Search Climate Insights Directory

The Saint-Louis Declaration for Climate Justice is a statement issued on November 2, 2024, by the African Activists for Climate Justice (AACJ) Senegal consortium and local partners. It demands that the Government of Senegal and international partners integrate climate justice into public policy, simplify access to climate funds for local communities, and fulfill financial promises from wealthy nations to support vulnerable populations, particularly in the Saint-Louis region.

This case study describes RMI's efforts since 2017 to increase energy access in Nigeria through decentralized solar hybrid minigrids, community-centric ownership models, and the promotion of productive energy use in agriculture and industry.

The Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) is a financial market infrastructure led by Afreximbank and supported by the AfCFTA Secretariat to enable instant cross-border payments across Africa using local currencies. It aims to reduce reliance on foreign currencies, lower transaction costs, and increase financial inclusion, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises. While it has gained support from 13 African central banks and over 115 commercial banks as of May 2024, its widespread adoption is hindered by low awareness, fragmented regulatory frameworks, and inadequate digital infrastructure.

This policy brief, produced by the Stockholm Environment Institute in collaboration with Adaptation without Borders and Adaptation at Altitude, identifies opportunities for UNFCCC Parties and Observers to integrate transboundary climate impacts and mountain area adaptation into international climate negotiations, specifically targeting COP29 and subsequent conferences.

The ninth FOCAC Beijing Summit (2024) marked a re-calibration of China-Africa relations, with China pledging USD 50.7 billion over three years. African leaders demonstrated increased agency, shifting focus from raw aid to value-added trade, technological transfer, and green energy. Key outcomes include a USD 1 billion deal to rehabilitate the Tazara railway and a strategic increase in Chinese security assistance via the Global Security Initiative. The summit highlights a growing ideological and geopolitical divide, as China offers an alternative governance model to Western liberal democracy and aggressively pursues the African EV and digital markets.

The Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ) submitted a critique of the Revised Fiscal Framework and Revenue Proposals presented on 30 October 2024, arguing that the framework's focus on austerity and debt stabilisation undermines inclusive growth and poverty reduction in South Africa.

The IISD welcomes the Government of Canada's draft regulations for an oil and gas pollution cap to drive the sector toward net-zero by 2050, but warns that a proposed 'decarbonization program' creates a loophole for double-counting emissions reductions. The IISD advocates for the exclusion of international offsets and the implementation of a robust, loophole-free cap by early 2025.

This policy brief provides guidance for utility modelers and regulators on integrating the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment (EIR) program into capacity expansion modeling. It outlines a three-step approach to maximize ratepayer savings: modeling portfolio-wide financing savings, prioritizing 'clean repowering' at existing fossil sites, and optimizing transmission investments. The document emphasizes the urgency of applying for EIR funding by the end of 2025 to meet the September 30, 2026, conditional commitment deadline.

This briefing by RMI outlines a strategic framework for the next US administration to sustain and advance the green industrial strategy initiated by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), CHIPS and Science Act (CHIPS), and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). It emphasizes three primary goals: accelerating economic growth through decarbonization, restoring US global manufacturing and innovation leadership, and ensuring clean energy investments reduce the cost of living and revitalize disadvantaged communities.

A policy brief evaluating the sustainability of water infrastructure projects funded by the County Climate Change Fund (CCCF) in five Kenyan arid and semi-arid counties. While initially successful, many investments saw a decline in functionality by 2023 due to poor maintenance budgets, insufficient climate data for siting, and governance gaps. The brief recommends dedicated O&M budgets, the integration of Indigenous knowledge, and a landscape-based approach to water management.

This policy brief by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) argues that carbon markets and the purchase of carbon offsets do not constitute legitimate climate finance. The document asserts that relying on these markets allows Global North countries and polluters to avoid their legal obligations to fund mitigation and adaptation in the Global South while perpetuating the fossil fuel economy.

This policy brief by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) argues that the proposed international legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution (the Plastics Treaty) must be grounded in a human rights-based approach. It asserts that plastic pollution violates multiple internationally recognized human rights and that the treaty should operationalize both substantive rights, such as the right to a healthy environment, and procedural rights, such as access to justice and public participation, to ensure equity and accountability.

This briefing by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) provides initial reactions to the third 'non-paper' released on October 29, 2024, by the Chair of the intergovernmental negotiating committee (INC) tasked with developing a global plastics treaty. While CIEL views the non-paper as an adequate structure for negotiations at the upcoming INC-5 meeting in Busan, Republic of Korea, it argues that the current text relies too heavily on voluntary language and lacks essential provisions on production limits, chemicals of concern, and finance, which would result in an ineffective treaty.

This briefing by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) and Break Free from Plastics (BFFP) provides a streamlined comparison between the Chair's third Non-Paper and the Compilation draft text for the future international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution. The document synthesizes these two sources to facilitate discussions at the fifth intergovernmental negotiating committee (INC-5), highlighting critical omissions in the Non-Paper and presenting various textual options for the treaty's articles, including those on product design, chemicals of concern, and financial mechanisms.

The International Platform Sustainable Finance (IPSF) Common Ground Taxonomy (CGT) Instruction Report (November 2024) provides a technical comparison between the sustainable finance taxonomies of the European Union (EU) and China. The report identifies areas of commonality and divergence to enhance the interoperability of green finance standards, aiming to reduce trans-boundary costs for green investments and scale up international green capital mobilization.

This document provides the technical annexes for a report on climate finance needs for agrifood systems. It details a taxonomy developed by the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and describes two methodologies used to estimate finance needs: a top-down approach based on a literature review of third-party reports and a bottom-up approach based on the analysis of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

This report by the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI/PUC-Rio) analyzes the regulatory and institutional advancements in Brazil's bioeconomy under the Lula government since 2023. It highlights the creation of the National Bioeconomy Secretariat and the National Bioeconomy Strategy, while evaluating how these frameworks integrate three distinct visions of bioeconomy: biotechnological, bio-resources, and bio-ecological.

This report by the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI/PUC-RIO) analyzes climate finance for land use in Brazil from 2021 to 2023, focusing on agriculture and forests. It identifies a significant increase in annual average flows to US$ 17.1 billion, driven primarily by domestic private resources and rural credit. The document details the roles of various financial instruments, the impact of public policies like the Agricultural Plan and RENOVABIO, and the distribution of funds across mitigation, adaptation, and loss and damage objectives.

The RES Tracker Methodology V2 describes Ember's process for collecting and categorizing national renewable energy deployment ambitions for the power sector across 96 countries and the EU as of November 2024.

This progress report by FSD Africa details the organization's efforts to deepen African capital markets to mobilize long-term, local currency finance for sustainable development. The report outlines a four-pronged strategy focusing on policy and regulatory development, market infrastructure, capital market product innovation, and convening and advocacy. FSD Africa highlights its role as a neutral facilitator, leveraging technical assistance and grants to address systemic barriers such as risk-averse institutional investors and underdeveloped regulatory frameworks, with a specific emphasis on green, social, and gender-themed financing.