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The policy brief warns that using soybeans and corn for aviation fuel increases food prices and causes deforestation, urging the US government and states like California to prioritize non-food feedstocks such as waste biomass and e-fuels.

The paper examines 21 examples of locally led adaptation (LLA) across Africa, Asia-Pacific, and the Caribbean and Latin America to provide strategies for financing and implementing resilience efforts. It argues that LLA redresses power imbalances by prioritizing the agency of local organizations and Indigenous peoples, who are often best positioned to identify adaptation solutions. The document recommends that funders and governments increase the volume and flexibility of climate finance, integrate social equity into standard processes, and shift governance to center local priorities.

The document defines a carbon tax as a fee on fossil fuels and primary products based on greenhouse gas emissions, providing a financial incentive for reduction. It distinguishes carbon taxes from cap-and-trade programs by noting that taxes set a price without an emissions limit, whereas cap-and-trade sets a limit with a market-determined price. The text details how these taxes are typically applied upstream and passed to downstream consumers, noting that the economic impact on businesses and lower-income individuals depends on whether revenues are 'recycled' through rebates or tax cuts to maintain revenue neutrality. It mentions international implementations in Europe, Japan, and British Columbia, and notes the political difficulty of establishing a national carbon tax in the United States.

The analysis identifies that U.S. petroleum refineries, which contribute approximately 3% of all U.S. emissions, can deeply decarbonize through fuel switching to clean hydrogen, electrification, and carbon capture, utilization and storage. In the long term, the paper argues that refineries can shift to renewable feedstocks to produce low-carbon fuels for aviation, shipping, and trucking, potentially reducing fuel carbon intensities by up to 80%.

The document outlines a five-step framework for governments to develop INDCs: identifying benefits, organizing the process, gathering data and analysis, designing the contribution, and communicating it. It emphasizes that INDCs allow countries to tailor climate actions to their specific national priorities, capabilities, and emissions profiles to contribute to the UNFCCC goal of limiting global warming to 2°C above pre-industrial levels.

The document examines public communication strategies for Low Emission Zones (LEZ) and Congestion Charging (CC) across 10 cases in Europe, Asia, and the United States. It identifies two primary consultation types—scientific/professional and consultative/political—and emphasizes that communication must be integrated into the policy design process from the feasibility stage. The paper provides a set of recommendations for implementing these schemes in China, highlighting the need for proactive public education, early stakeholder engagement, and the use of exemptions to manage opposing views.

The document outlines the necessity of the 'Paris Rulebook' to operationalize the 2015 Paris Agreement, emphasizing a cycle of planning, implementing, and reviewing climate actions. It argues that meeting the December 2018 deadline in Katowice, Poland, is critical for building international trust, steering national policies, and enabling the five-year cycles of action. The authors identify key challenges for negotiators, including balancing national circumstances with global progress and creating durable guidelines that can adapt to scientific and technological changes.

The study finds that environmental risks could reduce shareholder value across the oil and gas industry by 1 to 6 percent, though impacts vary by company based on their asset bases and reserve distributions. While some companies might benefit from rising natural gas prices or grandfathered greenhouse gas emission permits, the report suggests that investors may not currently be accounting for these financially significant risks.

In 2000, thermoelectric power plants in the Southeast United States withdrew nearly 40 billion gallons of freshwater daily, accounting for approximately 65 percent of all withdrawals in the region. These plants, which utilize coal, oil, gas, nuclear, or biomass fuels, consumed nearly 140 billion gallons of water annually through evaporation losses.

The World Resources Institute argues that while biofuels can serve as a domestic substitute for petroleum and offer lower emissions than fossil fuels, their actual impact on emissions and the environment depends on the specific feedstocks and conversion processes used. Consequently, the WRI emphasizes that US policies promoting the biofuels industry must be carefully designed to minimize negative environmental and economic impacts.

The document argues that the success of nature-based solutions (NbS) depends on the inclusion of women, yet gender dynamics are often overlooked in favor of biophysical or technical analysis. It examines four specific NbS approaches—natural climate solutions, forest landscape restoration, ecosystem-based adaptation, and payments for ecosystem services—and uses case studies of PES projects to provide recommendations for increasing rural women's agency in climate-resilient agroecosystems.

The document provides guidance for national institutions in developing countries on navigating the direct access modalities of the Adaptation Fund and the Green Climate Fund (GCF). It outlines the importance of strategic planning, the resource-intensive nature of the accreditation process, and best practices for project design and implementation to ensure national ownership and reduced transaction costs.

The Local Government Renewables Action Tracker is an interactive web tool developed by the American Cities Climate Challenge Renewables Accelerator (a WRI and RMI partnership) to help U.S. local governments procure renewable electricity. It aggregates data from public and crowdsourced sources to track renewable electricity transactions and advocacy efforts by cities, counties, municipal utilities, and community choice aggregations, displaying the total capacity in megawatts of generation supported by these efforts.

The document introduces the Financial Institutions Net Zero Tracker, a tool created to increase accountability and clarity regarding net zero commitments in the financial sector. The tracker evaluates commitments based on transparency, ambition, implementation, credibility, and the integration of nature and equity issues. It is intended to help financial institutions identify peer leading practices and enable regulators and civil society to hold firms accountable.

The World Resources Institute (WRI) has developed a cost-efficient MRV framework for land restoration that integrates local practitioner knowledge with high-resolution satellite imagery and artificial intelligence. Tested across more than 200 projects via the TerraFund partnership in Africa, the approach uses nine indicator categories to capture biophysical, socioeconomic, and financial data. By utilizing the DINOv3 AI model and satellite data, WRI estimates that independent verification costs can be reduced by up to 98% compared to traditional field inventories. The framework is designed for replication across various ecosystems and has already been adapted for use in India and Brazil to support outcome-based finance mechanisms.

The document asserts that past U.S. administrations have compromised social and environmental goals by disregarding participatory democracy and informed decision-making. It advocates for a governance model based on three pillars: transparency in government-held information, inclusive policy-making that respects sound science and diverse views, and accountability through the rule of law and congressional oversight. The author emphasizes that the 44th President faces urgent challenges, including global warming and energy price volatility, which require a commitment to non-partisan law enforcement and the protection of scientific integrity from political interference.

The Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas is an interactive tool for analyzing global water risk. Users can specify locations via map selection, address entry, or file imports of up to 500 addresses. The tool provides various water risk indicators—including physical, regulatory, and reputational risks—with temporal resolutions (annual and monthly) and future projections for 2030, 2050, and 2080 based on CMIP6 climate data and five Global Circulation Models. Results can be exported in CSV and GPKG formats.

The biofuels industry has expanded due to government blending requirements and clean fuels standards, with potential further growth from the aviation and maritime sectors seeking to meet emission targets. However, there is significant controversy regarding how these policies account for greenhouse gas reductions and the extent to which biofuels drive tropical deforestation.

The document outlines a strategic framework for banks, specifically targeting Chinese institutions, to exit coal financing. It emphasizes that global coal combustion for power must drop from 36% in 2022 to 3% by 2035 to maintain the 1.5°C goal. The proposed framework consists of three stages: plan/review, decide, and implement, designed to increase transparency and manage risks across the entire coal value chain. The author argues that adopting these practices and collaborating internationally will provide Chinese banks with a competitive edge during the global energy transition.

The document outlines a method for generating probability models of complex climate hazard indicators by selecting and calibrating downscaled global climate models. These local estimates are intended to support long-term planning for government, the private sector, and civil society across various domains including agriculture and disaster mitigation.