the competitive advantage of green hydrogen. The report also highlights gaps in accounting for transport emissions and the need for a holistic sustainability standard for imported hydrogen to ensure environmental and social safeguards in exporting nations.

The document advocates for transition-specific alignment targets—sector-specific metrics like zero-emission vehicle sales—to overcome the limitations of traditional GHG emission reduction targets, particularly regarding scope 3 emissions. It identifies risks in current GHG reporting, such as creative accounting and inadequate 'spend method' calculations, and recommends that standard setters develop consistent definitions and sectoral pathways to integrate these targets into national regulations and voluntary frameworks.

The study finds that current net-zero targets are not 'entirely zero', with remaining emissions averaging 21% of 2019 levels. It highlights a significant misalignment between long-term goals and current actions, noting that emissions under current policies are decreasing by only 0.2% per year, far below the -3.8% annual reduction rate required from 2030 to meet net-zero targets.

The report outlines a strategic framework for the EU's external partnerships, proposing four core principles—mutual benefit and just transition, inclusivity, robust financial commitment, and transparency—alongside five operational considerations: scope, partner selection, governance, support mechanisms, and monitoring and evaluation. These guidelines are intended to be applied to initiatives such as the Clean Trade and Investment Partnerships.

The CCPI 2025 reports that while 61 of 64 assessed countries increased their renewable energy share over five years, the top three ranks remain vacant as no country performs well enough to meet Paris Agreement goals. Denmark ranks 4th, while oil and gas producers like Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Russia are the lowest performers. The G20, responsible for over 75% of global emissions, shows poor overall performance with only the UK and India ranking as high performers.

Global warming projections for 2100 have remained stagnant since 2021, with current policies leading to a median estimate of 2.7°C of warming. While clean energy investments now double those for fossil fuels, record-high fossil fuel subsidies and funding for prolonging projects are preventing the steep emissions decline required by the Paris Agreement. The briefing emphasizes that seven large emitters and the COP Troika countries, responsible for 63% of 2022 global emissions, must set more ambitious 2030 and 2035 targets to align with 1.5°C.

Non-CO2 emissions account for approximately 25% of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet they are frequently overlooked in NDCs, which often lack gas-specific quantitative targets. While some countries like Côte d’Ivoire and Japan provide good practice examples of quantitative targets, major emitters including China, Russia, India, and Brazil generally only include non-CO2 gases as part of overall GHG targets. China, whose current NDC covers only CO2 despite non-CO2 gases making up 18% of its national emissions, has indicated it will include these gases in its updated NDC. The brief argues that the 2025 NDC update cycle is a critical opportunity for major emitters, particularly China, to adopt sector-specific targets and align with international initiatives like the Global Methane Pledge and the Kigali Amendment to maintain the 1.5°C warming limit.

The November 2024 update reveals a three-year stagnation in global warming projections, with current policies setting the world on a path toward 2.7°C of warming by 2100. While renewable energy and electric vehicle deployment have seen record growth, these gains are offset by all-time high fossil fuel subsidies and increased funding for fossil fuel projects. The report warns that without a substantial increase in the ambition of 2030 and 2035 targets, the 1.5°C limit will likely be breached in the early 2030s, leading to a multidecadal overshoot.

The document argues that Southeast Asian electricity market designs are anchored in an outdated fossil-fuel paradigm and require core redesign to leverage the cost-effectiveness of renewables. It focuses on four key economies—Indonesia, Thailand, Viet Nam, and the Philippines—noting that variable renewables contribute less than 5% of total power generation in most of the region, except for Viet Nam. The report proposes five interlinked objectives for renewables-ready power systems: long-term investment certainty, enhanced system flexibility, safeguarded system adequacy, managed retirement of carbon-intensive assets, and consumer affordability.

The document outlines the technical framework for the State of Climate Action series, focusing on tracking global greenhouse gas emission reductions and carbon removal. It details the process of translating sectoral transformations into actionable targets and the categorization of progress (e.g., 'on track' or 'off track'). The 2024 update introduces 2035 targets for 16 indicators, a new indicator for wind and solar power in electricity generation, and revised transport sector targets based on recent modeling.

The document examines the potential role of commodity-specific environmental attribute certificates (commodity EACs) as market-based instruments for corporate climate action, specifically in the context of upcoming revisions to the Science-Based Targets initiative’s Corporate Net Zero Standard and the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard and Scope 3 Guidance. It argues that there is no universal approach to commodity EACs due to significant fragmentation in their definition and availability, and questions whether such instruments support sector transitions or potentially delay direct action.

The 2024 update by the NewClimate Institute finds that aggregated emissions for 25 major emitters could be 10% below 2019 levels by 2030 in a best-case scenario, an improvement over 2023 projections but still far short of the 43% reduction needed for the 1.5°C goal. While no country has strengthened its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) since 2023, half of the assessed countries are likely on track to meet their unconditional targets, suggesting an opportunity to increase ambition.

The briefing contrasts two competing approaches to corporate renewable electricity accounting: 24/7 hourly matching and the 'avoided emissions' model proposed by the Emissions First Partnership (EFP). It argues that 24/7 matching provides a necessary demand signal for grid decarbonisation and storage technologies, whereas the EFP proposal is a "repackaging of the controversial offsetting model" that allows companies to claim emissions reductions without actually decarbonising the grids they use. The document urges the GHG Protocol and the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) to adopt granular, hourly, and local accounting standards to prevent corporate lock-in of fossil fuel infrastructure and to ensure genuine progress toward the 1.5°C temperature limit.

The report finds that while regenerative agriculture is widely adopted in the communications of 24 out of 30 analyzed multinational food and agriculture companies, it lacks a common definition and scientific rigor. The analysis suggests that companies often conflate emission reductions with removals, overstate the potential of soil carbon sequestration, and use 'regenerative grazing' to justify unsustainable livestock production levels. Ultimately, the report argues that current corporate applications of regenerative agriculture lack the ambition to significantly impact climate mitigation and often serve as a layer over business-as-usual practices rather than a systemic redesign of food production.

The study argues that Germany's transport sector is failing to meet climate targets and that delaying transformative measures will lead to more disruptive and costly emission reductions in the future. It compares scenarios of immediate action versus delayed action, concluding that later implementation requires significantly higher rates of emission reduction after 2030 to achieve climate neutrality.

The NewClimate Institute opposes VCMI's revised Scope 3 Claim, which would allow companies to use carbon credits for up to 24% of their target emission levels until 2038. The Institute argues this mechanism risks enabling 'business-as-usual' scenarios, allowing companies to increase short-term emissions while maintaining ambitious-sounding targets, and disadvantaging 'front-runner' companies that invest in genuine value chain decarbonization. The document asserts that this proposal contradicts the direction of the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and the recommendations of the UN High-Level Expert Group on the Net-Zero Emissions Commitments of Non-State Entities.

The EU must reform its climate diplomacy strategy for the 2024-2029 cycle to address geopolitical tensions and competition from China and the US in cleantech. The brief advocates for treating climate considerations as a cross-cutting issue across all foreign policy domains and proposes reforms focused on strategy, governance, coordination, and resources to bolster the external dimension of the Green Deal.

The European Climate Neutrality Observatory's (ECNO) second annual assessment finds that while the EU is moving toward climate neutrality in terms of policies and indicators, the pace of progress is currently too slow. To accelerate the transition, the report recommends improving the implementation of policies at the Member State level, unlocking enabling conditions, closing the investment gap by aligning finance, and adopting a people-centred approach to ensure a socially just transition.

This briefing from the Climate Action Tracker (CAT) outlines the requirements for national governments submitting new Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) for 2035 by early 2025. It argues that current 2030 targets and policies are insufficient to limit warming to 1.5°C and calls for an 'emergency mode' approach to align targets with a global net CO2 zero emissions pathway by 2050.