Latest content: Environment and climate change

This report provides a succinct overview of development finance and climate finance, focussing on its provision to Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States within the Commonwealth. It considers the current and potential roles of multilateral development banks and international development financial institutions; tools such as ‘debt for climate’ swaps; and the need to reconsider the use of and balance between debt capital and grants. Finally, the report proposes alternative funding mechanisms and reforms to international financial architecture that could have transformative impacts on capital flows to enable vulnerable developing nations to respond to the effects of climate change and increase their resilience.

Energy and Me focuses on how our transition to clean energy is being implemented, and on how children can play their part both now and in the future.

This book written for children aged 7–12 looks at some of the vast possibilities for clean, renewable energy across different countries and terrains.

This book explores how we get energy and how it is used, and charts the journey from traditional energy sources towards clean, renewable ones. Taking a global view while remaining grounded in young readers’ everyday lives, it considers why this transition is happening, and explains why no one must be left behind in the process.

Commonwealth member countries rich in natural gas face complex policy choices and trade-offs concerning the need to generate maximum benefits from those natural gas resources while also transitioning to a low-carbon economy. While taking account of diverse and conflicting views on the subject, this report offers succinct and holistic guidance to inform these countries’ choices and help them achieve their development and climate change goals.

This paper presents fiscal policy options for resilient and sustainable development in the context of ever-increasing and diverse shocks and uncertainties, discussing how the appropriate design and mix of national and subnational tax and public investment regimes can best ensure the stable provision of essential services and local infrastructure.

As countries recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, and face the compounding challenges of global inflation, debt, climate change and sociopolitical scenarios, there is a need to explore new investment strategies to accelerate economic development, build resilience and balance competing environmental, economic and social pressures. In this context, the concept of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) as a framework for sustainable growth has gained new relevance. This paper discusses the potential benefits of ESG in terms of enabling sustainable economic growth in the Commonwealth, including possible technical assistance, capacity building and policy development on ESG for public debt management and improved public sector sustainability, including collaboration with International Financial Institutions financing standards.

A review of ocean-based actions and commitments contained in the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) reports – the main mechanism by which countries communicate their ambitions and efforts in support of the Paris Agreement – of the 49 coastal and island states within the Commonwealth.