Public procurement is a powerful yet underused lever for the EU's climate, circularity, and competitiveness goals. Although public authorities in the European Union spend nearly EUR 2 trillion each year, the current framework keeps GPP voluntary. Implementation remains uneven, rules are fragmented, and buyers face legal uncertainty and limited guidance. As a result, major opportunities to steer markets and cut emissions remain untapped. The missed opportunities are clear: few tenders include environmental criteria, most contracts are still awarded on lowest price, and legal uncertainty discourages ambitious GPP. Yet where sustainability requirements are clear and predictable, countries see rapid uptake, innovation, and emissions reductions. 

As the European Commission prepares to revise the procurement directives, this report sets out a practical roadmap for strengthening GPP. It identifies the structural challenges of GPP and outlines five high-level recommendations supported by detailed reform options. These include making GPP the default through a comply-or-explain approach, tying European preference rules to environmental performance, simplifying and harmonizing requirements, strengthening monitoring and data systems, and investing in professionalization. 

Together, these reforms would simplify procedures, improve accountability, build the skills and capacity of contracting authorities, and better align public spending with the EU's climate, circularity, and competitiveness objectives. They offer a coherent package for turning procurement from a missed opportunity into a strategic lever for Europe’s green transition.

Indonesia’s shift away from coal offers a powerful opportunity to advance its climate commitments under the Paris Agreement while building more resilient, diverse, and inclusive local economies. This report assesses how a well-managed transition can unlock new engines of growth and quality jobs across five major coal-producing provinces: East Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, South Sumatra, Central Kalimantan, and Jambi.

Combining quantitative modelling with qualitative field research, the study examines how planned coal phase-outs could reshape economic output, employment, and livelihoods—especially for informal workers, women, and youth. It evaluates three policy scenarios that range from business-as-usual contraction to proactive, investment-led strategies that channel resources into high-multiplier industries and emerging green economy sectors.

The findings highlight that, while provinces such as East Kalimantan and South Sumatra face higher exposure to coal decline, targeted investment in food and beverage manufacturing, green industries, and other diversified sectors can drive robust job creation and economic renewal. More diversified regions, like Jambi, are already well-positioned to capture these opportunities. Insights from East Kutai show that communities are eager for alternatives and that inclusive planning, stronger social protection, and workforce reskilling can ensure people benefit directly from the transition.

The report concludes with strategic recommendations for national and local governments to seize this opportunity: strengthen institutional coordination, mainstream gender equality and social inclusion, expand safety nets, and develop locally tailored transition roadmaps. It also underscores the importance of combining macroeconomic analysis with community-level insights to design a just, job-creating, and future-ready energy transition for Indonesia.

Read more publications from this project: 

• Beyond Irrigation: Turning sunlight into supper for Kenya's women and farmers | A pilot of secondary use of solar irrigation power for clean cooking
• Beyond Irrigation: Harnessing the untapped potential of solar pumps | Lessons from a solar-powered milling pilot in Uttar Pradesh
• Ethnographic Research as a Tool for More Inclusive Just Transition Policies: Lessons from Mpumalanga, South Africa
• Indonesia's Next Cooking Transition: Shifting to non-fossil cooking

This policy primer provides a comprehensive overview of digital technical standards: what they are, how they are developed, and why they are vital for digital trade policy. It explores international governance frameworks, standard-setting approaches, and the influence of trade agreements, while highlighting strategies major economies use to lead in defining these standards. The primer also addresses the unique challenges developing countries face in engaging with these processes and offers practical recommendations for policy-makers and trade officials. 

This report is part of a policy primer series, funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), aimed at deepening understanding of the key policy and regulatory foundations that shape today's digital economy.

This is the third report of the Building Blocks of Digital Trade Regulation series. You can continue exploring the series here:

• Report No. 1: Consumer Protection and E-Commerce: Issues for developing country policy-makers
• Report No. 2: Cybersecurity and International Trade: Understanding the policy landscape
• Report No. 4: Data and Digital Trade Law: Balancing rules, policy space, and development

Dire Dawa lies in one of Ethiopia's most flood-prone catchments. Seasonal flash floods from the Dechatu River cause recurring damage to homes, infrastructure, and livelihoods, while deforestation, land degradation, and rapid urban growth have reduced the land's ability to absorb water. At the same time, groundwater depletion and pollution are intensifying water scarcity and health risks. 

To address these challenges, the SUNCASA (Scaling Urban Nature-based Solutions for Climate Adaptation in Sub-Saharan Africa) initiative, implemented by the International Institute for Sustainable Development, the World Resources Institute, and local partners with support from Global Affairs Canada, promotes gender-responsive NbS interventions in Dire Dawa. These include afforestation and agroforestry to restore degraded land, riparian buffer restoration to reduce runoff and erosion, and urban tree planting to mitigate flooding and heat. 

The Nature-Based Infrastructure Global Resource Centre conducted a SAVi assessment to evaluate the economic, environmental, and social performance of these interventions compared to a business-as-usual scenario. 

The results show that investing in nature provides strong and measurable returns. Every USD 1 invested in NbS generates USD 1.36 in benefits. The greatest impacts come from avoided flood damage to infrastructure, reduced health costs from water pollution and heat, and increased carbon sequestration—storing up to 175,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide and creating nearly 7,000 jobs by 2050. 

These findings show that NbS can restore degraded ecosystems, protect communities from climate impacts, and support sustainable livelihoods. Integrating these measures into local planning and investment strategies will help Dire Dawa strengthen climate resilience and promote inclusive development.

As G20 countries seek productive investment in infrastructure, energy, education, health, and climate resilience both individually and as a group, one immediate opportunity remains underutilized yet actionable—fossil fuel subsidy reform. 

In 2023, G20 countries spent USD 794 billion on fossil fuel subsidies. These subsidies undermine climate goals, strain public budgets, distort markets, and weaken energy security by locking countries into volatile fossil fuel supply chains.

While emergency measures during the energy crisis explain the fossil fuel subsidy spike in recent years, the failure to implement the G20's commitment "to phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies," dating back to 2009, underscores that the G20 has fallen short of finding a constructive way to fossil fuel subsidy reform beyond blanket statements. 

This is exactly what the policy report acts on: our proposed framework categorizes fossil fuel subsidies in three tiers—quick phase-out, phase-out with a robust strategy, and time-limited exemptions—and offers a practical roadmap to deliver national reforms.

Analyzing fossil fuel subsidies from Brazil, Germany, Italy, Mexico, and South Africa shows that many subsidies can be removed quickly, while most fiscal value lies in measures requiring well-planned, medium-term reforms.

G20 economies can pursue these efforts individually and do not need to wait for every member to move at the same pace. Three G20 countries—Canada, France, and the United Kingdom—have already joined the Coalition on Phasing Out Fossil Fuel Incentives including Subsidies (COFFIS) to continue combining collective and national efforts and make reforming fossil fuel subsidies both actionable and achievable.

South Africa's energy transition presents opportunities for low-carbon growth but also deep social risks in coal-dependent provinces like Mpumalanga. This report investigates how ethnographic methods can strengthen procedural justice and local participation in just transition policy-making. 

Using immersive fieldwork and a pilot co-production study in communities, such as Komati, Phola, and Emalahleni, the research identifies information gaps, exclusion of women and informal workers, and declining community services following coal plant closures. It demonstrates that ethnographic approaches—rooted in trust, lived experience, and long-term presence—yield deeper insights than one-off consultations. 

The report recommends embedding ethnography and co-production into just transition frameworks, establishing dedicated funding for inclusive engagement, and training government officials and community leaders in participatory research methods. Doing so can help ensure that vulnerable groups, particularly women and youth, are not left behind as South Africa advances its just energy transition.

Read more publications from this project: 

• Beyond Irrigation: Turning sunlight into supper for Kenya's women and farmers | A pilot of secondary use of solar irrigation power for clean cooking
• Beyond Irrigation: Harnessing the untapped potential of solar pumps | Lessons from a solar-powered milling pilot in Uttar Pradesh
• Coal Transition Impacts and the Approach to Inclusive Just Transition Policies in Indonesia
• Indonesia's Next Cooking Transition: Shifting to non-fossil cooking

Non-metallic materials—that is, minerals that are neither metals nor fuels—are present in every country and are essential for people’s daily lives. We estimate that over USD 217 billion of such minerals are produced annually in 66 countries around the world; the global total is likely to be much higher. 

In this context, how can governments design tax and royalty policies for non-metallic mining that achieve the right balance of mobilizing tax revenues from non-metallic mining; facilitating production, which may boost competitiveness and create jobs in downstream industries; and other objectives? This is the focus of the present study. Much of the existing analysis of mining tax and royalties is focused on higher-value, metallic minerals and may not be appropriate for non-metallic minerals. 

This report, therefore, proposes a framework for governments to design tax and royalty policies for non-metallic minerals. It focuses on the issues of royalties, export taxes, corporate income tax (especially transfer pricing challenges), tax incentives, artisanal mining taxation, and environmental taxation.

This report examines the opportunities and challenges for resource-rich developing countries to develop downstream processing and manufacturing in the mining value chain. Focusing on a selection of critical minerals vital for the energy transition, it examines two central questions:

• What specific fiscal and non-fiscal conditions enable countries to optimize the balance between revenues from producing the mineral and benefits from processing and refining the mineral further down the value chain in-country?
• What tax and other related measures have countries adopted to increase in-country value across the mining value chain? 

The analysis considers factors that have helped or hindered previous attempts to increase domestic value lock-in in resource-rich countries and emphasizes practical approaches to designing fiscal policies that support sustainable value addition.

Mozambique ranks among the world's most climate-vulnerable countries. Cyclones, floods, and saltwater intrusion regularly devastate coastal communities, damaging homes, farmland, and infrastructure. The loss of mangroves and wetlands has further eroded natural protection, leaving millions of people exposed to climate and environmental risks. 

To address these challenges, the Government of Mozambique, supported by the United Nations Environment Programme, is developing a proposal to the Green Climate Fund that promotes ecosystem-based adaptation in three estuaries: Bons Sinais, Zambezi, and Limpopo. The plan combines the restoration of 7,500 hectares of wetlands, restoration of 3,800 hectares of mangroves, and conservation of 30,000 hectares of coastal ecosystems. These measures would directly benefit around 211,000 people and indirectly support more than 1 million people by improving water quality, sustaining fisheries, and reducing disaster risks. 

The NBI Global Resource Centre conducted a SAVi assessment to test the economic, environmental, and social performance of these measures compared to a business-as-usual scenario. The assessment considered several climate and carbon price scenarios to estimate how ecosystem restoration could lower flood and pollution costs, enhance fisheries, and capture carbon. 

The results show that restoring and conserving mangroves and wetlands is a high-return investment. For an estimated investment of USD 41.7 million, the interventions could generate up to USD 537.5 million in benefits—around USD 14 in value for every dollar spent. The Limpopo estuary delivers the highest returns because of its larger exposed population, while Bons Sinais and Zambezi also provide strong resilience and ecosystem gains. 

Beyond the economic results, the interventions would help re-establish vital habitats for fish and wildlife, prevent soil and water degradation, and improve the capacity of communities to recover after storms. These findings demonstrate that NBI is one of Mozambique's most cost-effective strategies for safeguarding people, strengthening biodiversity, and advancing national climate goals.

Africa's mineral wealth can power industrial growth, yet much potential remains untapped as extraction dominates and value addition is limited. These publications—jointly developed by the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development and the African Development Bank—present insights on nickel, copper, cobalt, lithium, bauxite, phosphate, platinum group elements, iron ore, rare earth elements, manganese, graphite, and vanadium. 

Each factsheet profiles properties, global recycling, demand outlooks, and Africa's share of mining, refining, and exploration. They also map supply chains and trade, assess market risks and leverage points, and flag social and environmental challenges. The analysis situates these minerals within equitable resource-based industrialization aligned with the Africa Mining Vision, noting constraints from underinvestment in geoscience and structural factors across energy, skills, technology, infrastructure, and finance. 

Three trends are currently reshaping options for resource-rich countries: (a) security of supply for minerals essential for low-emissions energy systems, (b) clean energy cost parity, and (c) a shift toward more equitable resource partnerships.