Originally launched in 2022 and comprehensively updated in 2025, the Blue Carbon & Climate Change (BCCC) Quarterly is a policy-oriented newsletter published in the first week of each quarter that tracks major trends, policy developments, and governance dynamics related to climate change in China, the United States, and globally. Building on its original foundation, the redesigned Quarterly now covers a broader range of climate-related issues and developments, offering readers a more integrated view of how climate governance is evolving across regions and sectors. A defining feature of the updated edition is the introduction of two in-depth special sections — the Climate Change Project Profile and the Climate Change Actor Profile — which provide structured insights into key initiatives and the institutions shaping climate policy and implementation.
The ICAS Team launched the Climate Change Project Profile section to provide accessible, issue-focused briefings on key mechanisms, tools, and initiatives shaping climate policy and implementation. These profiles aim to explain how specific climate-related frameworks operate, assess their recent developments, and examine their real-world impacts across different sectors and regions.
Each profile offers a timely overview of a selected topic—ranging from policy instruments to technical approaches—chosen for its relevance to the current global climate agenda. While grounded in factual research and institutional updates, the profiles also include a layer of analysis that highlights implications, points of tension, and areas where international cooperation, innovation, or greater attention may be needed moving forward.
As the clean transition moves from target-setting to industrial implementation, governments are no longer focused only on reducing emissions. They are also asking where clean technologies are produced, who controls key supply chains, and how public spending can support domestic industrial capacity. The IAA represents one of the EU’s most important attempts to connect decarbonization with industrial competitiveness. It aims to link emission reduction, public procurement, domestic production, and foreign investment conditions together, allowing Europe’s green transition to also serve its manufacturing capability.
Although the IAA is still a proposal and its final form remains uncertain, its direction is getting increasingly clear: Europe wants the clean economy to create factories, jobs, technologies, and strategic resilience within Europe. This makes the IAA important not only for European industry, but also for foreign companies and trade partners, for whom it raises new questions. As the proposal moves forward, it will test whether climate policy can become a tool for industrial renewal without creating new barriers that slow international cooperation and investment.
The Climate Change Actor Profile section is designed to provide concise and structured insight into institutions, agencies, or organizations that play an influential role in shaping climate and environmental outcomes. These profiles focus on the actors’ mandates, operational structures, key areas of work, and their recent actions or changes in direction.
Besides offering a comprehensive coverage, the Actor Profile also aims to give readers a grounded understanding of why an actor matters at this moment—both in terms of their past contributions and current trajectory. Particular attention is given to how their recent decisions affect broader policy trends, climate negotiations, or environmental governance at national, regional, or global levels.
Accounting for two-thirds of the ocean and 43% of the Earth’s surface, the high seas are the largest habitat on Earth. Despite this scale, the existing high seas governance framework remains fragmented with important regulatory and institutional gaps, leaving this global commons vulnerable to biodiversity loss and environmental degradation caused by both human activities and climate change. The Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction, commonly known as the BBNJ Agreement or High Seas Treaty, represents the first international agreement to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ). Having officially come into force in January 2026, the Treaty marks a significant step towards achieving the goal of preserving 30% of the ocean by 2030. Moreover, the Treaty also aims to ensure that the conservation of the high seas also contributes to scientific and economic benefits for participating nations, particularly developing states.