This report provides a summary of key financing and support opportunities — excluding multilateral and domestic sources — available to Climate Development Mechanism (CDM) projects in Africa and other underrepresented regions. Funding sources covered include the KfW Carbon Fund, World Bank group carbon funds and initiatives, the carbon facility of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the African Biofuels and Renewable Energy Fund (ABREF), and the Africa Carbon Asset Development Initiative (ACAD).

These country fact sheets aim to provide updated information on the status of national climate policy and market mechanisms — including the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), greenhouse gas emissions, and nationally appropriate mitigation actions — in Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Mongolia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. The goal is to provide countries with guidance on how to make progress towards low-carbon development.

Each report includes an overview of national climate change risks and policy responses for adaptation and mitigation. It outlines recent policy actions and activities, as well as the structure of designated national authorities, the approval process for CDM projects, and information on climate mitigation options and mechanisms. All reports are available in English, and the reports from Indonesia and Malaysia are also available in their national languages.

This report argues that more sustainable use of forestry resources can help reduce poverty and hunger, mitigate the impacts of climate change, and create more sustainable sources of bio-products and bio-energy. It was released at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), where many of these challenges were discussed.

The report highlights that 350 million of the world's poorest people depend on forests for survival, and that investing in wood-based enterprises creates jobs and improves livelihoods. It argues that when sourced sustainably, wood products can store carbon and be easily recycled, and highlights that sustainable forestry offers a renewable, alternative source of energy.  It says that more resources need to be invested in creating small and medium forest-based enterprises that benefit local communities.

The report concludes that promoting a sustainable forest-based industry can both improve local economies and meet sustainability goals. But this will require policies, programmes and incentives.

This report presents important environmental events and developments of 2012, and provides an overview of the status of key environmental indicators. It highlights the benefits of carbon storage in soil and the decommissioning of nuclear power plants as issues of emerging significance, and aims to strengthen science policy in these areas.

According to UNEP's executive director, although these may seem like separate issues, they go to the heart of questions about ensuring enough food and fuel while combating climate change and handling hazardous waste.

The report points out that the draining of peatlands is producing carbon dioxide emissions that amount to around six per cent of man-made greenhouse gas emissions; and their degradation is occurring 20 times faster than peat is accumulated. It also suggests that the nuclear industry needs to develop safer, faster and cheaper decommissioning of nuclear power plants.

This report, which is part of the UN Foresight Initiative, describes the 21 most pressing emerging global environmental issues — those recognised as very important to well-being by the scientific community, but are not yet receiving enough attention from the policymakers. These cover a range of themes, from food security to biodiversity, energy and technology.

One of the most important cross-cutting issues identified in the report is the need to rethink international environmental governance. Other areas in need of improvement include the science–policy interface, and coping with incremental damage to the environment.

Improving food security in light of changing climate is also high on the list of priorities, with the report suggesting a need for more comprehensive early warning systems, support for smallholder farmers, efforts to reduce food waste and increasing agricultural efficiency. Other issues highlighted include managing the impacts of glacial retreat; improving ocean governance; accelerating the implementation of renewable energy systems; and considering the environmental implications of nuclear reactor decommissioning.

This report explains how acidification, warming and de-oxygenation are affecting the oceans, and encourages policymakers to mitigate these stressors and prepare appropriate policy statements ahead of Rio+20. It was written with the aim of raising awareness of ocean issues at the COP17 in Durban, South Africa.

The report provides definitions of ocean acidification, warming and de-oxygenation. It includes a guide to ocean impacts predicted to occur this century unless greenhouse gas emissions are substantially reduced, and how these impacts will, in turn, affect the climate via feedback mechanisms. It also outlines recommendations for mitigation, adaptation and research to improve understanding of these stressors.

This report analyses the links between energy access, income and livelihoods. It examines the definition of energy access, and reintroduces — and updates — the concept of 'total energy access' as a progressive framework to measure how people use energy in a healthy and productive way.

It states that agriculture is one of the sectors hardest hit by unreliable supplies of electricity, and argues that, for smallholder farmers, more use of modern energy services at various steps along the value chain can contribute to increasing incomes.

The authors conclude that energy access cannot guarantee improved livelihoods without reliability, quality, and cost-effectiveness of energy supplies — combined with access to markets, networks, and sufficient demand. Their analysis also suggests that making the transition from traditional to modern energy supplies holds new opportunities to earn a living from supplying energy.

Reaching poor people with modern energy carries social, economic and environmental benefits, and stakeholders — national governments, donors, utilities, businesses and civil society, community groups, and individual consumers — have a crucial role to play in creating universal energy access.

This report provides information on the development of the solar energy sector in Asia and the Pacific, including investment opportunities and challenges. It also gives an overview of how the Asia Solar Energy Initiative (ASEI), set up by the Asia Development Bank, aims to facilitate the development and deployment of 3,000 megawatts of solar power generation projects in the region by 2013.

Challenges outlined in the report include limited energy distribution technology that can help transmit power to populated areas; the high costs of solar energy development and lack of access to long-term financing; weak institutional capacity; and limited knowledge sharing.

The report concludes that the ASEI can drive down costs, act as a catalyst for solar innovation and serve as a model for other regions that hold similar solar energy potential, such as northern Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. It highlights the Asia Accelerated Solar Energy Development Fund, a financing mechanism set up specifically to support the preparation of solar power projects in Asian countries.

This report from the Chinese branch of the UN Development Programme investigates how China can reduce its heavy dependence on energy and resource consumption and move to a low-carbon economy. The authors suggest that the key lies in strengthening institutions, integrating policies, and enforcing implementation.

This report examines how renewable energy can help developing countries boost economic development and alleviate poverty. It highlights the benefits of using renewable energy technologies — from increasing access to electricity to creating jobs — and outlines the hurdles to scaling up production, including the lack of subsidies and government support. The report suggests several actions for policymakers, including creating supportive policies, promoting private investment, nurturing micro-enterprise, and building projects around local needs.

This report, published by Greenpeace, highlights global trends and developments in solar photovoltaics (PV). It includes background information on how PV technologies work and an overview of global PV markets, including predictions for market growth to 2030. Applications of PV technology for grid-connected and off-grid energy are presented and the benefits, cost and competitiveness of these are discussed.

The report makes several policy recommendations, including adopting support schemes, removing fossil-fuel subsidies and implementing legally enforced mechanisms to accelerate PV development.

This report, written by Cédric Philibert of the International Energy Agency, provides an overview of solar thermal technologies and examines the economic, technical and institutional barriers to diffusing these. Examples of barriers include high investment costs, lack of trained engineers and lack of awareness among policymakers and the public.

The author suggests several policies to overcome these — for example, by supporting research and development, encouraging professional training, establishing subsidies for solar thermal technologies, reducing import tariffs and carbon trading.

This report discusses opportunities for developing countries to pursue low carbon growth within four key areas: energy efficiency, agriculture, and renewable energy technologies. It presents 20 essays — written by a wide range of economic, financial, climate and food crises experts — that focus on the prospects and hurdles facing least developed countries.

This annual report from REN21 provides an overview of global renewable energy markets and activities in 2008, including biofuels, geothermal, solar and wind. It presents data and information on investment flows, industry trends and the policy landscape, and has a useful section on rural (off-grid) renewable energy. A more in-depth review of rural renewable energy is provided in the 2007 status report. [480kB]

The World Development Report 2010, published by the World Bank, emphasises the urgent need to tackle climate change. The authors stress that developing countries are likely to bear 75-80 per cent of climate change costs.

But as the poorest countries, they must not be asked to choose between economic growth and climate change. They need policies that enhance development, reduce vulnerability and finance a transition to low-carbon growth, says the report.

A 'climate-smart' world is possible if the global community acts swiftly to reduce emissions in the industrialised world as well as rapidly develop and deploy new clean energy technologies, argues the report.

Achieving this requires an equitable and effective global climate deal that helps developing countries access the funding they need to adapt to climate change and move towards low-carbon growth.

This report, published by the UN Development Programme, reviews more than 600 online documents to consider how energy is included in national decentralisation policies and programmes in least developed countries and Sub-Saharan Africa.

The authors argue that decentralisation can significantly improve access to energy, particularly in poor rural settings. They highlight rural energy programmes in Bangladesh, Mali and Nepal to show how energy decentralisation leads to local community engagement in energy planning and implementation.

The authors find that links between energy and decentralisation are rarely discussed in national policy documents.

To take full advantage of decentralisation opportunities, efforts are needed to integrate energy issues into local development planning and processes.

The authors argue that energy priorities must meet local development aspirations and that development workers must strengthen community participation and delivery and local planning processes.

This report, published by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN and Policy Innovation Systems for Clean Energy Security (PISCES), presents fifteen case studies of small-scale bioenergy initiatives across Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The authors assess to what extent these initiatives are both providing clean and convenient energy access in developing countries, as well as supporting rural livelihoods.

The case studies focus on a range of bioenergy resources including forestry, agriculture and industrial activities used to meet local energy needs such as cooking, lighting and communication.

The authors conclude that small initiatives can, in some instances, improve energy efficiency as well as increase employment, promote economic growth and improve standards of living. But they highlight concerns with corruption and a lack of local governance.

This report, published by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN and Policy Innovation Systems for Clean Energy Security (PISCES), presents fifteen case studies of small-scale bioenergy initiatives across Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The authors assess to what extent these initiatives are both providing clean and convenient energy access in developing countries, as well as supporting rural livelihoods.

The case studies focus on a range of bioenergy resources including forestry, agriculture and industrial activities used to meet local energy needs such as cooking, lighting and communication.

The authors conclude that small initiatives can, in some instances, improve energy efficiency as well as increase employment, promote economic growth and improve standards of living. But they highlight concerns with corruption and a lack of local governance.