China’s emissions pathway during the coming decades is probably the single biggest factor in determining the achievability of the climate targets agreed in Paris. This fact is due to the still growing size of the Chinese economy and its carbon intensity, based on its reliance on coal to fuel the power system. This paper contributes towards fostering a deeper understanding of the challenges and the potential of Chinese-European interaction in the transition to a zero-carbon economy

Fossil fuel development, in particular oil and gas, promised vast riches in the past. Today it is exposing fossil fuel producers and their creditors to a massive stranded asset risk. Technological disruption with the rapid cost-reduction of renewable energy and storage technologies, in conjunction with the inevitability of increased climate action, are at the root of unprecedented uncertainties over the future of the sector. 

South Africa’s economy, which was already in a precarious state before Covid-2019, has been tipped into full blown crisis by the pandemic. Gross national government debt  is expected to be upwards of 86% within two years. Eskom, which is the country’s state-owned monopolistic and vertically integrated electricity utility, is a key driver of this escalating debt profile and lies at the heart of the economy’s structural challenges. 

There is hardly any other food that pollutes our environment and the climate as badly as meat. However, no government in the world currently has a concept of how meat consumption and production can be significantly reduced.

This paper outlines some viable options for creating an architecture for a Debt-for-Climate Initiative (DCI). This is intended to enable countries to recover from the pandemic.

Low-income countries (LICs) are suffering from triple distresses: the mortal impact of Covid-19, increasing debt burdens, and climate change impacts. This paper brings the debt-for-adaptation swap into play as an alternative source to restore countries' ability to act and be resilient to climate change.

China and the EU are currently negotiating a new, far-reaching investment treaty called the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI). This scoping paper focuses on the potential risks for the EU from enshrining rights for Chinese investors in Europe in an international investment treaty.

The „Societal Transfomation Scenario“ is a global 1.5°C mitigation scenario, which challenges  the notion of perpetual global economic growth and its compatibility with ambitious climate goals like the 1.5°C limit. It shows how through a reduction of production and consumption in the Global North, we can stay below 1.5°C without resorting to high-risk technologies like CCS, geoengineering and nuclear, while also avoiding temperature overshoot.

How should policymakers respond to the reality and future prospect of vast populations being displaced and relocated in an era of global heating? With climate change looming, anxiety over immigration from the Global South is increasingly fuelled by apocalyptic fears of ecological breakdown. This volume offers fresh perspectives on the relationship between climate change and human migration, questioning the pessimistic prisms of ‘security’ and market-oriented approaches to ‘adaptation’ that currently guide policy.

This paper examines the experience with debt-for-development swaps and major debt relief processes in order to draw some lessons that could help shape a debt-for-climate initiative (DCI).