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1. Nature-based Solutions for a Sustainable Critical Minerals Value Chain

Author:
Lara Fornabaio, Sara Saloum, Perrine Toledano, and Kirsten Hund
Publication Date:
04-2026
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:
Critical minerals production is essential for a net-zero future yet mining land footprint overlaps with sensitive ecosystems: of the sector’s 101,583 square kilometers of mining concessions, 7% are in biodiversity hotspots, 8% are in protected areas, and 16% are in “wilderness” areas of high ecological integrity. The value chains of mining operations “both depend on and impact nature” (ICMM, 2024), creating a responsibility for mining actors to manage and mitigate the impacts of operations on the landscape. This responsibility includes addressing nature loss, supporting the well-being of communities, and contributing to the resilience of ecosystems. Nature-based solutions (NbS), which are based on the idea that healthy ecosystems deliver valuable services to society, offer one method of working towards these goals
Topic:
Mining, Sustainability, Value Chains, Net Zero, Critical Minerals, and Sustainable Development
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2. Getting Debt Sustainability Analysis Right: Eight Reforms for the Framework for Low-Income Countries

Author:
C. Randall Henning
Publication Date:
02-2026
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
Assessing the sustainability of developing countries’ debt is an essential task of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, but it is also a controversial one. The two institutions are currently reviewing the debt sustainability framework for low-income countries (abbreviated as LIC-DSF). This paper provides a primer on the framework’s basic elements, an overview of critiques from a variety of perspectives, and analysis of selected issues, including the endogeneity of analysis of sustainability, analysis of debtors’ institutional strength, analysis of domestic political conditions, role and exercise of staff judgment, and collaboration between the World Bank and the IMF. The paper recommends eight improvements, including streamlining the institutional indicators, better separating economic analysis from political judgment, adopting certain procedures for applying judgment, and selectively introducing climate considerations.
Topic:
Debt, World Bank, Sustainability, IMF, and Global Economy
Political Geography:
Global Focus

3. Advancing Accountability in Development Finance: The Sandra Smithey Fellowship

Author:
Rachel Nadelman and Anushka Bose
Publication Date:
03-2026
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Accountability Research Center (ARC), American University
Abstract:
The Sandra N. Smithey Fellowship for Equity and Accountability in International Development was created to honor the career of Sandra Smithey, particularly her legacy in amplifying frontline voices that champion transparent and accountable approaches to development finance. Between 2023 and 2025, the Smithey Fellowship, administered by the Accountability Research Center (ARC) at American University, provided support to eight advocates advancing accountability in development finance. The central premise of the Fellowship is that accountability work is most effective when driven by those directly affected by development decisions and supported by flexible, trust-based funding. ARC worked with each of the fellows to define their own strategic goals and approaches within the time or resources available, seeking to ensure that each could meet the most pressing opportunities or challenges they faced. It provided them with significant flexibility to make mid-course changes to respond to political realities on the ground. The philosophy of “putting the fellows first” resulted in eight bespoke fellowships that reflected the breadth of civil society efforts to promote community- and context-based accountability in international development finance. Across these experiences, several key lessons emerge: Flexibility is a foundation for impact and sustainability. When fellows were given space to adapt to rapidly changing contexts, they achieved outcomes that rigid programs might have constrained. Altering conventional fellowship designs can change the balance in north-south knowledge hierarchies. An adaptable fellowship structure enabled some fellows to pursue their projects whilst embedded in their local communities, accessing support where their work was already taking shape. Translating knowledge can enable power shifts. Fellows who converted technical or bureaucratic language into practical tools enabled communities to engage institutions on their own terms. Collaboration is a vehicle for continuity of both projects and relationships. Collaboration among mentors, allies, and civil society organizations extended the reach of individual projects and embedded learning in broader movements. Longer-term influence depended on intentional efforts to maintain networks, communication, and financial stability after formal support ended. Enabling frontline expertise to shape accountability narratives can effectively support existing movements for rights and remedy. The fellows demonstrated that it is those closest to injustice that have the insight and credibility to define what accountability should mean in their own contexts as a basis for transformative change. This Accountability Note describes the work of these fellows and explores how a targeted package of direct funding, reflecting the fellows’ priorities and accompanied by trusted partners, enabled them to respond effectively to new and changing conditions. Ultimately, the Smithey Fellowship demonstrated that modest, well-structured support, grounded in trust, autonomy, and solidarity, can enable progress towards accountability and enable advocates to define and pursue their own paths in building durable movements for justice.
Topic:
Accountability, Sustainability, Fellowships, and Development Finance
Political Geography:
Global Focus

4. The Rise of “Watt’s Law” and Why Power Could Put a Ceiling on American Innovation

Author:
Maryam Cope
Publication Date:
02-2026
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
Abstract:
A foundational advantage of the U.S. digital economy is weakening. For decades, Moore’s Law and Dennard scaling delivered steady improvements in computing performance while keeping energy costs manageable and underpinning productivity growth, industrial competitiveness, and national security capabilities. AI workloads upend these assumptions. Modern AI systems depend on massive parallelism, continuous data movement, and sustained operation across large clusters, making energy utilization and availability more important than peak chip performance. This shift defines the emergence of “Watt’s Law.” Under Watt’s Law, AI capability scales with available power growth multiplied by system-wide innovation driven by full-stack optimization across hardware, software, networking, and operations. This can be measured by growth in tokens per joule of energy. Power is now the significant binding constraint on AI progress. National competitive advantage increasingly depends on who can most efficiently convert electricity into sustained, real-world AI output, rather than who builds the smallest transistors. The implications are strategic. Failure to adapt to a power-constrained scaling regime risks forfeiting a key source of productivity growth and long-term advantage in AI-enabled economic and national security capabilities. It also has implications for U.S. partnerships with energy-rich allies.
Topic:
Science and Technology, Cybersecurity, Innovation, Artificial Intelligence, and Sustainability
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

5. China’s Solar Industry Is in Upheaval—The Effects Will Be Global

Author:
Michael Davidson and Sandy Qian
Publication Date:
03-2026
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
Abstract:
Over the past few years, China’s solar industry has entered a period of intense upheaval. Price wars and margin compression have forced industry leaders—including Jinko Solar, Trina Solar, and JA Solar—to report significant losses. These firms, along with LONGi Green Energy and Tongwei—the industry’s top five—slashed their workforce by over 30 percent in 2024. The market is facing industry consolidation and exits not seen in over a decade, as over 40 smaller firms have filed for bankruptcy, been acquired, or exited the market. Chinese regulators are accelerating this process, which will have ripple effects across global solar markets. Several critical questions arise: Does this phase erode China’s leadership in solar, or entrench it further? Is it a window for others to close the gap, or a prelude to deeper market displacement? And when the current wave of capacity consolidation settles, what will the next global competitive order look like? The answer is already emerging. Rather than opening space for rivals to catch up, the current shocks are forging a more resilient Chinese solar core. By embedding deeper into global value chains and securing a technological lead, China is effectively reshaping the industry’s future trajectory to its own long-term advantage.
Topic:
Sustainability, Industry, Solar Power, and Energy
Political Geography:
China and Asia

6. Energy Infrastructure and the Defense Industrial Base

Author:
Joseph Majkut, Alexander Palmer, and Raj Sawhney
Publication Date:
03-2026
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
Abstract:
Can the energy infrastructure serving the U.S. defense industrial base sustain production under mobilization? This paper focuses on three scenarios for mobilization consistent with baseline production, defense buildup, and peer war. Using embodied energy methods, the research team estimates that war production rates would require 17.4 petajoules (PJ) of energy annually, a relatively small amount nationally, but one that would need to be concentrated at facilities in already stressed grid regions. Facilities for the defense-critical production of steel, aluminum, titanium, and semiconductors are clustered in regions already facing eroding reserve margins and surging data center demands. Natural gas deliverability constraints compound these risks, as key facilities depend on gas both as direct fuel and as the primary source of regional electricity generation. This paper recommends extending defense-critical electric infrastructure designations to industrial nodes, creating dedicated permitting and finance pathways to facilitate energy production, and integrating energy resilience into supply chain risk assessments.
Topic:
Climate Change, Energy Policy, Infrastructure, Geopolitics, Sustainability, and Defense Industry
Political Geography:
Global Focus

7. Transforming Towards Regional Sustainability: A Framework Based on Sustainability Transitions and Nexus Thinking

Author:
Nathan Marom
Publication Date:
03-2026
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Mitvim: The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies
Abstract:
The twenty-first century confronts humanity with an unprecedented constellation of interrelated challenges and crises – environmental, economic, social, political, technological – that together demand far-reaching transformations in our modes of living, our societies and governance systems, and our ecological impacts on the planet. Because these multiple crises are interconnected across countries and continents, sectors and scales – recently described through the notion of “polycrisis” – our responses must be interconnected as well. Addressing them requires “nexus thinking”, recognizing the multiple interdependencies, trade-offs, and synergies across energy, water, and food systems, climate and ecological changes, socio-economic settings, and geo-political conflicts. It also demands “transformation thinking”, the capacity to reimagine and redesign systems so they transition from their current crisis trajectories toward sustainability and peace. Together, these two approaches form the foundation for the Nexus Transformations framework explored in this paper. This paper develops a new conceptual framework of Nexus Transformations to support regional sustainability and peacebuilding efforts. It hopes to make several contributions to how sustainability is perceived within the fields of security and peace studies and adjacent policy fields. At the same time, the paper will be of interest to a wide range of stakeholders concerned with the fundamental question of our age: how to contribute to transforming existing conflictual and detrimental systems into more stable and sustainable systems conducive to peaceful conditions – in our region and beyond. First, the paper introduces two of the most prominent approaches in the academic study of sustainability and in the fields of environmental and climate policy: namely, Sustainability Transitions (ST) and Nexus approaches. It offers a brief and accessible introduction to the main concepts and themes of these two approaches – intended to researchers in security and peace studies, as well as to policymakers and practitioners working in post-conflict reconstruction or in sustainable development more broadly. Second, the paper offers a conceptual yet practical synthesis of the Sustainability Transitions and Nexus approaches. Despite common concerns and potential synergies, these two influential approaches have, by and large, been addressed separately in the academic and policy literature. However, there are good reasons for combining them in different policy domains and in real world applications. We could think of their complementary qualities in a simple and practical way: The Nexus approach is concerned with the interrelations between systems that require integration and transformation. It focuses on what to transform, and offers technical, infrastructural, and spatial insights. However, it lacks a theory of systemic change and a detailed understanding of institutional and social-economic dynamics shaping these systems. Sustainability Transitions offers such a theory of systemic change. It focuses on how to transform, and adds important organizational, institutional, social-economic, and temporal insights. But, so far, it mostly lacks the powerful interrelational outlook of the nexus that connects these distinct socio-technical systems in real places. To bridge this gap, the paper introduces an integrated framework of Nexus Transformations as a systematic way to address these interrelated questions of how to transform and what to transform. Third, the Nexus Transformations framework offers an expanded and holistic articulation of nexus approaches, interconnecting the FEW nexus of food, energy, and water systems, critical at the urban scale, with the MORE nexus of regional mobility, economic, and ecological systems, and with the PLENTY nexus of security, prosperity, and peace within planetary boundaries. Nexus Transformations thus frames seemingly local and site-specific sustainable development challenges, including post-conflict reconstruction, as multi-level and multi-scale opportunities for systemic transformation. To apply the Nexus Transformations framework and further specify the FEW-MORE-PLENTY path, the paper outlines a series of stages, considerations, and guiding questions. This is proposed as a roadmap to guide policy makers and practitioners in planning, shaping, and catalyzing multi-level sustainable transformations. In this way, the Nexus Transformations framework can be applied across diverse domains and scales of sustainable development, from integrated infrastructure, urban, and regional development, through post-conflict reconstruction, to the governance of transitions for living within planetary boundaries. While the paper remains at a conceptual level, it connects to several recent Mitvim initiatives, including policy papers on a humanitarian strategy for Gaza and post-war reconstruction of the Gaza Region. It wishes to push further the definition and the ambition of reconstruction – as a profound systemic transformation towards sustainability and peace. This is relevant not just for Gaza, but across the Middle East and the planet at large. The hope, therefore, is that this paper, together with its predecessors, could open a set of discussions with partners across the region and globally, who are committed to the principles of transforming holistically from conflict and climate emergency towards sustainability and peace.
Topic:
Peace, Sustainability, Green Transition, 2023 Gaza War, and Climate Diplomacy
Political Geography:
Middle East, Israel, Palestine, and Gaza

8. Financing Sustainable Reconstruction of Gaza

Author:
Hafez Ghanem and Liel Maghen
Publication Date:
04-2026
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Mitvim: The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies
Abstract:
This paper argues that the reconstruction of Gaza will depend not only on the amount of funding mobilized, but on how financing is structured, governed, and anchored within a broader political context. In a setting shaped by movement restrictions and weak institutions, financial design is not neutral but shapes priorities, distributes power, and determines what can be implemented on the ground. The paper examines the key challenges that have limited the translation of financial commitments into actual projects, alongside emerging approaches that seek to address these barriers, and argues for a financial architecture that strengthens local capacity, ensures transparency, and supports long term recovery rather than reinforcing dependency and fragmentation. It contends that such an approach can only be effective if it is accompanied by a clear political horizon, including the lifting of the blockade, which will support the well-being of the local population and create the conditions to reduce risk and attract private investment.
Topic:
Reconstruction, Investment, Sustainability, Post-Conflict, and 2023 Gaza War
Political Geography:
Middle East, Palestine, and Gaza

9. Affordable Housing in Baku: Proposals for Sustainable Urban Living

Author:
Carl Haddrell and Aysel Karimli
Publication Date:
04-2026
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Baku Dialogues
Institution:
ADA University
Abstract:
The current housing problem in Baku did not begin with the post‑Soviet real‑estate boom. Its roots reach back to the late Russian imperial period, when the first oil boom transformed Baku from a small‑town port into one of the empire’s fastest‑growing industrial cities. Wealth generated by oil produced a sharply uneven urban landscape: elite mansions, administrative buildings, and prestigious apartment houses rose in the central city, while the influx of workers from other parts of Azerbaijan, the empire, and surrounding states produced intense pressure for cheaper accommodation near the oil fields and industrial districts. Baku’s modern housing question, therefore, emerged at the same time as its modern prosperity. Under Soviet rule, this earlier imbalance was not eliminated so much as reorganized. From the 1920s onward, Baku became the site of repeated planning experiments, including worker settlements around the industrial periphery, new general plans for the city and the Absheron Peninsula, and later the mass construction of standardized apartment blocks. These interventions expanded access to housing and built the foundations of the residential city that still exists today. Yet they also embedded a different set of long‑term problems: heavy reliance on standard typologies, weak maintenance cultures, and a tendency to subordinate housing quality to industrial and demographic urgency. By the late Soviet period, the city had acquired large microdistricts and extensive prefabricated housing, but much of this stock was already beginning to age mechanically and spatially. The legacy is therefore double. Baku inherited from the imperial era a housing market shaped by uneven access and speculative pressure; from the Soviet era, it inherited a vast but increasingly fragile stock whose technical life and social logic were never meant to carry the full weight of a twenty‑first‑century metropolis. Despite considerable and commendable efforts by the Azerbaijani government and the city authorities, Baku is currently facing the prospect of a housing crisis marked by severe affordability constraints and significant deterioration of its pre‑1990 housing stock, which may, if not successfully addressed, lead to growing socioeconomic inequality. Housing prices substantially exceed median household income levels, and the opportunity to secure a mortgage and take the first steps toward property ownership remains a significant challenge for many. At the same time, nearly half of the city’s residential buildings face long‑term structural risk due to decades of deferred maintenance. As a result, housing in Baku functions not only as a sectoral challenge but as a systemic driver of social disparity and fiscal strain. Drawing on the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 framework (“Sustainable Cities and Communities”), this paper proposes an integrated reform agenda for Baku focused on affordability measures, large‑scale structural rehabilitation, institutional reform, and the modernization of housing data systems. Without coordinated intervention, Baku risks intergenerational inequality and accelerating infrastructure decline; however, targeted reforms could position the housing sector as a foundation for sustainable, resilient urban development.
Topic:
Urbanization, Sustainability, Post-Soviet Space, and Affordable Housing
Political Geography:
Caucasus, Azerbaijan, and Baku

10. Africa in the G20 and Debt Sustainability

Author:
Bitania Tadesse, Patrick Hajayandi, and Tim Murithi
Publication Date:
04-2026
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Peace Institute (IPI)
Abstract:
The African Union’s admission to the G20 as a permanent member in 2023 marked a major milestone in global economic governance, giving the continent its first collective seat at one of the most influential decision-making forums on debt, trade, climate finance, and development. While this corrected a long-standing imbalance in representation, key questions remain about whether this institutional presence will translate into substantive influence. This issue brief examines how the AU organizes its participation in the G20 and assesses the progress made under South Africa’s 2025 presidency, particularly on debt sustainability. It highlights initiatives such as the ministerial declaration on debt and the Africa Expert Panel proposals for reforms to the global debt architecture, while underscoring the continued limitations of existing G20 mechanisms, and the structural challenges posed by high borrowing costs.. The brief finds that while Africa has generated momentum within the G20, sustaining progress will require stronger coordination within the AU, the operationalization of key institutional mechanisms, and a more focused and strategic approach to advancing continental priorities in a shifting geopolitical landscape.
Topic:
Debt, G20, Geopolitics, Sustainability, and Global Economy
Political Geography:
Africa