Search Climate Insights Directory
219 results
Actions Large Energy Buyers Can Take to Transform and Decarbonize the Grid: Procurement Practices for Achieving 100% Carbon Free Electricity
This briefing outlines how large energy buyers can accelerate the transition to a 100% carbon-free electric grid by 2050 through transformative procurement practices, such as matching clean energy purchases with usage timing, incorporating demand flexibility, and adopting energy storage.
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Document type: Briefing
Completing the Trip: Establishing a Global Quantified Climate Goal for the Transport Sector
The World Resources Institute proposes a global transport sector target for 2035: a 35% shift to green fuels and a 25% reduction in energy consumption compared to 2022. This goal aims to provide a shared framework for countries to inform their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) following the COP28 global stocktake.
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Document type: Briefing
Sustainable Procurement of Wood and Paper-Based Products: Version 2
The WRI/WBCSD guide 'Sustainable Procurement of Wood and Paper-Based Products: Version 2' is a decision-support tool helping customers develop sustainable procurement policies. It provides 47 resources and organizes its guidance around ten essential questions covering legality, sustainability, climate change, and the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities.
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Document type: Guide
Building the Climate Change Regime
A World Resources Institute working paper surveying academic and policy proposals to build a post-2012 international climate change regime, focusing on five key design issues including ambition, mitigation sharing, performance tracking, and legal form.
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Document type: Research paper
Utilizing City-Utility Partnership Agreements to Achieve Climate and Energy Goals
This guide explains how U.S. cities and electric utilities can use partnership agreements to align their climate and energy goals, providing a framework for long-term collaboration and implementation tips based on the experiences of several U.S. cities.
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Document type: Guide
The Plumbing of Adaptation Finance
This paper explores the difficulties of delivering adaptation finance to the most vulnerable people and introduces a framework to assess delivery. It highlights that while international climate finance to developing countries increased between 2008 and 2012 to meet UNFCCC commitments, and developing governments have increased their own spending, questions remain regarding how this money is used and if it reaches the local level. The Adaptation Finance Accountability Initiative (AFAI) addresses these questions by analyzing finance flows in Nepal, the Philippines, Uganda, and Zambia.
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Document type: Research paper
Roadmap for Scaling Trees Outside Forests in India: Learnings from Select States on Policy Incentives, Enabling Conditions, and Barriers
This research paper proposes a roadmap for scaling Trees Outside Forests (ToF) in India, noting that 80 million hectares could sequester 3.4 Gt CO2e by 2040. By analyzing policy incentives in Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, and Telangana, the paper recommends landscape-level restoration plans, support for traditional ToF research, and targeted interventions for women and marginalized groups.
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Document type: Research paper
Pilot analysis of global ecosystems: Coastal ecosystems
The Pilot Analysis of Global Ecosystems (PAGE) reports that nearly 30% of global coastal land area has been altered or destroyed by human demand. Increasing coastal populations, rising nutrient pollution, overfishing, and the effects of global climate change—including rising sea levels and warmer oceans—threaten the capacity of these ecosystems to provide essential services such as food, biodiversity, and shoreline stabilization.
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Document type: Report
International Governance of Technological Carbon Removal: Surfacing Questions, Exploring Solutions
This working paper examines the international governance of technological carbon removal, focusing on three main challenges: mitigation deterrence, equity in deployment and benefits, and the lack of standardized measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) processes. It notes that while 26 of 62 LTSs submitted to the UNFCCC as of May 2023 consider technological CDR, there is little guidance on how to scale these technologies equitably and sustainably to meet the 1.5 degrees C goal of the Paris Agreement.
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Document type: Research paper
Agriculture and Climate Change: The Policy Context
This briefing note explores the impact of climate change on U.S. agriculture and the role of the agricultural sector in climate policy, arguing that producers must actively participate in policy dialogues to ensure future legislation serves their best interests.
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Document type: Briefing
Enhancing NDCs and COVID-19 Recovery: Synergies in the Power Sector
This World Resources Institute expert note argues that COVID-19 economic recovery stimulus packages provide a critical opportunity for countries to align their recovery with ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in the power sector. Noting that power generation accounted for 41% of energy-related CO2 emissions in 2019 (with coal contributing over 70%), the note emphasizes the need for a 4% annual reduction in power sector emissions to meet 2030 targets and suggests investing in climate-resilient infrastructure to prevent an emissions rebound following pandemic lockdowns.
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Document type: Briefing
Estimating Mobilized Private Climate Finance
This working paper by the World Resources Institute and OECD proposes a 4-stage framework to improve the estimation of private climate finance mobilized by public interventions. It addresses the technical complexity of quantifying these linkages, particularly for UNFCCC reporting by developed countries for activities in developing countries, and recommends both short-term transparency measures and long-term standardization of data systems and definitions.
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Document type: Research paper
Summary of UNFCCC Submissions
This working paper by the World Resources Institute provides a summary of country submissions made to the UNFCCC's Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA) between April 2010 and November 2010.
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Document type: Research paper
The Role of Long-Duration Energy Storage in Deep Decarbonization: Policy Considerations
The briefing argues that the US requires energy storage lasting days or weeks to achieve deep decarbonization, as current technologies only provide hours of capacity. It suggests that while pumped hydro and compressed air could be extended to days, less mature technologies like hydrogen are needed for seasonal storage. The document calls for policymakers to support innovation and new financing and procurement models to enable the adoption of long-duration storage.
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Document type: Briefing
Leveraging Water Data in a Machine Learning–Based Model for Forecasting Violent Conflict
The World Resources Institute presents a random forest model that captures 86% of future conflicts (defined as 10+ fatalities per year), though with a 50% false positive rate. While water-related variables correlate with conflict, they are not empirically significant for model decisions unless the conflict definition is modified. A web-based tool is provided to visualize these forecasts and vulnerabilities.
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Document type: Research paper
Grounding Green Power
This working paper identifies components of smart renewable energy policy for developing countries, which are expected to provide 80% of new global electric generation capacity over the next two decades. It argues that to meet the IEA's '450 scenario', non-OECD nations must increase renewable electricity generation to 46% by 2035. The authors advocate for international donors to move from project-based support to systemic environment-building and define 'smart' policy as cost-effective, transparent, and investment-friendly.
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Document type: Research paper
The Economic Case for Landscape Restoration in Latin America
Degraded lands account for over 20% of forest and agricultural lands in Latin America and the Caribbean, with 300 million hectares of degraded forests and 350 million hectares of deforested land. Landscape restoration is proposed to address pressures from the growing agriculture and forestry sectors and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
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Document type: Fact sheet
Case Study of an Energy Project in Health Facilities in Kenya: How to Implement Demand-Based Approaches
A WRI and PS Kenya case study on a pilot project for health-care providers in Kenya finds that successful demand-based energy access requires thorough exploration of user needs in technology, finance, and capacity building.
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Document type: Case study
Private Investment in Public Transport
This research paper examines how to attract private investment into Brazil's public transport sector by reducing perceived risks and aligning performance incentives, using case studies from São Paulo and Belo Horizonte.
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Document type: Research paper