In 2022, we saw a growing appreciation of the importance of mining in supporting new technologies and a low-carbon energy transition. As the global pandemic exposed gaps in the global economy, there is a growing need to address and adapt to climate change.

Throughout the year, we worked with our members on emerging mining policy issues and long-standing governance challenges. While we continued to connect remotely with virtual workshops and seminars, we undertook key in-person activities as pandemic restrictions eased in much of the world. Importantly, we held our 18th Annual General Meeting after a 2-year hiatus at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, hosted by UNCTAD. We welcomed Togo to the IGF during the event, representing our 80th member country.

The year also brought several new IGF publications for policy-makers in resource-rich countries. These included a series of case studies focused on biodiversity, tailings, mine closure, and post-mining transition. We published new gender equality research and data on artisanal and small-scale operations and large-scale mining. We also completed a Mining Policy Framework assessment for Mexico. In many ways, this assessment was our most ambitious yet due to the size and significance of the country’s mining sector.

Bandung is Indonesia's third-largest city, with a population of approximately 2.5 million people. The city has been facing significant urban mobility and transportation challenges, as it is constrained by a dense and congested urban road network that is over-reliant on individual motorized transportation modes, predominantly motorcycles. This unsustainable mobility pattern results in high traffic volumes and congestion, health and safety concerns, and carbon dioxide emissions.

To address these challenges, the City of Bandung, together with the Indonesian Ministry of Transport and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ), explored the option of a city-wide bus rapid transit (BRT) system that could increase mobility options through public transportation and provide a safe and sustainable transportation mode. The BRT system could lead to a shift from individual motorized transportation modes to BRT and meet sustainable, low-carbon mobility targets.

For this assessment, we used the Sustainable Asset Valuation (SAVi) methodology to demonstrate the multiple economic, social, and environmental benefits that the BRT system can have for the city of Bandung. The SAVi assessment shows that the proposed BRT system would provide a more efficient, convenient, safe, and affordable transportation alternative while also delivering substantial monetary benefits. Key findings include that

• the BRT system is a highly profitable project, generating cumulative (2022–2050), discounted (3.5%) net benefits of USD 2.02 billion;
• the BRT system results in an integrated benefit-cost ratio of 6.67 per USD 1 invested when accounting for the full range of benefits for the city; and
• the greatest positive added benefits of the BRT system are time saved for transportation users through reduced traffic and congestion, increased retail revenues around BRT stations, and significant health benefits from increased physical activity and decreased air pollution.

The 2022 energy price crisis catapulted public financial support for fossil fuels to new levels. G20 governments were quick to cushion the effects of peaking fossil fuel prices and bolster energy supplies, providing a staggering USD 1.4 trillion in the form of subsidies (USD 1 trillion), investments by state-owned enterprises (USD 322 billion), and lending from public financial institutions (USD 50 billion). While much of this was support for consumers, around one third (USD 440 billion) was driving investment in new fossil fuel production. This support perpetuates the world’s reliance on fossil fuels, paving the way for yet more energy crises due to market volatility and geopolitical security risks. It also severely limits the possibilities of achieving climate objectives set by the Paris Agreement by incentivizing greenhouse gas emissions while undermining the cost-competitiveness of clean energy. G20 governments need to shift their financial resources away from fossil fuels to instead provide targeted, sustainable support for social protection and the scaling-up of clean energy.

Almost 140 million people in Southeast Asia—just over one in five—do not have access to adequate safe and nutritious food. Substantial public and private investments in agriculture and food systems are needed to improve food security and livelihoods in the region and to ensure that the region’s food systems are sustainable and resilient.

To address this need, the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) adopted the ASEAN Guidelines on Promoting Responsible Investment in Food, Agriculture and Forestry (ASEAN RAI) in 2018. These guidelines outline how to promote “responsible” investment in the sector—investments that have positive socio-economic and environmental impacts.

This handbook aims to help ASEAN parliamentarians put the ASEAN RAI into practice. It is based on a global guide, Responsible Investments in Agriculture and Food Systems: A Practical Handbook for Parliamentarians and Parliamentary Advisors, published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and IISD in 2020. Tailored to the ASEAN context, it provides ASEAN parliamentarians with practical guidance on how to integrate the ASEAN RAI into national laws, policies, and institutions to effectively attract responsible investment in their countries.

The report analyzes 70 national investment laws across the world and proposes a new framework for understanding domestic investment legislation, based on seven key functions of these laws identified in our research.

On July 27, 2023, the authors and leading experts discussed the report's key findings and recommendations, watch the webinar here. 

Rethinking National Investment Laws is a must-read for policy-makers aiming to design investment laws that meet their country's specific needs and policy objectives, as well as anyone interested in the dynamics of national and international investment governance.

In 2026, we published a complementary policy brief unpacking dispute resolution through national investment laws—one of the seven functions identified in our flagship report—in more detail and proposing policy steps to support governments' efforts to establish fair investor-state dispute resolution in their jurisdictions.

This report aims to help civil society organizations and actors who are managing or otherwise supporting climate change adaptation and development projects. It responds to a critical knowledge gap in designing, operationalizing, and monitoring “biodiversity-positive” NbS.

It was developed through a review of relevant literature, discussions with experts, and the development and review of case studies. A case studies document also accompanies this report, providing a “deep dive” into the concepts described herein.

Furthermore, an e-learning course provides more information and capacity building on the topic of biodiversity and ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA), which is one type of NbS. It was developed by IISD and partners and is offered through the SDG Academy.

This report is part of a compendium of resources developed by the IISD for the Nature for Climate Adaptation Initiative (NCAI), which is supported by Global Affairs Canada.

Watts in Store Part 1 is the first in a two-part series about energy storage in South Africa. It explores how energy storage can contribute to solving the electricity crisis in South Africa, summarizes seven key benefits for the country, and gives the status quo of current plans and projects. International trends point to the rapid growth in grid-located batteries, and Part 2 of this series will take a deeper look at grid-located batteries in South Africa: how to maximize benefits, minimize risks, and create a more enabling environment for deployment.

Present in the shampoo we use and the packaged food we buy, palm oil is the most widely produced edible oil. But palm oil development in Indonesia and Malaysia—the top two producing countries—has led to significant forest loss over the last 30 years. The deforestation and land-use changes that often occur during palm oil cultivation are some of the leading causes of climate change—yet the sector is increasingly vulnerable to its impacts.

However, the production of palm oil is also very efficient: oil palms produce significantly more oil per hectare of land than any other vegetable oil crop, with yields over 10 times higher than soybean and sunflower. The sector also represents a source of livelihood for over 7 million smallholder farmers worldwide. Palm oil therefore plays an instrumental role in maintaining global food security and alleviating poverty.

Voluntary sustainability standards (VSSs) such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), Rainforest Alliance, Organic, and the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification first emerged in the sector 30 years ago. Today, roughly 17% of palm oil produced complies with one of these VSSs. Many include requirements for building climate resilience and reducing deforestation in the sector. They also encourage oil palm farmers to implement better practices that can help to increase their yields and crop incomes—for example, by maintaining soil health and reducing production costs by using fertilizer more effectively.

However, very few oil palm farmers who comply with VSSs receive minimum prices or premiums for their produce. This is exacerbated by the fact that demand for VSS-compliant palm oil remains low, with a large proportion of RSPO-certified crude palm oil being sold as conventional.

With rising production costs, limited negotiation power, and a lack of access to finance and quality inputs to contend with, many oil palm farmers in developing regions are left struggling to earn a living. This report provides a series of recommendations for governments, private sector actors, and standard-setting bodies to ensure that palm oil producers receive better incomes and are incentivized to adopt more sustainable practices.

Due to worsening threats from climate change, pollution, and habitat fragmentation, there is an urgent need for data on watersheds to make effective decisions to protect their health. Water quality monitoring programs across Canada, which are seeking to meet this data need, have access to an expanding array of tools and technologies. In particular, automated systems for high-frequency and networked water quality monitoring have the potential to enhance data-driven decision making by offering larger volumes of data in near real time. However, these systems also come with their own sets of limitations and can introduce new technical, financial, and labour requirements.

To deepen our understanding of these potential opportunities and limitations, the International Institute for Sustainable Development’s Experimental Lakes Area and Aquatic Life Ltd. are exploring the use of networked systems to enable remote, real-time water quality monitoring in the Winnipeg River basin as part of the Adaptive Monitoring project. Drawing on a review of supporting literature and two case studies from our work in the Winnipeg River basin, this report explores the potential benefits and costs of introducing automated sensor systems to a monitoring initiative, with a particular focus on networked instruments producing real-time data.

The world is emerging from a far-reaching energy crisis. As the pandemic hit in 2020, demand plummeted suddenly. In the years that followed, COVID-19 continued to impact energy supply and demand, as well as the broader economy. Instability turned into crisis when Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine further tightened energy markets.

The result was unprecedented volatility and high oil and gas prices, leading to windfall profits for global oil and gas producers, including those in Canada. This influx of revenue has renewed interest in expanding Canadian production and infrastructure.

However, the current boom will not last. Despite the supply crunch, the shift away from oil and gas has only accelerated. The European Union has moved quickly to curb its use of Russian supplies, and global climate action is accelerating, including via the United States’ Inflation Reduction Act. Though scenarios have yet to align with 1.5°C pathways, it is clear that economic trends, including oil and gas demand, are swiftly departing from business as usual.

Since the most influential factor affecting the viability of the Canadian oil and gas sector is global demand, it will be impossible to avoid disruption to this industry.

Setting the Pace examines how global demand trends and increasingly volatile global markets will negatively affect Canada’s oil and gas sector. We examine projections for oil and gas demand, what this means for end uses and exports of Canadian products, and the implications for Canada’s economy. We then explore lessons from jurisdictions that have successfully managed to phase down fossil fuels. Finally, we propose a proactive role for the federal government to reduce risk, safeguard jobs and economic stability, and support Canadian communities by sending clear policy signals to the energy sector.

Overall, we find that the Canadian oil and gas sector is set to decline, and the industry is not well positioned to weather drops in global demand. The oil and gas sector’s historic role as one of Canada’s primary economic sectors is already changing. Given demand projections, business as usual in the sector is no longer an option. To minimize the risks to dependent workers, communities, and regions, governments must take an active role in overseeing a predicted phase-down of oil and gas production and diversifying the economy.

The federal government should act in four complementary ways:

1. Continue to implement and strengthen climate policies and the Sustainable Jobs Action Plan. The government should base these policies on robust and internationally credible sectoral analyses of the future of the oil and gas sector, including projections for demand and employment.

2. Support subnational and Indigenous governments’ plans and programs on economic diversification. The Regional Energy and Resource Tables are a start, but plans must be fully aligned with sectoral analysis, net-zero pathways, and inclusive processes, including social dialogue.

3. Align fiscal policy with the reality of the expected decline of the oil and gas sectors. This step includes eliminating fossil fuel subsidies and public finance, regulating the financial sector, and ensuring that government spending is not risking taxpayer dollars by artificially prolonging or increasing production.

4. Explore tools within the federal jurisdiction to end expansion and prepare for a phase-down of the production and use of oil and gas. This step includes a discussion with subnational governments on collaborative solutions, considering the implications of declining production in areas of federal responsibility (such as the regulation of international and interprovincial pipelines), and exploring options and legal limitations that respect jurisdiction while addressing sectoral transformation.