Nearly 65% of adults in the Arab region remain excluded from formal financial systems, according to a new report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). The Annual SDG Review 2025 paints a sobering picture of persistent financial exclusion that is undermining the region’s ability …
This paper uses a global data set from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to assess the scale of funding for nature-based solutions to climate change aimed at developing countries. It also examines how effectively this funding is being put to use. International development finance – including climate finance …
The digital divide in the access and usage of ICTs and the internet has also led to an exclusionary consequence in three sectors of utmost significance: education, health and finance. In a country plagued by high socioeconomic inequality, the digitalisation process cannot be posited as the panacea for the inherent …
The second edition of the State of Finance for Nature report reveals that nature-based solutions are still significantly under-financed. If the world wants to halt biodiversity loss, limit climate change to below 1.5C and achieve land degradation neutrality by 2030, current finance flows to NbS must urgently double by 2025 …
This report shows that for the first time, 100% of the value of the project finance loans identified in 2021 went to renewable energy projects. This is a considerable increase compared to 2020, where renewable energy loans accounted for 74%. Total funding for new energy projects in 2021 is 60% …
Climate change is already affecting people’s lives and livelihoods in Angola, as well as the Angolan economy. The country is experiencing increasingly severe and frequent climate hazards, including the South’s worst prolonged droughts in decades. Climate change impacts also come with a heavy price tag: climate-related disasters (floods, storms, droughts) …
Plastics leakage to the ocean and, more broadly, the environment has become a pressing issue for many developing countries. While a number of development co-operation initiatives with a focus on tackling plastic pollution have recently emerged, there is currently no comprehensive assessment of the volume and scope of international development …
India’s cooling strategy can simultaneously mitigate the heat related risks on lives and livelihoods, lower carbon emissions, and position India as a global hub for green cooling manufacturing. Severe heat waves, responsible for thousands of deaths across India over the last few decades, are increasing with alarming frequency. Unlocking opportunities …
India has charted ambitious goals for its energy transition. These include achieving 50% cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources. Additionally, it has committed to reducing the emissions intensity of its GDP by 45% (compared to 2005 levels), also by 2030. From a longer-term perspective, India has …
Humanity is embedded in nature and depends profoundly on the goods and services it generates. Future economic development and well-being hinge on healthy and resilient ecosystems that provide our food and raw materials, drinking water, clean air, and the stability of the climate system. More than half of the world’s …
Ghana is highly vulnerable to climate change due to its location along the Atlantic Ocean in a tropical climate zone. This increasingly exposes the country to the risks of climate change including rising sea levels, drought, higher temperatures and erratic rainfall, which negatively impact the socio-economic development of the country. …
The Gambia is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change from increases in temperature, decreases in rainfall, and a rise in the sea level, which affect millions of people and make adaptation more urgent. Rapid changes in climate tend to have severe effects on a country’s key economic sectors such …
Liberia, due to its location on the west coast of Africa, within the tropical rain forest climate belt with heavy rain, is faced with high climate change risks, including cyclones, floods and rising sea levels. Its vulnerability to climate variability and climate change is affecting millions of people thus making …
Macroeconomic and fiscal reforms are urgently needed to lift Nigeria’s development outcomes, which are severely constrained by inefficient use of resources, argues the new Nigeria Public Finance Review report. For years, a large share of Nigeria’s resources have financed inefficient and regressive subsidies for petrol, electricity, and foreign exchange. Not …
Climate change has clearly arrived on the financial world’s agenda. The number of asset owners and asset managers joining international climate initiatives is growing, and financial institutions increasingly set dedicated climate targets. Of the 50 largest asset managers and asset owners, 90% and 30% of these assets respectively are under …
A new World Bank report estimates that India will need to invest $840 billion over the next 15 years—or an average of $55 billion per annum—into urban infrastructure if it is to effectively meet the needs of its fast-growing urban population. The report, titled “Financing India’s Urban Infrastructure Needs: Constraints …
Africa’s investments in renewables trail far behind the rest of the continents, accounting for only 0.6% of the $434 billion destined for clean energy worldwide in 2021, a recent report by BloombergNEF shows. According to the market analyst, despite Africa’s natural resource wealth, rapidly growing electricity demand and improving policy …
This discussion paper was prepared to showcase the need for – and the benefit of having – a globally consistent, open baseline dataset of climate risk and resilience metrics as a global public good to help mobilize finance for adaptation. The Glasgow Climate Pact agreed at COP26 included the call …
UNCTAD has published a report International Investment in Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation: Trends and Policy Developments, which aims to inform the debate on climate finance at COP27 and incorporates key findings from numerous sources, including the World Investment Report 2022. The report provides the latest international climate change investment …
This Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores the challenges and opportunities of improving the alignment of Egypt’s development goals with its climate ambition. The CCDR offers a set of policy options and investment opportunities that, if implemented within five years, can deliver short-term benefits in selected sectors while also …
Humanity is at a crossroads - a moment of great risk and great opportunity. One path leads to attractive growth and development; the other to great difficulties and destruction. As shown by each successive report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, climate change is occurring at a faster pace …
