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This report by the World Resources Institute analyzes the access of Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPs and LCs) to payments for ecosystem services (PES) based on a review of 129 programs across 36 countries and a case study in Guatemala. It identifies systemic barriers to equitable participation and provides a multi-tiered framework of recommendations to improve rights recognition, representation, and financial benefits for these communities.

This report advocates for repurposing global agricultural subsidies—which grew from $325 billion in 2000 to $619 billion—into land restoration efforts. It highlights that low-carbon techniques like agroforestry can return $7-30 per $1 invested, helping to mitigate the fact that agriculture and land use cause up to 25% of global greenhouse gas emissions and threatening the ability to feed 10 billion people by 2050.

This research paper by the World Resources Institute presents a framework of 12 combined supply and demand scenarios for Tamil Nadu's electricity sector through 2030-31 to assist utility planners in integrated resource planning and financial decision-making.

This report analyzes water stress in Ningxia, China, highlighting how the region's coal-dominated industrial structure drives high water consumption. It recommends improving agricultural water efficiency, integrating water constraints into energy planning, reforming water pricing, and establishing water right trading and ecological compensation systems.

This briefing identifies critical technical capacity gaps in forest carbon monitoring across seven countries (Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, South Africa, and Thailand). Key needs include more frequent data updates, consistent monitoring methods, higher spatial resolution imagery, regular national forest inventories, harmonized sub-national data collection, and improved inter-agency data sharing.

This report by the World Resources Institute examines the need to align Brazil's energy policies with its climate goals, specifically focusing on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the transport, industry, and power-generation sectors to meet the requirements of the Paris Climate Agreement.

This case study describes Patrick Assumpão's efforts to restore the Paraíba Valley in Brazil through agroforestry at Fazenda Nova Coruputuba. By combining native hardwoods like guanandi with food crops and unconventional food plants (PANCs), Assumpão aims to recover soil fertility and create sustainable markets. A 2018 ROAM study supports these efforts, suggesting that landscape restoration in the region could boost agricultural GDP by 32% and reduce soil erosion by 19%.

This policy brief describes a pilot conservation incentive program led by the World Resources Institute (WRI) focused on the gopher tortoise in the southern forests of the United States. The program utilizes a market-based, pre-compliance approach to create a voluntary marketplace for conservation credits, aiming to protect habitat and prevent species from being listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) while providing regulatory certainty for developers.

This research paper by the World Resources Institute discusses the necessity for companies to shift from setting feasible or competitive environmental targets to those anchored in environmental science to ensure operations remain within ecological limits.

This research paper analyzes the environmental, economic, and social consequences of first-generation biofuels derived from corn and soy in the US Midwest, arguing that their continued subsidization undermines climate resilience and equity.

This research paper examines how private sector banks that have committed to net-zero emissions can transform their client engagement strategies and product offerings to align with the Paris Agreement's 1.5°C goal.

This fact sheet by the World Resources Institute explains the function, types, and regulatory status of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions registries, specifically focusing on the legal requirement for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to establish a national mandatory registry by mid-2008.

This working paper details a pilot project to develop and implement a greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions survey tool for the Episcopal Church in the Philippines (ECP), providing a model and guide for other faith actors to measure and reduce their environmental impact.

This briefing, based on a March 2012 workshop by the World Resources Institute and the DOEN Foundation, identifies four core business strategies used by 25 socially oriented energy enterprises to deliver renewable energy to low-income, rural communities in developing countries.

This working paper details the methodology for creating the Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas, a global database and interactive tool designed to translate complex hydrological data into intuitive water-related risk indicators for decision-makers.

The Land Disturbance Alert Classification System (LDACS) is a global data set that enhances NASA's DIST-ALERT system to classify vegetation disturbances into four categories: potential land conversion, fire-related, water-related, and cropland dynamics. Specifically targeting underrepresented non-forest ecosystems, 2023 global data shows cropland dynamics comprise one-third of disturbances, while land conversion is 4%. The system achieved 87% accuracy in initial validation within Brazil's Cerrado biome.

This fact sheet from the World Resources Institute analyzes the decline of coal in the U.S. electric power system, arguing that market forces rather than environmental regulations are the primary drivers of coal plant retirements.

This research paper examines the role of economic valuation in improving the understanding and implementation of Watershed Development (WSD) in India. Using a case study of a project in Maharashtra implemented by the Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR), the paper demonstrates the potential for positive net present value and benefit-cost ratios in WSD, while highlighting significant gaps in data consistency and the under-valuation of non-market co-benefits and climate change adaptation.

This paper introduces the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG), a climate finance target to be adopted at COP29 in 2024. It explains that the NCQG will build upon the previous $100 billion annual commitment (established in 2009 and extended to 2025) to better address the needs of developing countries. The document outlines that negotiations, which began at COP25 in 2019, are currently focusing on the goal's quantity, quality, transparency, scope, timeframe, and contributor base.

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.