The Synthesis Report on COP31 Action Agenda Target

The Impact of FinTech on the Achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals: A Hybrid Systematic Review

Financial technology (FinTech) is recognized as an important enabler of sustainable development. However, it presents a fragmented and limited explanation of how FinTech may contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Through this hybrid systematic review of 93 articles published between 2015 and May 2026, this study explores responses to these questions. First, it synthesizes four mechanisms through which FinTech contributes to the SDGs: financial inclusion and access to capital, transparency and governance, risk mitigation and resilience, and data‐driven decision‐making. This review develops an integrated theoretical framework combining institutional, innovation diffusion, capability, and stakeholder perspectives. Our analysis suggests that FinTech may contribute unevenly across the economic, social, and climate‐related SDGs and that uncertainty is increasingly conditioning sustainability outcomes. Finally, this review offers theoretical, policy, and future research implications on the subject. JEL Classification: A1O1O3

IIRSA, THE GROWTH ACCELERATION PROGRAM (PAC), AND THE ENVIRONMENT: ADVANCING INTEGRATION, RECEDING FORESTS, AND DISPOSSESSED PEOPLES

This article discusses the environmental and socio-territorial impacts of the Initiative for the Integration of the Regional Infrastructure of South America (IIRSA) and Brazil's Growth Acceleration Program (PAC) on South American biomes, Indigenous peoples, and traditional communities. The study adopts a systematic literature review approach based on national and international academic publications, official documents, and empirical data on deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions, and violations of Indigenous rights. The findings indicate that the developmental logic underpinning IIRSA and the PAC continues to generate significant tensions between infrastructure expansion, environmental protection, and the safeguarding of territorial rights. Although these initiatives have increasingly incorporated references to sustainability and social participation in recent years, the literature reviewed reveals persistent gaps in the implementation of effective socio-environmental governance mechanisms.

Evidence-Based Policy Advice? The German Council of Science and Humanities

This article examines the evolving role of the German Council of Science and Humanities (Wissenschaftsrat, WR) and assesses whether it can be regarded as an evidence-based advisory body. Drawing on historical, sociological, and organizational analyses, the paper traces how the WR’s mandate has shifted from post-war planning and federal coordination toward evaluation, accreditation, and support of national excellence policies. Despite these substantial changes, the WR’s committee structures – deeply embedded in Germany’s federal multilayered governance system – have remained largely unchanged. Three case studies illustrate the consequences of this institutional inertia: the 1968 recommendation to abolish professorial chairs, the 1988 proposal to expand structured doctoral training via graduate research schools, and the 2005/2012 selection decisions within the Excellence Initiative. The cases show that the WR’s recommendations were shaped by political consensus-seeking among federal and state executives and major non-university research organizations, leading to diluted reform proposals and limited systemic impact. The Excellence Initiative case further highlights legitimacy concerns, including extreme selectivity, path-dependent funding outcomes, and the persistence of structural size-based inequalities between universities. The article concludes that the WR primarily functions as a coordination and consensus-building body rather than an independent source of evidence-based policy advice. It argues that this arrangement fosters an “illusion of excellence”– a narrative suggesting substantial improvements in international competitiveness without commensurate structural or financial reforms. The article proposes establishing an independent expert council for higher education and science policy – potentially by expanding the mandate of the Expert Commission for Research and Innovation – to enable more rigorous, evidence-based policymaking for Germany’s university system.

Science at a turning point: International Decade of Sciences for Sustainable Development: global report

The scientific revolution for sustainable development has begun, but its benefits must reach everyone, everywhere. During the first two years of the International Decade of Sciences for Sustainable Development (IDSSD 2024–2033), proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly, 396 initiatives — 209 endorsed and 187 under review — across 79 countries mobilized scientific collaboration in support of all 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Yet significant challenges remain. A persistent "science divide» continues to separate those at the frontier of innovation from those at risk of being left behind. Inequalities in infrastructure, skills, and access to scientific opportunities limit participation and impact. Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, represents 17.5% of the global population but accounts for less than 1% of the world's researchers. Addressing these gaps requires rethinking how science is organized, financed, and connected to decision-making. The first two years of the Decade demonstrate that a distributed, science-led approach can mobilize global action, strengthen partnerships, and build a more inclusive and sustainable scientific future.

The Show Must Go On? Revisiting the Script of International Climate Cooperation Ten Years After Paris

This special issue reflects on the state and direction of global climate governance ten years after the adoption of the Paris Agreement. Informed by Michel Foucault’s political thought and the wider field of climate governmentality studies that his work has inspired, we trace the power/knowledge regimes, political rationalities, and many practical tools and techniques that make climate change thinkable and knowable as a political problem. In this introduction, we draw upon the contributions to this special issue to examine how the Paris climate regime reinvents itself to maintain legitimacy amid geopolitical rivalry, rising anti-climate populism, and accelerating climate crises. We identify four practices that work to stabilize this governmental regime by promising future improvements, governmentalizing new frontiers, normalizing overshoot and climate disaster, and funneling climate expertise. We conclude by reflecting on the role and responsibility of global environmental politics scholarship in upholding, resisting, or rewriting this script for international climate cooperation.

Paris Agreement: how Brazil can align public planning and resources to meet climate goals