Transformation and Impact

ANNUAL REPORT 2024

President's Letter

2024 was a critical year for our planet. Once again records for climate impacts were broken across the globe. Meanwhile, the largest number of people in history cast their votes worldwide in elections that will shape our responses to environmental crises for years to come. Already, these election outcomes have resulted in tectonic geopolitical shifts.

The top issues for many of these voters did not include climate change. It was eclipsed by other pressing concerns, from migration and conflict to inflation and the high cost of living. The growing climate and nature crises are not yet an immediate imperative for voters or the politicians who represent them.

This is the conundrum the world faces. The same concerns that did drive voters’ decisions are also the ones that underpin the global transition towards low carbon, resilient economies. The environment is not a background issue. Climate and nature are directly related to the things people care most about: protecting people’s and countries’ pocketbooks, health, and security.

Indeed, the political and geopolitical shifts over the past year only make our work, and our partners’, even more important. We need to make the green economic transition work better for and with people. We need to double down on supporting the Global South countries where we operate in their transition, as their influence grows even more important. We need to identify alternative pathways for radical collaboration between countries, cities, states, businesses and communities.

The good news is we have a firm foundation to build off.

We are already making a difference in local communities. TerraFund for AFR100, a WRI partnership, announced an investment of $17.8 million in 92 small organizations driving locally led landscape restoration projects in Africa’s Great Lakes region, Ghana’s cocoa belt, and Kenya’s Rift Valley. WRI India has been working with the city of Mumbai, which aligned one-third of its capital budget to climate actions to reduce emissions, inspiring more than forty other cities to strengthen climate governance.

Our global network also unlocked international collaboration with global impact. WRI’s push for deforestation-free international trade in soy included technical support for agreements between Brazil and China, respectively the world’s largest exporter and importer of the crop. WRI’s work on community-led forest economies is bringing together expertise from across the Congo Basin, the Amazon and Indonesia, accelerating learning across borders and building a global community of practitioners.

We are heavily engaged in the international community’s efforts to accelerate progress for people, nature and climate. The High Ambition Coalition for Nature & People, which is co- hosted by WRI, is driving an ambition to protect 30% of the world’s land and oceans by 2030. At COP29 in Baku, WRI worked closely with negotiators to make a $300 billion climate finance deal possible. We also continue to produce pioneering global research, ranging from detailed and actionable models of deadly extreme heat in cities to identifying where water shortages pose critical risks to local and global food security.

WRI is maximizing our impact by becoming a more cohesive, flexible, and innovative organization. We established a $1 million Innovation Fund to invest in clever ideas drawing on the ingenuity and talent of our staff. The first round of applications brought nearly 80 proposals, with winners ranging from a project using AI to track smallholder crop yields to new business models for informal transport in African cities.

Across the world, WRI’s work is essential to help people, their communities and their leaders achieve a safer, more prosperous future—and that future hinges on protecting our climate and nature.

Warm regards,