Topic: united states

This issue brief describes analyses by the World Resources Institute (WRI) in support of emerging payments for watershed services (PWS) programs in two major watersheds in Maine and North Carolina and insights gleaned from work in progress. The three pilot initiatives discussed represent different approaches to establishing PWS programs that protect forests and other green infrastructure elements.

This paper presents detailed manufacturing energy-use and economic-activity data along with state-by-state policy summaries for the 10 member states of the Midwestern Governors Association. To help inform ongoing policy discussions across the region, this paper offers a snapshot of industrial energy use and current state approaches to reducing industrial energy intensity and energy costs for manufacturers.

This issue brief reports on the mechanics of and lessons learned from a conservation incentive program focused on the gopher tortoise. Its aim is to inform the successful design and implementation of other candidate programs emerging throughout the southern forests and greater United States.

This brief provides an overview of the Carbon Canopy, a novel partnership among companies, landowners, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that seeks to leverage markets for ecosystem services to increase the area of southern U.S. forests certified as sustainably managed. It is designed to inform companies, NGOs, and other organizations interested in developing or participating in similar programs that link forest certification with carbon offsets.

In this testimony, Senior Associate Sarah Forbes describes the state of China’s shale gas industry; governmental policies that will drive its future development in China; the implications of U.S.-China business-to-business partnerships and government-to-government cooperation; and how shale gas development in China and the United States changes the global dynamics of energy security.