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This technical document aims to enhance understanding of  HFC-23 abatement in HCFC-22 facilities and to provide analysis of relevant new developments in intergovernmental processes. The document provides background information on the matter, summarizes the developments under the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, and highlights a number of options to address the implications of the establishment of new HCFC-22 facilities seeking to obtain certified emission reductions for the destruction of HFC-23.

This technical document was prepared for the Summit of the Rainforest Basins, taking place from 31 May-3 June 2011, in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo. It states that the net loss of forest area in the rainforest basins has decreased from 7.1 million hectares from 1990-2000 to 5.4 million hectares from 2000-2010. The Amazon Basin suffered the most deforestation, followed by Southeast Asia. Of the forests in these regions, just over 1% is certified, 3.5% is managed sustainably, and less than 15% is covered by a management plan.

This technical document analyzes many of the issues facing the carbon market. The report covers international developments (Section 1), domestic policies (Section 2), risk and regulation of markets (Section 3), carbon and climate finance (Section 4), and market outlook (Section 5). It indicates a slight decline in carbon markets compared to 2009.

This technical document considers whether funding for climate change is being managed in the most effective manner, based on the long history of lessons learnt from development assistance over the last 60 years. For doing so, it analyses the experience of five countries in Asia (Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam). The document suggests that, although global agreements to fund climate change have emerged over the last 20 years, challenges remain to making this finance fully effective and sustainable.

This technical document looks at the use of water in the agribusiness sector across Australia, Brazil, India, South Africa and the Mediterranean Basin. The implications of water pressures on agribusiness activities and their financial performance are analysed and the impact of agricultural activities on local water parameters discussed. This is done by examining water issues with regards to a set of specific crops: those considered by financial institutions themselves to be the most financially relevant in each of the geographies concerned.

This analytical report aims to increase public understanding about the urgency of action to combat climate change and its impacts. It underlines that, as the messages from scientists become increasingly explicit, the gap between the need for action they project and the climate policy the world leaders put in place remains. The report contains easily understandable texts and 40 mostly original maps and graphics, based on the Fourth Assessment Report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007.

This technical document presents an in-depth research on the China New Energy Vehicles Program. The preliminary findings of the study indicate that the scale of China’s electric vehicle programme leave the country poised to benefit from vehicle electrification. Vehicle electrification is expected to be strategically important to China’s future in the following four areas: global climate change; energy security; urban air quality; and China’s auto industry growth.

This technical document highlights the changing economies and forest trends across the Southeast Asian subregion, particularly the growing concern over trade legality and sustainable resource management in major markets. The document notes the possibilities from participation in a REDD+ mechanism, but suggests that reductions in deforestation and degradation will be hard won. It also suggests that national priorities should center on economic production and biodiversity protection, but that these can only be effective with improved governance.

This technical document examines both opportunities from and potential limitations of REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation  in developing countries, as well as conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of carbon stocks). It underscores the critical impact of societal changes on forests, particularly demographic changes, globalization and increasing demand for food, fiber and fuel. The report suggests that use of wood as a source of energy is likely to decrease and that improved governance will be central to the success.

This technical document describes the current status and key trends in illegal logging and governance, institutional arrangements, forest policy and forest legislation in the Asia-Pacific region. It underscores that international REDD+ efforts and Forest Law Enforcement and Governance and Trade (FLEGT) programmes have the potential to provide support to efforts to increase and sustain forests, and highlights the need for consensus on the role of forestry in national development.

This activity report presents how the World Bank supports countries to address development and climate change challenges. The approach includes a broad range of assistance through a combination of financial and other resources. In addition, the document briefly introduces possible future options and strategies.

This analytical report provides a review of legal and institutional frameworks for 28 transboundary surface water, groundwater and marine water systems covering the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia. The report also considers climate change adaptation knowledge in the various water basins analyzed. It is intended to provide information that can be used to support further research and analysis, with the ultimate goal of identifying a set of common elements of good governance for transboundary freshwater and marine water bodies as well as groundwater systems.

This analytical report provides a briefing to the financial world on current and emerging avenues for business activity in forest-carbon and highlights roles and barriers for financial institutions to become involved. It underscores the importance of the commitment of the private sector and financial institutions toward the implementation of REDD+, noting that the overall investment needed for implementation of REDD+ activities exceeds public capabilities. According to the study, private sector participation in REDD+ and deforestation activities can lead to a win-win scenario for the finance sector and governments, as projects offer lucrative investment opportunities, while protecting biodiversity and livelihoods.

This analytical report reviews trends in growth, employment and decent work in LDCs, highlighting challenges and opportunities for structural transformation, job creation and poverty eradication. It also contains a section on implications of climate change on the agriculture sector in LDCs. It underscores that poor countries, communities and persons are least able to adapt to climate change and reduce its immediate negative impacts on their lives. It notes that, in particular, sub-Saharan Africa, many poor island States and other food-insecure countries are at the most risk from the effects of climate change.

This technical document discusses the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and focuses on the equitable distribution of CDM projects. This article documents that if the traditional analysis of pure numbers of projects per country is replaced by more relative figures, employment of the mechanism is becoming remarkably equal, even in Least Developed Countries.

This analytical report highlights that the world’s 48 Least Developed Countries (LDCs) are positioned to jump-start the transition to a green economy by continuing to develop low-carbon, labour-intensive agriculture and community-based forestry, sustainable practices that have existed for decades. Developed and emerging countries, meanwhile, face substantial costs of “decarbonisation” and costs related to retiring inefficient fossil fuel-based technologies. The report includes examples of achievements in a range of economic sectors, including energy and agriculture, and through government, private sector and civil society initiatives.

This first report of the International Resource Panel presents basic facts and figures on natural resource flows worldwide, as well as four country studies, which show that consumption of natural resources is still rising rapidly. Drawing on these data, the report attempts to outline the issues that now need to be addressed to decouple material and energy flows from social and economic progress.

This activity report summarizes cooperative activities with UN entities and intergovernmental organizations, to contribute to the work under the Convention. It addresses: activities initiated by the UN System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB); specific areas of cooperation; and collaborative initiatives and programmes. In particular, it highlights collaboration among the UNFCCC Secretariat and various UN and intergovernmental organizations on: transfer; biodiversity, issues related to lands and desertification, and land-use and forest-related issues; finance; technical assistance to developing countries; mitigation; and gender.

This manual provides a forest governance guidance framework with applications for developing countries’ efforts for REDD+. It includes a checklist for identifying potential problems in the governance of forest resources. The framework calls for grading performance in six areas: accountability, effectiveness, efficiency, fairness, participation and transparency. The approach aims to help avert fraud, ineffective projects and corruption and misappropriation of funds during the implementation of REDD+ initiatives.

This manual  is offered as a primer to countries to enable them to better assess the level and nature of assistance they will require to catalyze climate capital based on their unique set of national, regional and local circumstances. It serves as a companion manual to a comprehensive UNDP toolkit on policy and financing options to catalyze climate capital.