This publication serves as a comprehensive guide to financing and developing business models for Nature-based Solutions (NbS) addressing climate challenges in urban areas. The publication is designed as a knowledge resource for NbS project developers in the public and private sectors and other stakeholders involved in NbS planning and implementation. Its primary intention is to support the adoption of NBS […]

Climate change and rapid urbanization challenge sustainable development and human well-being in the growing cities of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Asia, Africa, and Latin America, in particular, are at the forefront of the world’s urbanization today, with several low- and middle-income cities in these regions poised to become the most populous in the following decades. However, the rapid pace […]

This policy note provides a summary and perspectives of the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems (WEFE) Nexus for climate-resilient sustainable development. It showcases the strong inter-relationship between water resources, energy generation, food production and freshwater ecosystems and the links between the WEFE nexus and integrated water resources management (IWRM). The WEFE nexus emphasizes using a systems approach to give equal consideration to all four […]

In the pursuit of sustainable development and climate resilience, off-grid solar electric cooking (e-cooking) technologies is a dual solution encompassing both climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies. Globally, cooking with biomass amounts for as much as 2% of CO2 emissions. Given the rapid advances and price reductions in solar e-cooking technologies, there is an opportunity to scale these solutions to […]

In this third edition of “Regulatory Barriers for ESCOs”, 25 ESCO associations have provided comprehensive answers to 15 questions that illuminate different aspects of regulatory barriers for ESCOs. The formulation of the questions was informed and inspired by interviews that were conducted in 2021 for the first edition of this publication, where focused interviews with 10 ESCO associations served as […]

This report was developed in support of the 2024 Emissions Gap Report (EGR) of UNEP. It provides the analysis and findings that are used as background for the development of Chapter 6 of the EGR 2024: “Bridging the gap: Sectoral transformations, benchmarks, potentials, and needed investments”. The report addresses two critical questions: can the emissions gap identified for 2030 and […]

Since the establishment of the first global agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions – the Kyoto Protocol – the idea of trading in emissions units, or emissions reduction, has been an essential part of the architecture, motivated by calculations showing that costs of emissions mitigation vary widely among countries. So why not exploit the more cost-efficient mitigation options first if […]

Over time and through an iterative process, collective learnings and practical insights from the global- and country- level work on TNAs have informed and enriched the TNA methodology, including through growing guidance3 available to countries and implementation actors. Today, the TNA process has evolved into a step-by-step process that goes beyond technology needs and is geared towards enabling technology implementation […]

Building on four previous publications, this publication provides a new set of success stories on how countries have used their TNAs and TAPs to advance the implementation of climate technologies. It provides examples from different regions and covers different sectors. The stories highlight how TNAs are used by developing countries as a highly practical tool that provides an effective and […]