All publications and documents

On climate and energy 1. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, a record 260 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity was added globally in 2020, beating the previous record by almost 50 per cent. 2. Renewables grew almost 5 per cent per year between 2009 and 2019, outpacing fossil fuels at 1.7 per cent. 3. Although most new renewable energy capacity installations have been made in…

On climate and finance 1. Public climate finance, including $100 billion that developed countries have agreed to provide to developing countries each year, supports critical infrastructure for adaptation, resilience and the new renewable energy-based economy. 2. Based on the most recent assessment conducted by developed countries, total climate finance counting towards the $100…

On climate and adaptation 1. Adaptation to climate change safeguards people from higher temperatures, rising seas, fiercer storms, unpredictable rainfall and more acidic oceans. Some people are more vulnerable to these effects, such as those living in poverty. 2. Small island developing States are particularly vulnerable without adaptation to storms and sea-level rise. For some of…

On climate and nature 1. Healthy ecosystems can provide 37 per cent of the mitigation needed to limit global temperature rise. Damaged ecosystems release carbon instead of storing it. 2. Approximately 25 per cent of the globe’s greenhouse gas emissions come from land clearing, crop production and fertilization, with animal-based food contributing 75 per cent of that. 3. With…

A United Nations study of world science is a wake-up call that richer countries must also shift science towards the SDGs. With the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, world leaders pledged to end poverty and hunger, protect biodiversity and the climate, and get all children into schools by 2030. How have researchers and funders responded? Has there been a shift in research…

The G20 Environment Ministers’ Meeting ended today in Naples with the approval of an important joint communiqué, the outcome of weeks of negotiations. The document is based on three macro areas. 1) Biodiversity: protection of natural capital and restoration of ecosystems with solutions based on nature, defense and restoration of the soil, protection of water resources,…