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Negotiations on draft text regulations for deep seabed mineral exploitation activities will resume next week at the International Seabed Authority (ISA) in Kingston, Jamaica. Owing to the invocation of a treaty provision known as the two-year rule in June 2021, the Council of the ISA is faced with a deadline to complete and adopt the regulations by 9 July 2023. It is likely that the Authority will miss this deadline. What will happen in this case? A RIFS Discussion Paper provides some insights and possible interpretations.

Both Vietnam and Malaysia have made significant strides in recent years to scale their renewable capacity, and solar has played a cardinal role in both contexts. A new policy brief by RIFS affiliate scholar Emily Burlinghaus takes stock of developments in the two countries and draws lessons for energy transitions in Southeast Asia.

The UN climate change conferences (COPs) are attended annually by tens of thousands of actors working on climate change topics. Outside of the formal negotiations, the communication culture is dominated by 'side events,' a format that relies on conventional presentations and panels. In a new commentary, RIFS scientist Kathleen Mar and co-authors make a case for reimagining these communication formats in order to strengthen the COP’s role as a platform for learning and community-building.

On 10 March 2023, a select committee will be convened at Brandenburg’s state assembly to examine sustainable development and structural change in the former mining region of Lusatia. In a policy brief by the Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS), authors David Löw Beer and Konrad Gürtler set out three actionable and cost-effective recommendations to improve the sustainability of regional processes of structural transformation.

Young people have long been marginalized in national, regional, and United Nations political fora. Now they are actively demanding their rights as representatives of present and future generations. They do so through public protests, but also by taking legal action to assert their claims. Scientists at the Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS) have studied the potential impacts of climate litigation in the Anthropocene.

The need for public participation has been called into question in the current debate on turbo-charging Germany’s transition to renewable energy. But excluding citizens from decision-making processes is likely to jeopardise the public’s support for measures to protect the climate. This is a key insight of a new paper prepared by the steering committee of the Science Platform for Climate Action.