This UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre paper examines the challenges faced by central banks and financial regulators in emerging markets and developing economies and distils key lessons from the Reserve Bank of Malawi’s experiences that can guide other institutions beginning to integrate climate considerations into their operations.

UNEP’s Emissions Gap Report 2025: Off Target finds that available new climate pledges under the Paris Agreement have only slightly lowered global temperature rise over the course of this century, leaving the world heading for a serious escalation of climate risks and damages.

The challenges of climate change and rapid urbanization present central obstacles to sustainable development in cities of low- and middle-income countries. Urban Nature-based Solutions (NbS) receive growing attention as potential remedies for these challenges because they offer environmental and social co-benefits in comparison to conventional grey or engineered solutions. In practice, NbS co-exist and positively complement conventional grey or engineered […]

Climate change and rapid urbanization are central challenges to sustainable development in cities of low and middle-income countries. Nature-based Solutions can address these challenges and offer environmental and social benefits over traditional engineered solutions, and in practice co-exist and positively complement engineered solutions. However, the uptake of NbS in urban planning remains limited and implementation faces several barriers. The need […]

Floods, flash floods and droughts are central climate impacts in urban areas in Zambia according to the scientific literature. This is underscored by recent examples of flash floods in Lusaka during the 2024/25 rainy season and increasing stress on Lusaka’s water supply. These impacts are likely to further aggravate as climate change intensifies. Urban Nature-based Solutions (NbS) like bio-retention basins, […]

With the Baku decisions on operationalizing Article 6, the Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism (PACM) has made a decisive step towards implementation. The development is accompanied by the growing policy attention being given by major global economies to international market mechanisms. As of late, the European Union (EU) has announced in its latest 2040 target that it intends to utilize markets […]

The uptake of higher-tier (4+) clean cooking solutions, especially in last mile communities, is a critical but often underfunded and insufficiently prioritised need. Despite a diversity of viable technologies, including pure electric cooking (eCooking) powered by photovoltaic systems (solar PV) and PV-supported biomass gasifier stoves, as well as ethanol stoves, their widespread adoption remains a challenge due to various barriers, […]

High-quality adaptation reporting has become more pertinent under the Paris Agreement, with vital processes such as the global stocktake being extremely reliant on the information reported by Parties to assess progress made towards achieving the Paris Agreement’s global goal on adaptation. To date, adaptation information reported by Parties has typically been insufficiently comparable and complete, and reported too infrequently. This […]

The development of national greenhouse gas inventories (NGI) is a task requiring highly technical precision that the Parties to the Paris Agreement shall undertake biennially starting from 2024. Its multiple benefits include providing the Parties, especially developing countries, with a means to track progress made in implementing and achieving their committed goals for GHG emission control and reduction to mitigate […]