A window into what we’re reading at the Stimson Center’s Environmental Security Program

Local Leaders Directly Access Climate Financing (Inside Climate News)

In Renca, Chile, mayor Claudio Castro has achieved faster financing and implementation of climate action plans. How? Attracting international investors and philanthropists, instead of waiting for national grants to trickle down, has allowed Castro to bypass “severe institutional barriers” that lock municipalities out of direct financing pipelines. And Renca is not alone in overcoming the odds. The Coalition for High Ambition Multilevel Partnerships (CHAMP) Coalition—a group organized by the World Resources Institute— specifically focuses on developing subnational governments’ financing capacity.

 In a 2023 sample of 32 developed countries, experts from the OECD found that municipalities undertook 68% of public investment in climate projects. Yet Nina Hachigan, founder of the Alliance for Local Leaders International, observes that many nations want to be able to control climate financing for political reasons, and deter subnational governments from directly acquiring funds. She argues that local governments ” just need to keep knocking on doors and telling the story,” thus making a “diplomatic push as often and as loudly as they can.”

READ | Closing the Climate Finance Gap in Fragile States

Helping or Hurting? Mining Digitization in the Lobito Corridor (Chatham House)

New investments underway in the Lobito Corridor hold promise. But is there a catch? Funding from the Development Finance Corporation, the Development Bank of Southern Africa, and Mota-Engil are helping secure the critical mineral supply chain here. Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Zambia are rolling out a new online cadaster system that tracks land records of mining rights. Yet while this new tool streamlines the allocation of rights and simplifies investments, it also offers the potential for  high levels of corruption.

In the DRC, an e-trace digital platform launched by the state-sponsored Center of Expertise, Evaluation, and Certification should create a clear picture of the mineral supply chain. But the platform was unable to trace materials from mine to manufacturer, and many staff members lacked training in how to manage the technology. A new Chatham House report argues that if digital infrastructure is going to successfully “constitute the backbone of effective data governance along the Lobito Corridor,” it must turn “physical infrastructure into an integrated ecosystem,” and reinforce inland connectivity.

READ | Many Companies Struggle to Comply with Conflict Mineral Reporting Rules

Sao Sebastiao: A City Built on Oil Waste (Mongabay)

Cosma da Silva has lived in Sao Sebastiao, Brazil for 30 years, and she “sees illness as an integral part of the neighborhood’s landscape.” Cancer cases and respiratory diseases are common here among residents, and are likely linked to remnants of benzene and hydrocarbons in the ground from decades of oil industry-waste dumping. Yet da Silva’s connection cannot be confirmed, since no study has ever assessed the link between toxic pollution and public health in Sao Sebastiao.

Recent reports have focused on the health of the soil here, but large corporations remain unwilling to take any responsibility. One Brazilian energy corporation announced a health study that could have had critical implications in 2018, but the analysis was never conducted. And, in 2025, $479,122 was transferred to Sao Sebastiao for their Municipal Land Regularization Fund, yet the municipal government never disclosed whether or how the funds were spent. The repeated failures to come to grips with the issue by private corporations and public institutions have led to mass citizen dissatisfaction. As resident Geraldo Reibera observes: “They have studied the land, but we are also here.”

READ | Where the Oil Runs Deep, Water Turns Foul

Sources: Inside Climate News; Chatham House; Mongabay