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The Centre for Environmental Rights (CER) and Natural Justice (NJ) argue that the proposed MIR for onshore exploration in South Africa lacks the specificity, enforceable standards, and climate integration necessary to protect environmental integrity and community interests. They recommend mandatory greenhouse gas accounting, a regional cumulative impact assessment, and a comprehensive public health baseline. Technical experts in the document highlight critical gaps in groundwater monitoring, the absence of a risk-based 'traffic light protocol' for induced seismicity, and the need for transparent chemical disclosure of fracturing fluids. The authors ultimately argue that hydraulic fracturing is incompatible with South Africa's climate commitments and water scarcity, suggesting it should be prohibited.

The document examines the legal tension between the restrictive Atlantic Forest Law (LMA) and the more flexible Forest Code (Lei nº 12.651/2012) regarding 'consolidated rural areas'. It focuses on a specific case in Paraná where the TRF-4 decided on February 11, 2026, to extinguish a lawsuit without judging the merits, thereby maintaining the current application of the Forest Code for environmental regularization. The briefing highlights that while this provides short-term stability for the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) and the Environmental Regularization Program (PRA), the fundamental legal controversy over which law prevails remains unresolved.

The Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ) warns that modest GDP growth and improvements in network industries (energy, freight, and ports) in 2025 must be used as a springboard for structural transformation rather than a reason for complacency. Despite a projected 1.2% GDP expansion in 2025, unemployment remains critical at 31.9% (narrow) and 42.4% (expanded), while poverty affects 66.7% of the population. The IEJ argues that growth in finance and commodities does not create sufficient jobs and calls for a developmental macroeconomic framework. This includes a dual policy rate regime from the South African Reserve Bank, increased public investment in infrastructure and social services, and the implementation of a net wealth tax to fund these initiatives.

The Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ) argues that the South African President's State of the Nation Address (SONA) acknowledges systemic challenges like hunger and unemployment but fails to provide the necessary developmental state interventions to solve them. The IEJ criticizes the shift toward a 'regulatory, competitive, and derisking state' that relies on private sector investment and 'trickle down' effects, asserting that such an approach cannot achieve the structural transformation or mass job creation required. The IEJ calls for increased public investment in sectors such as manufacturing and agriculture, the urgent transformation of the Social Relief of Distress grant into basic income support, and engagement with global development experts to shift the country's economic trajectory.

The document analyzes the deadlock in WTO agriculture negotiations regarding domestic support, public stockholding, and market access. It argues that while comprehensive breakthroughs are unlikely at MC14, meaningful progress for LDCs is possible through reducing trade-distorting cotton subsidies, improving market access for cotton products, and establishing LDC exemptions from export restrictions. It also notes the emergence of the WTO Dialogue on Sustainable Agriculture as an informal space to explore the intersection of trade and sustainability.

The document describes a 'pragmatic' security integration between the US and Nigeria that avoids formal military treaties by using civilian instruments. By leveraging Section 126 of AGOA and the 'Safe Skies for Africa' initiative, the US provides decommissioned FAA equipment and technical assistance to modernize Nigerian airspace. This creates a 'shared awareness' corridor that serves both aviation safety and counter-insurgency monitoring, effectively replacing lost US surveillance capacity in the Sahel. However, the author warns that this operational deepening is contradicted by increasing political uncertainty in Washington regarding the future of AGOA, which some legislators seek to turn into a discretionary disciplinary tool.

The Canadian Climate Institute asserts that Canada's industrial carbon pricing is currently a "hodgepodge of rules" that fails to drive significant investment in low-carbon projects. While the federal government is reviewing its minimum national standards (the federal benchmark), the Institute finds the current proposal insufficient to deliver intended emissions outcomes. To fix this, the Institute recommends ensuring a minimum effective carbon credit price of $130 per tonne by 2030, implementing non-negotiable conditions such as increasing emissions performance standards and price floors/ceilings, and mandating transparent, credible data disclosure on emitter compliance and actual prices paid.

The Canadian Climate Institute asserts that Canada's industrial carbon pricing framework is currently ineffective due to inconsistent rules and market failures. It criticizes the federal government's proposed updates to the national minimum standards (federal benchmark) as inadequate, warning that they could allow non-performing provincial systems to be deemed compliant. The Institute proposes three primary corrections: ensuring a real minimum carbon price of $130 per tonne by 2030, imposing non-negotiable conditions on provincial flexibility—such as strengthening emission performance standards and limiting compliance options—and requiring transparent, credible data on emitter compliance and actual prices paid to monitor performance.

Carbon Market Watch asserts that private jet use in Europe is under-regulated despite being the most polluting form of travel. The organization proposes multiplying the carbon price by four for private jets and expanding the scope of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) to cover the 67% of private jet emissions currently exempt. Such measures could raise between €304 million and €2.2 billion annually by 2030, depending on the scope of coverage and the inclusion of non-CO2 effects. The document also advocates for aviation fuel taxation and the prioritization of low-cost solutions, such as contrail avoidance, over subsidies for unsustainable bio-kerosene.

The briefing asserts that authoritarian regimes, specifically Russia, China, and Iran, are using hybrid warfare to undermine trust in democratic institutions and divide liberal societies. It argues that current government responses are too siloed and reactive, failing to deliver results. To counter this, the author proposes three strategic pillars: establishing a comprehensive counter-hybrid doctrine that includes asymmetric and offensive capabilities, reorganizing government structures to enable holistic coordination and multi-stakeholder coalitions, and prioritizing strategic communications to outcompete authoritarian narratives both domestically and internationally.

A joint statement by industrial, research, and civil society organisations urging the European Commission to broaden the scope and ambition of the proposed Industrial Accelerator Act to better stimulate demand for low-carbon industrial products in Europe.

India's transport sector, the country's third-largest GHG emitter, is shifting toward electrification to meet climate commitments. While the transition supports goals like a 30% EV sales share by 2030 and creates jobs in battery manufacturing and charging infrastructure, it necessitates a coordinated strategy for reskilling the workforce to handle complex electric drivetrains and software integration.

A satellite-based analysis by Ember reveals that Polish coal mines were the most frequent fossil fuel methane super-emitters in the EU in 2025. Despite a ban on routine venting from drainage systems that took effect in January 2025 under the EU Methane Regulation, five Polish drainage systems were observed venting methane. The report highlights a critical gap in enforcement, noting that Poland has not established the required national penalty framework. Coking coal mines were responsible for the vast majority of super-emitter events, and the analysis suggests that captured drainage methane could have provided significant heating energy for Polish households.

The EU's 2040 climate target aims for a 90% net reduction in emissions compared to 1990 levels. However, the author contends that this target is a dilution of ambition because it allows 5% of the reduction to be met through international carbon credits and relies on a 'net' framework rather than separate targets for emissions reductions and carbon removals. This design creates a risk of 'mitigation deterrence,' where the expectation of future carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies—such as BECCS and DACCS—justifies slower near-term decarbonization. Despite broad stakeholder support for separate targets, including from some business associations and CDR developers, the European Commission opted for a single net target to simplify governance and maintain industrial competitiveness. The document warns that integrating CDR into the EU Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) could further allow large emitters to avoid direct cuts.

In 2025, the Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP) tracked 1,029 private equity-backed healthcare deals in the U.S., including 151 leveraged buyouts, 664 add-on acquisitions, and 214 growth investments. The busiest subsectors were Health IT, dental care, and outpatient care. The report highlights a growing trend of private equity firms using joint ventures with nonprofit health systems to expand market access and evade antitrust scrutiny. It also notes significant expansion into pharmaceutical services, specifically clinical trial sites and institutional review boards, and home health/hospice care, where debt-driven models may divert Medicaid funds from patient care.

The study evaluated emissions from charcoal, kerosene, LPG, and electricity in Kibera, Nairobi. It found that charcoal and kerosene produce the highest concentrations of pollutants, while LPG and electricity produce low concentrations. Ambient PM2.5 levels in the households were 14.2 times higher than the World Health Organization's 24-hour threshold.

The document presents Community-Informed Water Systems Modelling (CI-WSM), a framework that integrates socioeconomic data and stakeholder participation into water planning models to address inequalities in water access. Tested in Bolivia and Cambodia, the approach uses a five-phase process to ensure that marginalization and cultural norms are reflected in water resilience analysis and policy strategies.

In January 2026, severe wildfires affected central-southern Chile and northern Patagonia in Argentina, driven by temperatures above 38°C, drought, and winds of 40–50 km/h. The fires destroyed at least 1,000 homes in Chile, killed 23 people, and burned over 109,000 hectares across both countries, impacting the UNESCO world heritage site Los Alerces National Park. An attribution study using the hot-dry-windy index (HDWI) found that these conditions, typically 1-in-5-year events, were made more likely by human-induced climate change by a factor of approximately 3 in Chile and 2.5 in Patagonia. Additionally, fire-season rainfall intensity decreased by about 25% in Chile and 20% in Patagonia. The study highlights that nonnative monocultural pine plantations increased flammability and that natural variability, such as La Niña and the Southern Annular Mode, further enhanced the hot and dry conditions.

China is repositioning its coal fleet to provide system flexibility, with the entire existing fleet on track to be retrofitted by 2027. While technical capacity is increasing, the report argues that full flexibility is constrained by power market design and dispatch practices. It emphasizes that as coal retrofit potential plateaus, the rapid scale-up of clean flexibility, particularly battery energy storage, is essential to avoid locking in emissions beyond 2030 and to maintain grid stability as renewables become dominant.

China is repositioning its coal fleet to serve as a regulatory and security resource to manage the variability of its growing renewable energy sector. This transition is driven by a critical need for short-term flexibility, with the IEA estimating that these needs will be three times higher in 2030 than in 2022. To achieve this, the Chinese government has implemented a series of Five-Year Plans and policies, including a target to retrofit "above 200 GW" of coal capacity for flexibility between 2021 and 2025. Technical efforts focus on lowering minimum loads (ML) to 25-40% of rated capacity and decoupling heat and electricity generation in combined heat and power (CHP) units. Financial mechanisms supporting this shift include a coal capacity pricing mechanism introduced in 2024 and the use of infrastructure real estate investment trusts (REITs) for eligible plants.