Climate change is landing blow after blow upon humanity and the planet, an onslaught that will only intensify in the coming years even if the world begins to bring down greenhouse gas emissions. UNEP’s Adaptation Gap Report 2022: Too Little, Too Slow – Climate adaptation failure puts world at risk finds that the world must urgently increase efforts to adapt to these impacts of climate change.

The High‑Level Expert Group on the Net Zero Emissions Commitments of Non-State Entities (“Expert Group”) was tasked by the United Nations Secretary General with addressing net zero pledges and commitments from non‑state actors including corporations, financial institutions, and local and regional governments. In undertaking its work, the Expert Group built on existing credibility and standard setting frameworks for net zero pledges to formulate its findings and recommendations.

The world’s richest people emit huge and unsustainable amounts of carbon and, unlike ordinary people, 50% to 70% of their emissions result from their investments. New analysis of the investments of 125 of the world’s richest billionaires shows that on average they are emitting 3 million tonnes a year, more than a million times the average for someone in the bottom 90% of humanity.

Driven by the goal of tackling plastic pollution at its source, through the Global Commitment and Plastic Pact network more than 1,000 businesses, governments, and other organisations have united behind a common vision of a circular economy for plastic, in which it never becomes waste. Signatories to the Global Commitment, which together account for more than 20% of the plastic packaging market, have set ambitious 2025 targets to help realise that common vision. This fourth annual progress report looks at how the signatories are faring against these targets.

The 11th edition of the Joint Report on Multilateral Development Banks’ Climate Finance is an overview of climate finance committed in 2021 by the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the Inter-American Development Bank Group (IDBG), the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and the World Bank Group (WBG). This year’s report also summarises information on climate finance tracking from the New Development Bank (NDB) and the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB), presented separately from the joint figures.

Despite 31 years of pressure, 26 COPs and multiple workshops and dialogues, no dedicated finance to help people deal with the aftermath of climate impacts – also known as “finance to address Loss and Damage” – has been delivered under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This brief makes clear why a Loss and Damage Finance Facility must be established at COP27.

The State of Climate Action 2022 provides a comprehensive assessment of the global gap in climate action across the world’s highest-emitting systems, highlighting where recent progress made in reducing GHG emissions, scaling up carbon removal, and increasing climate finance must accelerate over the next decade to keep the Paris Agreement’s goal to limit warming to 1.5°C within reach.

Plastic recycling in particular has failed because the thousands of types of synthetic plastic materials produced are fundamentally not recyclable.

This year’s edition of the State of Blended Finance will feature a thematic focus, for the first time, on blended finance for climate. This theme was chosen for a couple of reasons. Firstly, climate change is a central focus of the blended finance market and a major development issue: two-thirds of blended finance commitments over the past three years and 33% of Official Development Assistance (ODA) in 2020 targeted climate-related investments. Secondly, and closely linked, the topic of climate finance is a core priority for private investors, as purported by their ESG strategies and increasingly through commitments to achieving a Net Zero transition. Therefore, climate aligned Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will continue to be a focus of private investors compared to other SDGs.

Reflecting on the past ten years of tracking global climate finance flows, this report presents seven key observations on climate finance in 2011 – 2020 and concludes with key actions to rapidly scale climate finance to the trillions.