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The Stockholm Environment Institute criticizes the initial all-male composition of the COP29 organizing committee in Azerbaijan, arguing that gender diversity is essential for effective climate governance and sustainable solutions. While noting a subsequent update where the Azerbaijani government added women to the committee, the text highlights a broader trend of declining female representation among national Party delegates since COP24 and emphasizes that inclusive leadership leads to better environmental disclosure and innovation.

The document argues that the European Union's high reliance on international supply chains makes it uniquely vulnerable to transboundary climate risks, which threaten the stability of essential imports and export-driven growth. It emphasizes the need for public policies to create an enabling environment for business adaptation and suggests a partnership between the EU and supply chain actors to enhance resilience for workers and communities.

The research examines whether sub-national governments can effectively manage transboundary climate risks, as opposed to the traditional focus on nation-states. Through case studies in Paris, Klepp, and the Upper Rhine region, the authors find that while local authorities are interested in these risks, their capacity to lead is uncertain. However, the paper warns that leaving transboundary risk management solely to national governments may create conflicts with local adaptation measures. Consequently, the authors advocate for strong partnerships between public and private stakeholders across all levels of governance and call for national governments to explicitly define the role of sub-national authorities in managing these risks.

The authors argue that disaster risk reduction can be improved through a re-politicized approach to co-production. They propose three specific principles: ensuring knowledge plurality, surfacing the norms and assumptions inherent in knowledge production, and taking actions that address existing sociopolitical and knowledge structures.

The report examines the challenges of a just energy transition in Colombia's coal-producing regions of Cesar and La Guajira. It analyzes the differing visions of transition held by national and regional actors, the power dynamics that resist the planned phase-out of coal mining, and the efforts of civil society to promote sustainable futures. This work is part of a broader comparative project involving South Africa and Indonesia to understand energy transition hurdles in Global South coal-producing nations.

A study of municipality officials in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden reveals that while fewer than half actively measure consumption-based emissions, there is broad interest in doing so to identify sustainable measures toward climate neutrality. Respondents believe municipalities can influence emissions by cooperating with residents and businesses, but they require standardized methods and reliable data because many lack the resources to create independent inventories.

The research evaluates the trade-offs between reducing hydropeaking to improve river ecology and the potential increase in CO2 emissions. Findings indicate that individuals generally prefer stronger restrictions on short-term regulations to benefit fish stocks, recreational use, and the ecological state, with these benefits outweighing the disutility of increased CO2 emissions. The study emphasizes the need to account for unobserved preference heterogeneity in willingness-to-pay estimations.

The study identifies US$3.2 billion in energy development finance for five Western Balkan countries between 2008 and 2020, noting that approximately one-third of disbursed funds supported non-renewable energy sources. While disbursement ratios exceeded the global average, the total funding remained insufficient, ranging from 0.15% to 0.62% of the average GDP for the analyzed countries. The research found no established link between the 2016 Paris Agreement and an increase in finance flows for renewable energy projects.

The report examines the planetary boundaries concept, which identifies nine bio-physical systems essential to human stability. It notes that as of 2023, six of these nine boundaries have been exceeded globally. The document explores the difficulty of 'downscaling' these global limits to national levels, discussing various allocation principles such as equality, needs, and sovereignty. It specifically evaluates the potential for Estonia to calculate its 'own share' of these boundaries to inform national environmental policy, while highlighting significant data gaps and the lack of a harmonized EU-wide methodology.

The document identifies rice cultivation, animal husbandry, and synthetic fertilizers as the primary sources of on-farm emissions in the Greater Mekong Subregion, accounting for 63% of the region's 1.1 Gt CO2-eq emissions in 2020. It highlights barriers to the adoption of low-emission innovations, including food insecurity, knowledge gaps, lack of training, and insufficient policy support. The briefing proposes high-impact solutions such as the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), direct-seeded rice, precision livestock feeding, and site-specific nutrient management, while recommending policy interventions like targeted subsidies, verifiable emission targets, and the establishment of multi-stakeholder learning networks.

The report argues that social conflict surrounding wind energy in La Guajira is driven not by opposition to the technology, but by the processes of implementation and consultation. It identifies eight enabling factors for social acceptance: improving information access, regulating community advisers, recognizing the duality of Wayuu leadership, establishing benefit-sharing standards, ensuring equitable internal distribution of benefits, monitoring 'electric transfers', strengthening regional institutional capacity, and aligning industry development with territorial planning. The authors propose actionable solutions including a regional information observatory, a certification program for advisers, and peer-to-peer learning networks for communities.

The document analyzes the socio-economic and political challenges of transitioning away from thermal coal in the Colombian Caribbean. It highlights the tension between national economic reliance on coal exports and the local need for socio-ecological transformation. The paper identifies significant barriers, including high regional fiscal dependence on royalties, environmental liabilities from unplanned mine closures, and a centralized power structure that often excludes local communities from decision-making. Using the case of La Jagua de Ibirico, it illustrates the crisis triggered by abrupt mining suspensions, emphasizing the urgency of planned closures and economic diversification to avoid systemic collapse in coal-dependent municipalities.

The report outlines four cross-cutting recommendations for the Loss and Damage Fund: adopting participatory decision-making, creating direct access mechanisms for local actors, implementing 'learning-by-doing' capacity building, and adopting holistic approaches that prioritize human rights and non-economic losses. It identifies significant barriers to climate finance, including complex access procedures and limited local capacity, and advocates for a fund design that empowers marginalized groups and ensures rapid, flexible disbursement.

The report outlines a framework for the Loss and Damage Fund's design, emphasizing the need for diversified funding sources, simplified access for marginalized communities, and a governance structure that prioritizes grants and local leadership. It argues for a comprehensive approach that complements existing humanitarian and development aid rather than creating rigid new categories.

The report argues for a participatory, inclusive, and direct-access approach to the Loss and Damage Fund to ensure it reaches the most vulnerable communities. It recommends creating direct access windows for local actors to bypass slow national processes, adopting 'learning by doing' through small pilot projects to build institutional capacity, and expanding the scope of funding to include non-economic losses and human rights-based reparations.

The Asia-Pacific region, home to 60% of the global population aged 60 and over, faces severe risks from climate change, including projected heat exposure nearly four times higher than other regions by mid-century. Older adults suffer disproportionately from heatwaves, natural disasters, and air pollution due to physical and socio-economic vulnerabilities. However, the document emphasises that older adults are not merely vulnerable but are 'a reservoir of knowledge and experience' who contribute to resilience through traditional knowledge and community-led initiatives in countries like India and Indonesia. The summary calls for a 'triangular strategy' of Protect, Reduce, and Mobilise to ensure older adults are active participants in climate action and that their human rights are protected through age-sensitive policies and universal social protection.

The document outlines a framework for activating the Loss and Damage Fund established at COP27, emphasizing the need for inclusive governance, direct access for local communities, and a holistic approach to funding that addresses both economic and non-economic losses. It advocates for a 'learning by doing' approach to capacity building and the creation of dedicated windows for local beneficiaries to bypass slow national-level bureaucratic processes.

The document argues that the Loss and Damage Fund should avoid the bureaucratic hurdles of traditional climate finance by adopting flexible, grant-based mechanisms and inclusive governance. It emphasizes the need for direct access for local NGOs and marginalized communities, particularly in fragile states and Small Island Developing States (SIDS), while integrating with existing humanitarian and development flows to ensure a comprehensive response to climate-induced losses.

The document examines the fiscal burden of Colombia's Fuel Price Stabilisation Fund (FEPC), which saw a deficit of 2.5% of GDP in 2022. It highlights the tension between the government's goal to align fuel prices with global markets and the transport sector's skepticism regarding the feasibility of energy transition alternatives. The brief identifies structural issues in the freight sector, such as a high rate of self-employment (63%) and an aging vehicle fleet (average age of 26 years), as barriers to reform. It recommends resuming stakeholder dialogue, implementing social mitigation programs via Sisbén, and restructuring the transport sector through cooperatives to facilitate the transition to electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles.

The research assesses the effectiveness of carbon abatement projects funded by municipal green bonds in Sweden, finding that clean energy production, particularly wind energy, is more cost-efficient than other emerging technologies like carbon capture storage. The study utilizes life-cycle costs and considers all greenhouse gases to evaluate these investments, noting that the Swedish carbon tax serves as an effective incentive for clean energy projects.