Excess phosphorus is causing potentially toxic algae blooms on Lake Winnipeg. To restore the health of Manitoba’s great lake, we must reduce phosphorus loading from all sources – including undertreated sewage from urban centres.

Research at IISD Experimental Lakes Area shows that phosphorus is the nutrient responsible for potentially toxic algae blooms in freshwater lakes.

Winnipeg’s North End Water Pollution Control Centre is the single largest point source of phosphorus flowing into Lake Winnipeg and the fourth largest phosphorus polluter among all wastewater treatment facilities in Canada.

An October 2018 Probe Research poll found 65 per cent of Manitobans agreed that upgrading the NEWPCC should be “a very urgent priority.”

While the City of Winnipeg is planning to fully upgrade the plant, the latest cost estimates are now pegged at $1.8 billion, and nutrient-reduction efforts are not projected to start for at least another 10 years.

In the interim, a simple retrofit to the NEWPCC could be implemented quickly for an initial startup cost of only $5 million, reducing the plant’s phosphorus contribution by 70 per cent.

In this short brochure, the Lake Winnipeg Foundation and the International Institute for Sustainable Development, present their plans for an interim solution.

The Sustainable Asset Valuation (SAVi) tool demonstrates why sustainable infrastructure can deliver better value for money for citizens and investors.

Applied to the 9.5 GW offshore wind farm in the North Sea, the SAVi tool compares the financial attractiveness of the wind farm with other energy technologies under four different scenarios. It values externalities and risks such as emissions, income, land use and others and shows how this affects the financial performance of the project. 

When externalities and climate change-related risks are taken into account, the wind farm demonstrates the best financial performance compared to any other energy technology.

Freshwater lakes around the world are in trouble.

Urbanization, waste treatment, landscape changes, agriculture and natural resource extraction cause runoff of nutrients, contaminants, petroleum products and organic materials into freshwater lakes around the world.

Floating treatment wetlands (FTWs) or islands are small artificial platforms that allow aquatic plants to grow in water that is typically too deep for them. The unique ecosystem that develops creates the potential to capture nutrients and transform common pollutants that would otherwise plague and harm our lakes into harmless by-products.

This brochure explains how, where and why FTWs can be used to keep freshwater bodies clean.

Security for costs is an issue attracting more and more attention in investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), as states look for ways to manage the very high costs to their taxpayers of responding to ISDS cases.

Security for costs is an order made by the tribunal requiring the investor bringing the claim to pay a deposit to cover the state’s expected costs in defending itself. It is increasingly in the spotlight, especially in the context of increased use of third-party funding in ISDS.

This Best Practices brief outlines why states would want to obtain an order for security of costs and the challenges they face in obtaining such orders. It explains the limited guidance on the issue of security for costs in arbitral rules and treaties and the fact that tribunals have, as a result, been free to establish a very high threshold for granting it. It also provides recommended treaty language on the issue of security for costs that can be used to overcome the challenges outlined in the brief.

In July 2019, IISD organized a webinar on this paper as part of its IISD Webinar Series on Investment Law and Policy. The webinar, presented by Sarah Brewin and moderated by Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder, analyzed the importance of security for costs in the current ISDS context; the challenges that host states face in seeking these securities; elements for potential treaty reform and revised arbitral rules; jurisprudence involving security for costs; and related topics. Sarah Brewin is International Law Advisor, IISD, and Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder is Group Director of IISD’s Economic Law and Policy program and Executive Director of IISD Europe.

The video is available for viewing below.

The production of sustainable agriculture commodities continues to grow, reaching as high as 20 per cent of palm oil and 30 per cent of cocoa’s global production.

Consumer preferences and purchase decisions are largely driving this trend, motivated by advancing sustainability and reducing poverty in the countries of production. To respond to these consumer demands, hundreds of voluntary sustainability standards (VSSs) and other multistakeholder alliances have emerged over the last three decades as market tools to enhance sustainable development. Over the past decade, consumer preferences have influenced the evolution of VSSs, from serving niche markets to entering the mainstream, where multinational companies have defined sourcing commitments for sustainable agriculture commodities. 

To meet this challenge, IISD launched the Leveraging Sustainable Markets for Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Development project. It aims to facilitate poverty reduction among marginalized commodity producers by enabling more strategic and proactive entry into value-added sustainable markets for less-developed countries.

A new toolkit developed by the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development (IGF) aims to help resource-rich countries find more sustainable and inclusive economic solutions, fostering stronger linkages between mineral resources and the rest of the economy.

The IGF Guidance for Governments focuses on mining sector local content policies—a suite of policies aimed at leveraging mining investment to, for example, increase local employment, boost mining companies’ local purchases, and foster entrepreneurs in non-mining sectors. It aims to help resource-rich countries move away from commodity dependency and diversify their economic base. Local content policies are being increasingly used, particularly as governments review or revise their mining and investment codes and contracts..

The guidance document also covers three cross-cutting themes: ensuring goals are achieved in a gender-equitable way; exploring the relationship between local content policies and countries’ obligations under trade and investment law; and exploring the implications of technological advances on the success of local content policies.

IGF Guidance for Governments: Local content policy case studies

Downstream linkages

• Australia: Downstream linkages
• Botswana: Downstream linkages
• Indonesia: Downstream linkages
• Nigeria: Downstream linkages
• Singapore: Downstream linkages

Direct employment

• Australia: Direct employment
• Canada: Direct employment
• Chile: Direct employment
• Ghana: Direct employment
• Papua New Guinea: Direct employment
• South Africa: Direct employment

National capacity

• Canada: National capacity
• Chile: National capacity
• Nigeria: National capacity
• Norway: National capacity
• Saudi Arabia: National capacity

Horizonal linkages

• Australia: Horizontal linkages
• Chile: Horizontal linkages
• Guinea: Horizontal linkages
• Mozambique: Horizontal linkages
• ​Norway: Horizontal linkages
• South Africa: Horizontal linkages
• Tanzania: Horizontal linkages

Upstream linkages

• Australia: Upstream linkages
• Botswana: Upstream linkages
• Ghana: Upstream linkages
• Kazakhstan: Upstream linkages
• South Africa: Upstream linkages
• Zambia: Upstream linkages

ALivE is a computer-based tool designed to help its users organize and analyze information to plan effective ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) options within a broader EbA planning process.

ALivE stands for Adaptation, Livelihoods and Ecosystems. The ALivE user manual provides detailed guidance on applying the ALivE tool, including step-by-step instructions for using the tool itself. The manual also contains a framework and methodologies for collecting and organizing the information required to use ALivE, as well as guidance on identifying entry points for integrating EbA into policies and planning processes.

With a global value of at least USD 425 billion a year, fossil fuel subsidies are often a fiscal burden, economically inefficient, socially regressive and environmentally harmful. From 2014 to 2016, over 50 countries removed some form of subsidies to fossil fuels through price and government policy changes. 

This guidebook supports countries who intend to undertake self- or peer review of fossil fuel subsidies by clearly explaining the different elements of a review and providing case studies as to how countries have approached and undertaken reviews. The guidebook takes readers through a step-by-step approach to identifying and defining fossil fuel subsidies, reviewing the scope of a review, measuring subsidies, evaluating them and identifying the next steps towards the reform of subsidies. Country case studies are included from China, Finland, New Zealand, Peru and Sweden. Practical annexes are included that explain international commitments on fossil fuel subsidies, templates for identifying and reporting fossil fuel subsidies, and principles to follow for a review process. The guidebook supports country efforts around transparency on fossil fuel subsidies as the first step towards reform by sharing lessons and experiences from other countries.

This Practice Guide is the Canadian Audit and Accountability Foundation’s first methodology focused on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

It will help auditors plan performance audits focusing on gender equality within the context of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

This guide was produced in collaboration with the International Institute for Sustainable Development and Women Deliver, and with funding from Global Affairs Canada as part of its support of the Foundation’s International Legislative Oversight Program. 

Description provided by Canadian Audit and Accountability Foundation.

This guidance note aims to assist countries with determining how to secure the financing for their National Adaptation Plan (NAP) processes.

Financing is needed throughout the entire NAP process to enable its potential to be reached—from its initiation to the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of prioritized adaptation actions.

This guidance presents the range of potential sources of finance, identifies which sources may be more appropriate for different phases of the NAP process and suggests practical steps that countries might take throughout the NAP process to increase their likelihood of securing finance from different sources.