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The paper introduces a framework to evaluate whether passive investment funds are aligned with the Paris Agreement, finding that none of the 35 analyzed funds fully met the criteria. The analysis reveals significant gaps in portfolio construction, particularly regarding deforestation exclusions, physical climate risks, and just transition themes. The author recommends that US asset managers, index providers, and financial regulators improve transparency and standards to ensure financial streams support a 1.5°C trajectory.

WRI developed seven Principles for Effective Community Engagement for extractive and infrastructure projects after analyzing existing standards and high-profile project experiences. The report argues that inclusive, accountable, and transparent engagement reduces risks for companies and governments while ensuring communities benefit from development. It provides specific recommendations for project proponents to disseminate best practices, for financial institutions like the IFC to increase disclosure of community support, and for citizen organizations to advocate for transparent processes.

The paper advocates for transforming traditional monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) into a locally led process to better support climate adaptation. It emphasizes the need to balance power asymmetries, prioritize local knowledge, and ensure that MEL creates value for local actors rather than serving only upward accountability to donors. The author provides a framework of considerations—such as addressing structural inequalities and prioritizing learning—and recommends specific operational steps for funders and practitioners to increase local agency and effectiveness in adaptation interventions.

The report outlines seven key transformations—infrastructure design, service provision, data collection, urban employment, financing, land management, and governance—to close the urban services divide. It assigns specific roles to city governments, national governments, civil society, the private sector, and the international community to ensure that urban growth is inclusive, climate-resilient, and sustainable.

The World Resources Institute (WRI) developed a collaborative, technologically agnostic monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework for four IKEA Foundation grantee partners—One Acre Fund, Practical Action, SELCO Foundation, and Rainforest Alliance—under the Good Cause Campaign (GCC). The framework utilizes an Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) approach and the Energy Delivery Model to track impacts across poverty reduction, education, livelihoods, and health. To ensure data uniformity across diverse projects, WRI identified five 'enablers': reliability and affordability, technology suitability, market outreach, product and services, and a market-linked ecosystem. The framework measures specific parameters including reduced CO2 emissions, decreased energy expenditure, increased study hours, and expanded health service hours.

The document argues that while policymakers are increasingly incorporating climate adaptation into development plans, a significant 'implementation gap' remains where policies do not translate into concrete action. It proposes a framework of five interlocking enabling factors—policy frameworks, leadership, coordination mechanisms, information/tools, and financial processes—to bridge this gap and avoid maladaptation.

The document examines the challenges Chinese transnational corporations face in managing environmental and social risks during overseas expansion, particularly in extractive and infrastructure sectors. It introduces a 4x4 conceptual matrix to identify key stakeholders across host countries, investor countries, third countries, and international regimes. Through case studies of the Rio Blanco mine in Peru and the Myitsone Dam in Myanmar, the report illustrates how reliance on central government relations often leads to conflicts with local communities and environmental degradation. It argues for a shift toward comprehensive stakeholder engagement and the implementation of mandatory domestic regulations to ensure sustainable overseas investment.

The document argues that climate change acts as a 'risk multiplier' for water security, affecting all businesses regardless of their direct water reliance. It proposes a four-step process—Assess Risk, Develop Strategy, Implement Solutions, and Monitor/Adapt—to move companies from simple sustainability to long-term climate resilience. The report emphasizes the superiority of nature-based solutions over purely engineered infrastructure and advocates for collective, basin-level action over isolated site-level management.