Publications

The 3rd French national climate change adaptation plan (PNACC3) seeks to generalize an "adaptation reflex" in all public investments and all public support for investment. Operationalizing this ambition is essential for Stop investing in infrastructure, buildings and equipment that will not be ready to cope with the consequences of climate change; Seize the best opportunities available by taking advantage of investments already planned to strengthen the level of adaptation of the French economy at lower cost. 

2025 is a pivotal year for the interlocking global agendas of climate and sustainable development, highlighted by major convenings such as the 5th Finance in Common Summit (FiCS), the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), the G20 Summit under South Africa’s presidency, and the UNFCCC COP30. Public development banks (PDBs) will feature prominently across these events, given their integral role in implementing these critical agendas through financial support and stakeholder mobilization.

Frequently asked questions on the development and implementation of carbon pricing policies. This work aims to provide a carefully curated companion tool for jurisdictions considering or developing a carbon pricing instrument, with questions and answers (Q&A) focused on opportunities they can bring, specific challenges and policy choices pertaining to the design and implementation of carbon taxation and emission trading systems in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDES).

The EU Competitiveness Compass has made connecting decarbonisation and competitiveness a “strategic imperative” for Europe. This will be delivered by the all-important Clean Industrial Deal – the flagship policy package on which this new Commission hopes to upgrade Europe’s industrial base and tackle the climate crisis simultaneously.

Methodologies for target-setting and climate alignment assessment: Current status and future prospects for taking further account of nature and resilience. Economic players must face climate change and sustainability issues by transforming economic models, while strengthening their competitiveness and resilience.

Sectoral climate change mitigation scenarios for strategy development and alignment assessment by economic players: Current status and future prospects for taking further account of nature and resilience All sectors face growing pressures to transform their business models, while strengthening their competitiveness and resilience, in response to multiple challenges (sustainability issues, technological supremacy, control over resources, […]

As the European economy decarbonizes, economic assets across sectors are at risk of stranding or repricing from transition pressures. Yet private financial institutions, particularly banks, often narrowly focus on fossil fuel credit losses using historical data, underestimating broader ‘whole of economy’ stranding risks. Risk mitigation in the form of prudential capital buffers and loss provisions […]

The urgency of climate action is becoming ever more apparent, yet we remain far from securing the level of financing required for meaningful progress. The first Global Stocktake underscored a widening gap between the needs of developing countries and the support they receive, while advanced economies also struggle to finance their own ambitious climate targets.

The ecological transition can only happen if all households have access to solutions – public transport, electric vehicles, home insulation, heating upgrades, etc. The issue of the access to transition solutions is therefore crucial for climate policies. Special attention should be paid to low- and middle-income households, as the necessary investments may not be sustainable for them. 

Putting Agricultural Risk Management on the Agenda  In recent years agriculture has been hit by numerous crisis in France: adverse climatic events (primarily droughts, floods, and frost) and health crisis (notably avian flu), directly impacting agricultural production. Broader crisis, such as COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, have also indirectly but significantly affected the agricultural sector. Climate change, the ongoing Ukraine conflict, and overall geopolitical tensions suggest that these crisis and their impacts will become a lasting pattern in the future. These are crucial factors to consider when defining and strengthening food sovereignty. 

Ecological transition of the food system raises numerous and complex questions regarding funding: How much does it cost? Who should pay? Do existing public spending contribute to it? This report aims to provide answers to the latter question. In this report, we conduct as comprehensive a study as possible of public support for the French food system in 2018, 2021, and 2024. We analyse the theoretical contribution of this funding in relation to the national framework of ecological planning set by French public authorities.

Every year, the start of the budget debate in France is an opportunity to ask a number of questions: How much is public spending on climate? What is this money spent on? Which actors, both public and private, are on the receiving end? And above all: how should this spending develop in the future? Many numbers have been produced in France over the last few years and it is easy to get lost in the shuffle. This is why we wrote this handbook. We have gathered the information that we consider most important and tried to highlight what we know, what we do not yet know, and the key debates in France that politicians will have to hold and where they will have to quickly find compromises.  

A comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the challenge of financing the low-carbon transition at the local level in France. Local authorities have a major role to play in achieving France's 2050 carbon neutrality goals, as set out in the Stratégie nationale bas-carbone (SNBC). Due to their property and responsibilities, they must make numerous climate investments, implement strategies and action plans, and deploy initiatives to mobilise local actors.  

Improved forest management (IFM) can help mitigate climate change by increasing carbon sequestration in forests and wood products while ensuring the highest possible sustainable level of forest carbon stocks, taking into account natural disturbances. In Europe, these practices could be encouraged, especially to counterbalance the decline in forest sinks in some countries. There is an opportunity to incentivize these practices under the European Carbon Removal Certification Framework (CRCF) regulation. Forest features and improved forest management strategies need to be properly integrated within this new scheme. This is where INFORMA comes in! 

A step forward for green industrial policy, or another stumbling block. Context. The world's largest economies are turning towards green industrial policy to support their cleantech manufacturing to accelerate their decarbonisation, competitiveness, and economic resilience. In this cleantech race, the EU has several disadvantages, including higher costs of energy and labour, a less dynamic investment environment, and the impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act and Made in China 2025.

To address the growing impacts of heatwaves on economic activities and populations, the adaptation of the building sector is becoming a new imperative. While the question of “how” to adapt has been the subject of numerous studies, the question of “how much” has so far received little attention. To move forward on this issue, we present in this report: an overview of current knowledge regarding the costs of adapting the building sector to heatwaves and the methodology we used to estimate the additional costs of adapting to heatwaves, based on available information and discussions with experts.

Directing more wood towards long-life products such as panels and insulation materials can help us maximise carbon sinks without increasing forest harvests. That’s because these products store carbon for a longer periods of time in form of long-lasting construction and renovation materials. But for this to happen in practice, more market opportunities and production capacity are needed. How can public policies help?

Assessing the economic implications of climate policies is essential for steering public action. Sig­nificant progress has been achieved in assessing the costs of mitigation, particularly with the publication in 2023 of the report on the economic implications of climate action. However, as the Cour des Comptes noted in its 2024 annual public report, numerous issues surrounding adaptation continue to emerge. Our recent work has nev­ertheless enabled us to draw five initial conclusions on the subject.

France is facing a climate investment deficit relative to its climate objectives. Today, these investment are already putting a strain on public finances, whether in terms of investing in public facilities or co-financing projects by households and business. Increasing climate investments is therefore a challenge for public finances. But the scale of the challenge varies, depending on future policies. So what room for manoeuvre is there in terms of climate-related public spending needs?

Attention is growing to the need to tackle climate and social issues jointly. Indeed, both climate change and climate policies affect social issues such as poverty, inequality, or access to healthcare. A well-known example is that of carbon pricing, a climate policy which can have regressive effects in some contexts. As another example, climate change induced heatwaves are disproportionately likely to impact poorer individuals who typically have more constrained access to healthcare, physical jobs in outdoor conditions, and through indirectly driving up food prices. To foster an effective and sustainable transition to low-carbon and resilient economies, policymakers need to ensure individuals do not lose more from climate policies than they already lose from the effects of climate change, but instead benefit from them.