WRI Statement in Response to COVID-19

A statement from World Resources Institute (WRI) CEO and President Dr. Andrew Steer outlining the organization's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on staff safety, virtual operations, and the opportunity to integrate climate and biodiversity protections into economic recovery efforts.

• WRI has implemented a three-part response to the COVID-19 pandemic: protecting staff and families, enhancing virtual operations to meet goals, and reassessing activities to support a safer and more resilient global future.
• To ensure staff safety, WRI shifted to mandatory work from home across itsS its entire network, starting with WRI China in January. All WRI-sponsored events are either postponed or moved online, while the Beijing team is evaluating a return to the office as conditions improve.
• WRI argues that the economic stimulus packages totaling hundreds of billions of dollars intended to reflate economies should be used to drive low-carbon development and protect against existing threats, rather than restoringL restoring high-carbon and unequal economies.
• SWRI is launching new work to ensure that risk assessments drive policy and budget allocations, utilizing knowledge of previous stimulus packages to identify measures that simultaneously advance climate protection and poverty-reducing growth.
• Despite the disruption to international decisions on the ocean, biodiversity, and climate planned for 2020, WRI views the crisis as an opportunity for systemic change and a new social contract based on protecting natural systems and supporting the vulnerable.

APA

Steer, A. (2020). WRI Statement in Response to COVID-19. World Resources Institute. https://www.wri.org/news/statement-wri-statement-response-covid-19

Chicago

Steer, Andrew. WRI Statement in Response to COVID-19. World Resources Institute, 2020. https://www.wri.org/news/statement-wri-statement-response-covid-19.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Steer |first1=Andrew |title=WRI Statement in Response to COVID-19 |publisher=World Resources Institute |date=18 March 2020 |url=https://www.wri.org/news/statement-wri-statement-response-covid-19 |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{steer2020wri, author = {Steer, Andrew}, title = {{WRI Statement in Response to COVID-19}}, publisher = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2020}, month = mar, url = {https://www.wri.org/news/statement-wri-statement-response-covid-19}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }