The library holds 132 summaries. They are reference notes, not endorsements: where a document sits outside energy and utilities, the summary simply describes what it is and points to the original. Every page links to the publisher so you can read the source in full.
Energy, climate and the environment
IPCC — Climate Change 2014 (AR5 Synthesis Report)
The capstone of the IPCC Fifth Assessment, drawing the physical science, impacts and mitigation together.
IPCC AR5 WGI — Summary for Policymakers (2013)
The physical-science basis of the Fifth Assessment, approved in September 2013.
IPCC AR4 WGI — Summary for Policymakers (2007)
The Fourth Assessment headline findings that shaped a decade of climate policy.
IPCC AR5 WGIII — Chapter 11 (AFOLU)
Mitigation in agriculture, forestry and other land use.
IEA — Energy and Climate Change (2015)
The World Energy Outlook special report that fed into the Paris Agreement.
Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2016
UNEP and Bloomberg New Energy Finance on the year clean energy outpaced fossil fuels for new capacity.
Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2015
The 2015 edition of the annual UNEP and BNEF clean-energy investment review.
BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2016
The long-running global compendium of energy production and consumption data.
MIT — The Future of Geothermal Energy (2006)
The landmark panel on the potential of enhanced geothermal systems.
Lazard — Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis
The widely cited yardstick for comparing the cost of generating electricity by technology.
US EPA — Notice of Violation to Volkswagen (2015)
The Clean Air Act notice that opened the "dieselgate" emissions scandal.
AWWA — Buried No Longer (2012)
The American Water Works Association on the cost of renewing ageing water infrastructure.
Connectivity and infrastructure
Science and economics
Nobel Prize in Physics 2010 — Graphene
The scientific background to the award to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov.
Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2013 — Computational chemistry
Multiscale models of complex chemical systems, recognised for Karplus, Levitt and Warshel.
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2015
The announcement of the award for advances against parasitic diseases.
Economic Sciences Prize 2017 — Behavioural economics
The scientific background to the award to Richard Thaler.
Secular Stagnation: Facts, Causes and Cures (2014)
The VoxEU and CEPR eBook on the post-crisis growth debate.
Francis Fukuyama — The End of History? (1989)
The essay that framed a generation of debate about liberal democracy.
Society, policy and reference
UN Security Council Resolution 1325
The 2000 resolution on women, peace and security.
Safe Cities Index
The Economist Intelligence Unit ranking of urban safety.
State of the World's Mothers — Executive Summary
Save the Children's annual ranking of the best and worst places to be a mother.
US National Park Service — Contingency Plan
How the agency plans to operate during a lapse in federal funding.
Reducing Transatlantic Barriers to Trade and Investment (2013)
The CEPR economic assessment of the EU-US trade deal (TTIP), for the European Commission.
What is a subpoena?
A plain-English explainer of the legal writ compelling testimony or evidence.
The Gospel of Judas
The Coptic gnostic text restored and translated from the Codex Tchacos.
Full document archive (A–Z)
Every document we host, listed alphabetically. Each links to its reader page, where the original PDF is embedded and can be downloaded.
- A Comparison of The Limits to Growth with Thirty Years of Reality — Graham Turner (2008)
- American Health Care Act
- An update to the World Bank’s estimates of consumption poverty in the developing world (2012)
- Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) — the treaty text
- Archived reference document (271339)
- Archived reference document (eib71)
- Atmosphere and Surface
- BP Energy Outlook 2017
- BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2015
- BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2017
- Budget 2015 — The Red Book (HM Treasury)
- Budget of the U.S. Government, Fiscal Year 2015 (Office of Management and Budget)
- Carbon Dioxide Storage
- Chemicals Used in Hydraulic Fracturing (US House Energy and Commerce, April 2011)
- Choosing War: The Decision to Invade Iraq and Its Aftermath (2008)
- Climate Change 2010 (archived reference document)
- Coal Statistics — World Coal Association
- Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: a response to the documentary Gasland
- Commonwealth v. Jimmy Warren — SJC 11956 (2016)
- Computer and Internet Use (archived reference document)
- Confronting the Challenges
- Document S4926E — archived copy
- Effects of the Affordable Care Act on Health Insurance Coverage (2013)
- Endowment Crisis — archived reference document
- EPA ‘Notice of Violation’ to Volkswagen (18 September 2015) — a plain summary
- European Commission proposal amending the Fuel Quality and Renewable Energy Directives (2012)
- Every Last Girl — archived reference document
- Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: a statistical overview and exploration of the dynamics of change
- FinCEN Guidance FIN-2013-G001: regulations applied to virtual currencies
- FIPS PUB 186-2 — Digital Signature Standard (DSS)
- Four Years of Broadband Growth (2013)
- Francis Fukuyama’s essay ‘The End of History?’ (1989)
- Genetically Engineered Crops — archived reference document
- Germanwatch 2015 — archived reference document
- Germanwatch 2016 — archived reference document
- Global EV Outlook: Understanding the Electric Vehicle Landscape to 2020 (2013)
- Greenpeace ‘Clicking Clean: Who Is Winning the Race to Build a Green Internet?’ (2017)
- Greenpeace ‘How Dirty Is Your Data? A Look at the Energy Choices That Power Cloud Computing’
- GSR 2012 — archived reference document
- How to rent: the checklist for renting in England (February 2016)
- IEA ‘Energy and Climate Change’ (WEO Special Report 2015) — a plain summary
- Income and Poverty
- Investigation of Ground Water Contamination near Pavillion, Wyoming (EPA draft, 2011)
- IPBES Global Assessment — Summary for Policymakers (2019)
- IPCC AR4 Working Group I ‘Summary for Policymakers’ (2007) — a plain summary
- IPCC AR4 Working Group III ‘Summary for Policymakers’ — climate change mitigation (2007)
- IPCC AR5 Working Group I ‘Summary for Policymakers’ (2013) — a plain summary
- IPCC AR5 Working Group III, Chapter 11 ‘AFOLU’ — a plain summary
- IPCC press release: ‘Human influence on climate clear’ (AR5 Working Group I, 2013)
- IPCC statement on the melting of Himalayan glaciers (2010)
- IPCC WGII AR5 Summary for Policymakers — Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability (2014)
- IPCC Working Group II ‘Summary for Policymakers’ (2007)
- IPCC ‘Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability’ — Summary for Policymakers
- IPCC ‘Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis’ — Summary for Policymakers
- IPCC ‘Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report’ (AR5) — a plain-English summary
- Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime: a London Case Study
- Key World Energy Statistics 2012 (IEA)
- Key World Energy Statistics 2013 (IEA)
- Key World Energy Statistics 2015 (IEA)
- LBNL-5047E
- Making Tax Digital
- Microsoft ‘A Rural Broadband Strategy’ (2017) — a plain summary
- Motor Vehicle Accidents: US traffic fatalities by state, 1990 to 2009
- Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream (Pew, 2007)
- National Geographic-Roper Public Affairs 2006 Geographic Literacy Study
- Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate (NIPCC, 2008)
- Nuclear Ethics
- Nuclear power stations of the world — a reference map
- Overestimated global warming over the past 20 years (2013)
- Palaeoclimate — IPCC AR4 Working Group I, Chapter 6
- Parlemeter 2019 (archived reference document)
- Peaking of World Oil Production: Impacts, Mitigation and Risk Management (2005)
- Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development
- Policy Act 2015 — archived document
- Principles Governing IPCC Work
- Projections of sea level rise — Jonathan Gregory
- Reducing Transatlantic Barriers to Trade and Investment — the CEPR economic assessment
- Reference document B-2019-002 (ZEV)
- Report LBNL-2829E — archived document
- Safe Upper Levels for Vitamins and Minerals — Expert Group on Vitamins and Minerals (2003)
- Statutory framework for the early years foundation stage (2014)
- STEM — archived document
- Study of the effects on employment of public aid to renewable energy sources (2009)
- Tackling Tax Evasion — Government guidance on the corporate offences (2017)
- Target Atmospheric CO2 — archived reference document
- TCEP — archived reference document
- The 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics: graphene
- The 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry: computational modelling
- The 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics: the chameleons of space
- The 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine announcement
- The 2016 Prize in Economic Sciences: contract theory
- The 2017 Prize in Economic Sciences: Richard Thaler
- The 20th Century Transformation of U.S. Agriculture and Farm Policy (USDA ERS)
- The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Index of Democracy (2007)
- The Gospel of Judas and the Codex Tchacos
- The Monterrey Consensus on Financing for Development
- The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism — Max Weber
- The Safe Cities Index by the Economist Intelligence Unit
- The Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles Rule for Model Years 2021–2026 — Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (2018)
- The ‘State of the World’s’ report: executive summary
- Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
- Trends in Global CO2 Emissions — 2012 Report
- Two Natural Components of the Recent Climate Change — Syun-Ichi Akasofu (2009)
- U.S. Metro Economies: Current and Potential Green Jobs in the U.S. Economy (2008)
- UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security
- Understanding and Attributing Climate Change — IPCC AR4 Working Group I, Chapter 9
- United States Mid-Century Strategy for Deep Decarbonization (2016)
- US National Park Service contingency plan (2018)
- WEO 2011: Energy for All — archived reference document
- What a subpoena is: a plain-English reference
- World Urbanization Prospects: The 2007 Revision — Highlights
- WUP 2014 Highlights — archived reference document
- ‘A sideways look at climate research’ — Weather column (1990)
- ‘Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future’ (2011)
- ‘BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2013’
- ‘BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2016’ — a plain summary
- ‘Buried No Longer’ (AWWA) — a plain summary of the water infrastructure report
- ‘Climate Change Reconsidered’ — 2009 report of the NIPCC
- ‘Diet, Energy, and Global Warming’ — Eshel and Martin (2006)
- ‘Disparities in STEM Employment by Sex, Race, and Hispanic Origin’ (2013)
- ‘Economic Analysis of Various Options of Electricity Generation’ — health and environmental effects
- ‘Estimating U.S. Government Subsidies to Energy Sources: 2002–2008’ (Environmental Law Institute)
- ‘Evaluation of Climate Models’ — IPCC (2013), Chapter 9
- ‘Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2015’ — a plain summary
- ‘Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2016’ — a plain summary
- ‘Historical Overview of Climate Change Science’ — IPCC (2007), Chapter 1
- ‘Lazard’s Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis’ (LCOE) — a plain summary
- ‘Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream’ — Pew Research Center (2007)
- ‘Secular Stagnation: Facts, Causes and Cures’ (VoxEU, 2014)
- ‘The Cost of Delaying Action to Stem Climate Change’ (2014)
- ‘The Future of Geothermal Energy’ (MIT, 2006) — a plain summary
- ‘The History of Solar’ — a technology timeline